Writing for distributed teams (2021) | Hacker News Reader

Writing for distributed teams (2021)

vickiboykis.com

83 pointsTomte13 comments

I work at Automattic as well and love P2s to the point that I changed my internal work title to "Accomplished P2 author".

I love how:

- They are async by default

- Incentivize deep analysis and thoughtful writing

- There is a canonical link for every piece of information, project, etc

- Discussions only need to happen once. Whenever somebody starts discussing a matter we analysed 3 years ago, somebody drops a link on slack to provide context.

To be fair, we are a company of 2000+ and every time we grow, we are actively discussing ways to evolve how we use P2s.

Keeping a writing culture requires habits as well. We specifically hire for good writting communication skills.

Is there something about P2s that prevents the number of them from multiplying out of control?

A persistent theme I see with Confluence is that data just keeps getting added into Confluence, but without any organization or structure. It effectively becomes a "write only" structure - data goes in, but doesn't come out.

This line from the post jumped out at me:

"It’s organized much like a Yammer or Facebook stream, but on the back end it still operates like a blog, allowing for archiving, advanced search, and rich media embeds."

Does advanced search help P2s retain their discoverability? Does that make it easier to find relevant P2s?

> Does advanced search help P2s retain their discoverability

In my experience that's a strong yes, that works really well. I've been able to get helpful context on previous projects from a few years ago with none of the people still around just by search across all our P2s.

Yeah that's the issue I have with wikis as well; there is often a big push for documenting everything initially, but then it becomes a dumping ground for things and eventually ends up unmaintained.

If you have a wiki, you need to assign a primary maintainer / editor who keeps the contents up to date. This also applies to Notion btw. And that role needs to be passed down and around.

A big issue with a lot of engineering teams is an over-eagerness to keep adding tools and processes without setting their governance in stone. It has to be done in an afternoon at most, then "thrown over the fence" for "the team" to maintain. But nothing works like that.

Don't add a tool if you're not planning on maintaining it.

Does something like Automattic's P2 platform exist as a standalone product (preferably, open source)? If not, I'd be interested to create something like this.

Presumably, things like Workplace and Basecamp support it, but they seem too heavy.

Yes it does!

https://wordpress.com/p2/

Google docs?

I'm not super clear on how this is difference from using any kind of wiki like Confluence. Is there something specific about the format or use of P2 that makes it better for distributed teams?

Author here. The primary difference is that Confluence is more like a reference manual. A P2 is more like a conversation and a record of decisions made, along with all the context for those decisions, since each post has a threaded comment section where people can reply to each other. It's not better or worse, but has a slightly different use-case in that it's essentially like email threads or RFCs that anyone in the company can read.

P2 is way more like Hacker News than it is like wiki. The threaded/nested comment system is a huge part of how we use P2s to communicate, jam on ideas, and frankly - also provide critical feedback.

Just like on HN, one comment deep in the thread can be way more valuable than the original post. (I work at Automattic)

If there is a culture of valuing writing, wikis work. The tool can only improve or detract from what is already there.

We have a wiki as well but that's for documentation.

P2 is for discussion and synchronization across time zones. It also involves a large amount of cross posting between p2's to involve other teams, divisions, and areas of expertise.

P2 replaces work email. It's open by default, has better formatting and comes with github integration. I haven't sent a work email in months.

Slack is for low value, ephemeral chatter.

The modern Sharepoint Online sites are very similar (or can be) to what she's describing.

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