Obsidian CEO explains that teams with many remote workers can improve their productivity by running chat channels in chat apps
Steph Ango, CEO of the developer of the writing app
If you're remote, ramble — Steph Ango
https://stephango.com/ramblings
Ango argues that by opening a chat channel in a chat app, team members can share their thoughts without cluttering group channels. Team members can also post personal diaries or blogs in the chat channel, allowing them to easily build social connections with their teammates.
Ango says that it's best for chat channels to post information one to three times a week. In the chat channel he participates in, he says the following topics are frequently posted:
・Project ideas
- Insights into blogs, articles, and user feedback
・'What if' suggestions
・Photos of travels and hobbies
Rubber Duck debugging issues
Create a chat channel for each team member, and allow members to post topics only in the chat channel named after them. Other members can comment on each topic, but they cannot create topics outside of their own chat channel.
Each chat channel should be placed at the bottom of your channel list and muted by default so you don't have to assume others will read it.
Obsidian, where Ango serves as CEO, has been experimenting with chat channels for the past two years, and says it's 'surprisingly sustainable.' Since Obsidian doesn't have regular meetings, chats are conducted in the chat channel. Ango commented, 'The chat channel minimizes interruptions, increases focus time, and helps maintain connections between team members.'
Because chat is free and casual, Ango says some of the best ideas come from random conversations in the chat channel, including feature ideas, small prototypes, and creative solutions to long-standing problems.
Obsidian apparently meets face-to-face for about a week once a year, but Ango says the chat channel is 'very effective' at maintaining relationships throughout the year.
In response to this, one person on the social message board Hacker News wrote, 'In 2014, while working on DDoS mitigation at Cloudflare, I had a lot of conversations with my colleagues about things like 'how do I log into a server?' 'What is Anycast?' 'How did you fix this problem? Can you give me the specific steps?' We realized these conversations were valuable to more than just the two of us, because almost everyone who attended our onboarding had the same questions. Some of the topics were purely about onboarding friction, some about workflows that most people didn't know existed, and some about theoretical concepts. So we moved the questions to a public internal channel we called 'Marek's Wrongs.' This was mostly just me ranting, complaining, and posting annoying questions. I'd invited my colleagues to join. Soon, half the company was participating in this channel. The channel covered all sorts of topics, from technical novelties to topics outside the organization, that might not have been covered in other departments within the company. The channel was later renamed to the more accessible name 'Marek's Tech Corner,' and has since become a clear part of technology company management for over a decade. 'It's important to have a place to vent, and it's also important to have a place where people can ask silly questions and express their frustrations without friction or prejudice. 'Personal channels might be overkill, but having a channel like this for each team or location is a good idea,' said one commenter , who said he himself found that creating a similar space for casual conversation has helped him get his work done.
Others have shared their experiences of how Git repository notes have become a valuable tool within their company, allowing them to share information and ask questions about trivial matters.
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in Note, Posted by logu_ii