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Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

238 points aml183 | 3 comments | 15 Nov 24 19:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

We are a remote company. Everything is going well. No plans to be in person, but I’d say we can do a better job at communicating. Any tips or articles to read?
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paxys ◴[15 Nov 24 20:51 UTC] No.42150868[source]▶
Make conversations public by default. If you use Slack, make team channels, project channels, announcement channels etc. all public. Discourage 1:1 and private communication unless really necessary, especially for engineering topics. This single change will have an immense impact on overall company culture.
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1. oc_elder ◴[15 Nov 24 22:35 UTC] No.42152011[source]▶
I can appreciate the thinking here, but it not ideal. Different details are relevant to different people. And async is inefficient for many situations. Yes publish findings/results, but overcommunicating has a cost.

Better to create different channels (sync, async, 1:1, broadcast), provide guidance and trust workers.

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2. broken-kebab ◴[15 Nov 24 23:04 UTC] No.42152296[source]▶
It's not necessary about trust, or relevancy. I believe motivation is contagious, and making communications hearable/visible for all most of the time can be beneficial because of this.
3. menaerus ◴[16 Nov 24 08:51 UTC] No.42155339[source]▶
... and soon with this type of setting you will arrive at siloing the information. Having all communication public in the channels comes with its cost but everything is as transparent as it can be. Important distinction is that you get to choose if the detail is relevant for your work or not. And not your manager or whoever.