Slack & Async Communication
3 exercises — structure long messages, write daily standups in Done/Doing/Blockers format, and communicate delays professionally.
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Async communication principles
- One message, one topic: Use a subject line or bold header for complex updates
- Standup format: Yesterday · Today · Blockers — each with ticket refs
- Delays: What · why (specific) · progress · new ETA · impact on other work
- Avoid: walls of text · "quick question" with no question · vague ETAs ("soon") · defensive language
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A developer sends this Slack message to the team channel:
Hey everyone so I was looking at the dashboard feature and I noticed there are some things that need to be fixed before we can really call it done especially the performance part because when I tested it yesterday it was really slow but also I found a small bug with the date filter and I think we should also rethink the chart library we use because it's really heavy and I talked to Sarah about it and she agreed but anyway what does everyone think about maybe having a meeting this week to discuss all this stuff?
Which rewrite is most effective for async professional communication?
Option B is the professional standard. It uses a clear subject line, numbered list with each item having a name, a brief description, and a quantified impact where possible. The follow-up question is specific (Wed or Thu, 30 min) and relevant people are tagged. Option A is too vague. Option C reproduces the original wall-of-text problem with run-on sentences and unnecessary filler ("Hi all!", "Thanks"). Option D uses ALL-CAPS alarm language and question marks — this creates anxiety, not clarity.
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