How we work: The 3 defaults
I lead a small marketing team at a software company called Buzzsprout.
Over the years, we've found value in formalizing how we work into a series of defaults.
Defaults give everybody the same expectations (including the expectation that sometimes you change the defaults).
Here are the defaults for our team.
The 3 defaults
1. One place → Basecamp
By default, everything should be in Basecamp. While other tools may be better for specific use cases, they come at a high cost—managing multiple logins, missed notifications, and forgetting where things are located.
Files: Store all critical files in Basecamp Docs & Files. If a document needs to be in an external tool, like Google Doc, link it in Docs & Files and write a description so it's easy to find inside Basecamp.
External tools: If an external tool is valuable enough to justify its use, then open a Door so everybody can find it easily.
2. Default public
By default, our work should be public so anybody at Buzzsprout can gain context and answer their questions without asking for help.
Whenever possible, avoid Pings: Pings feel urgent and are hidden by default. Try to replace Pings with comments on to-dos, calendar events, or messages to add context.
Public ≠ notified: Don't add people to be notified about work unless it's valuable to the decision. This avoids cluttering people's Hey! stack while allowing them to find things later.
3. Default written
With a distributed asynchronous team, we default to written communication. Text is the most powerful, useful, and effective communication technology ever, period. Text is searchable and portable, and it allows us to communicate asynchronously.
How to make decisions: Decisions should be made in to-dos. The to-do should frame the decision, include all relevant information, include a due date for when the decision needs to be made, and it should be assigned to the person responsible for the decision.
The comments allow everybody to weigh in on the decision. If more information is needed or we want more people to share their perspectives, all the context is available in one place.
Leave breadcrumbs: Link to previous discussions, decisions, or documents to make it easy for people to refresh themselves on the larger context. Basecamp will use this link and automatically create a Reference.
Avoid meetings: Meetings require everybody to sync their calendars and often pull at least one person out of deep work. Meetings and Pings can often be replaced with Messages or Todos.
Take meeting notes: When we have a meeting, we create a Calendar event, assign a note-taker, and add notes so everybody can remember what was decided.
But what about connecting? Connecting with the team is exceptionally valuable. When we want to meet to connect, we should plan a meeting for that explicit purpose.