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☝️The importance of an async first working model at Gitpod

Fully remote settings like we have, empower team members to live and work where they're most fulfilled. A working model that best supports this kind of setup is one that is biased towards asynchronous communication. Different to operating in sync where you rely on schedules that are lined up in order to coordinate and drive projects, async communication allows us to move projects forward without requiring stakeholders to be synchronously (i.e. the same time) present.

It provides autonomy, flexibility and empowers

We’re managers of one that are output focused with our goals and results in mind. You know how and when you work best and you’re free to achieve results when it best suits you as long as you are not blocking others. Async work puts more trust in Gitpodders and their ability to perform.

E.g: You have no calls scheduled, the sun is shining and you want to go for a longer walk in the afternoon and find some other time to finish your work. Or:

https://gitpod.slack.com/archives/C01LDA2B0FJ/p1645526965477339

It makes Gitpod more inclusive

‣ are scattered around the world in multiple time zones. Everyone is brilliant and hired for a reason. Async work removes time zone bias and enables global team members to be included equally well, which drives our joint success. Also, the better availability of information to everyone reduces FOMO, let us benefit from swarm intelligence and better retain knowledge.

It makes work more thoughtful and intentional

All communication is thoughtful. Because nothing is urgent (with exceptions), comments are made after mindful processing and never in real-time. This not only decreases back and forth but also increases quality and stickiness of decisions. Async work allows for less meetings and expectations to directly respond, thus longer periods of uninterrupted time to reach flow.

All of the above result in productivity increases if done correctly. For a fully remote and async first working model to work well, we need to choose the right format to communicate clearly, have a strong culture of writing and documentation and ensure unblocking others while optimising for effectiveness of our own work day.

❓Async vs Sync: When to do what?

🔄 Examples for sync communication

🌎 Examples for async communication

Successful remote culture defaults to async and meetings become a last-resort option when you can't find any async practices as a valid substitute. They should not be your first response, but we do want to strike a balance between async & sync to be able to get the best of both worlds.

Async as much as possible, sync when needed.

Ask yourself if you’d like to receive a communication you’re about to send

Sync meetings can be helpful if the focus is about discussing certain things rather than sharing info, coming to a decision, or even if you find yourself going in circles on Slack threads. Async pre-work can be helpful to make meetings more effective. (See how to conduct effective meetings). Meetings should only be done because they are the more effective solution, not the easy solution (”Hey can you quickly jump on a call?”).

Don’t meet just to share information. This will be better done through Slack, Video Recordings or in Notion (e.g. RFC).