Email is a Team Sport - VDPM Meetup October 2016

How to think about email practices in your organization, how to build knowledge in your company, and how you should manage email with your entire team.

Don't be a solo inbox hero, email is a team sport!

Presented to the Vancouver Digital Project Managers Meetup https://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-Digital-Project-Managers/events/234925545/

Transcript

1. Email is a Team Sport
   Vancouver Digital Project Managers • October 2016
   

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2. Boris Mann

   @bmann

   #emailteam
   COO-for-Hire,
   Product
   Consulting &
   Business Design
   

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3. –Bill French, 1999
   “Email is where
   knowledge goes to die”
   

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4. What’s wrong with email?
   Knowledge trapped in individual inboxes
   Discussions can’t be passively discovered /
   shared
   Doesn’t build knowledge
   You’re not “working out loud”
   

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5. Ye Olde Emaile Skillz
   Many email “best practices” have already been lost
   to us
   Top posting an answer, explanation, or other details
   when it’s a response to something that comes after
   Trimming a long email to just the relevant bits, or
   trimming a long chain of previous replies
   Editing the subject when … there is a new subject
   being discussed
   

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6. –@LizzieSkurnick
   “
   A word for the email you put off
   responding to because you want to
   give it your full attention—and
   never answer”
   

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7. Inbox Zero?
   If you’re going to use email as a to-do list,
   then do it properly
   Every email in your inbox is a to-do
   File it, schedule it, or respond to it
   Newer email apps understand this (e.g.
   Mailbox schedule / snooze innovation)
   

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8. Zero Internal Emails
   Why do you send email to someone else in
   your company?
   What collaboration tools do you use?
   How are you building knowledge
   internally?
   

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9. Email Onboarding
   Do you teach new employees email at your
   company?
   

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10. Are you in an email first culture?
    Have a question? Send an email!
    Want to let everybody in the office/
    company/world know about something?
    Send an email!
    Bonus points: CC extra people!
    

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11. Are you in an ask on Slack first
    culture?
    Unless Slack is managed, people get lazy
    and just ask the same question all the time,
    too
    Naming conventions, automation, teaching
    people how to mute / manage notifications
    Bots might have some play here
    

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12. Treat Email as
    Border Messaging
    Your company is a hill fort, and you stockpile
    knowledge and short messages internally.
    Externally, you work together to catapult out
    messages, and to catch the incoming flood
    of emails.
    

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13. Company Email is Owned by the
    Company
    Take advantage of this to turn it into a team
    sport
    We do this for projects, why not for email?
    

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14. Whose job is it to write it down?
    How do you get volunteer scribes?
    How do you elevate note taking?
    How do you build knowledge in your
    company?
    

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15. Tools
    HelpScout https://www.helpscout.net
    Intercom http://intercom.com
    Front App http://frontapp.com
    

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18. –Front App
    “Great external communication
    relies on flawless internal
    collaboration.”
    

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19. Do we need more inboxes?
    Project Management
    CRM
    Feed Readers
    Chat
    

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20. Zombie email:
    1) the thread that keeps getting
    reply-all-ed
    2) the long running discussion
    which gets re-forwarded when
    someone is looking for the same
    thing again
    

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21. Team Sport
    Drafting, copy editing
    Scaling individuals
    Best person for the job
    Working out loud
    Links for everything
    

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22. Thanks!
    @bmann
    #emailteam
    

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23. Photo Credits
    Banksy Email Stencil, Bruno Girin https://
    www.flickr.com/photos/brunogirin/2484786902
    Boris in a Quip shirt, Rachael Ashe http://
    rachaelashe.com
    Hill fort, Josh Bushinsky https://www.flickr.com/
    photos/38276395@N00/88987780/
    Cat inbox, Citizen Helder https://www.flickr.com/
    photos/citizenhelder/4679777914
    

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