How we communicate 

In essence, we prefer to communicate asynchronously most of the time. As a distributed team, we’re working remotely from many different locations. Also, the way we structure our days and weeks looks very different across the team.

When at work, we love to be deeply focused, with as little distractions and interruptions as possible.

Mind the context 

When you’re about to post something new, which does not belong to any existing project or task or message thread, go create a new context suitable for that content first.

Whenever you reply to previous posts, always navigate into that particular context and post your reply there. Please don’t skip looking for the right context.

Mixing up multiple issues within one discussion thread is usually not a good idea. Therefore please mind the context you’re about to post into, checking for its original purpose.

Productivity over presence 

We prefer to spend our time making meaningful progress rather than sitting in endless meetings. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for us to communicate through written updates whenever possible.

Everybody writes up a short summary of what’s planned for the new week. The main purpose of these weekly check-ins is to provide everybody on our team with easily accessible updates about what’s going on and who’s working on what. Sharing those updates asynchronously allows us to stay up to date so we can skip the usual weekly all-hands meetings.

Purposeful meetings only 

We believe truly motivated people can manage themselves and experience joy in their work and in making progress. Holding on to this belief, we do our best to spare everybody around here the hassle of unproductive management and meeting obligations.

If there are too many people involved and no intended total duration set, meetings tend to be counterproductive and unnecessarily time-consuming. That said, we like our meetings to be as exclusive as possible.

Before any meeting, clarify the main purpose. Somebody has to take the lead and moderate. Outcomes and assignments are written down and shared.

Overall we try to keep the number of meetings as low as possible. As people who enjoy making wonderful things we believe: A cleared schedule is a great schedule.

Don’t expect an immediate response 

Whatever it is that you want to say or request from other people, it’s most likely not urgent. Take the time to write it up. They will respond when time is right for them.

Learning to communicate asynchronously drastically reduces stress and creates space to stay in the flow and to get meaningful work done. That’s why we ask everyone in our team to think twice before requesting immediate attention or any kind of real-time interaction with a teammate.

Give and receive feedback, thoughtfully 

Mind the frailty of new ideas. Give them a chance to grow or evolve, before you choose to dismiss them. New ideas should be encouraged and investigated thoroughly. Before pushing back on a new idea, look at it from multiple angles. Only after this reflection provide your honest feedback in a respectful way.

When receiving feedback, let them speak. Don’t interrupt. Let it sink in. Challenge yourself to listen, to observe, and to think again.

Questions over assumptions 

Why assume? You can always ask. A good question is a gold mine. A false assumption is a can of worms.

When asked, give your answer with patience and as clear as you can. When you’re confused, remember, you’re always free to ask.

Business-related emails 

Most of our communication internally and with our active clients happens inside our project communication system (Basecamp). For new business inquiries and partnerships we use email only initially, before switching to our project communication platform. After a while, most of our clients interact with us on Basecamp, so email rarely needs to be used.

We sincerely ask you not to use your personal email for Infound business communication.

Whenever you’re sending a new email or a reply to an external contact person use your Infound email address. For these business emails please setup a text-only email signature, including our company name (“Infound”), your full name, your job title, our office location and our website url.