How to compose the first private message?
Only a few companies have decided to get rid of instant messaging. Most use Slack, MS Teams or Discord.
Sometimes, we chat to have fun, build relationships, get knowledge, push something forward, or get something done.
Our Slack communication patterns influence the frequency of meetings.
When we start a new private chat with something transactional in mind:
“Hey.”
“Hey, short call?”
“Hey, how are you?”
“Hey, do you have 5 minutes?”
“Hey, I put a meeting for 1 pm. I have one topic. See you then.”
“Hey, I know it is Friday 3 pm. Can we talk on Monday morning? It is important.”
… we generate a lot of wait time; and our calendars become hell.
An alternative to that is to include more details in the first message, like:
“Hey, I am trying to show a modal window in AcmeApp. I tried X and Y, but doesn’t work. Can you advise on what I should do? Or jump on the call with me to guide me?”
“Hey, I need your feedback on the architecture of AcmeApp - <LINK>. Can you take a look? And then maybe we can jump on the call tomorrow to discuss and polish the diagram?”
“Hey, I want to achieve X. I am considering options A, B, and C. Do you have 30 minutes to jump on the call to discuss these solutions?”
“Hey, I am debugging X to solve Y issue. I do not have more ideas on how to find the root cause. I need help. Can we jump on the short huddle now?”
“Hey, no serious business here. We haven’t talked for a long time. Maybe we can jump on the call to chat about cats and memes?”
This habit may change a lot at the whole company's scale.
Combined with agreeing explicitly, it may change even more. And hey… use channels instead of private messages whenever you can.