Making Work Visible - Avoid DMs

Avoid sending DMs/PMs for support and technical questions

This is a blurb I usually add to the wiki pages of teams I work with, it’s a simple reminder that we should avoid sending direct messages (or worse - calling) individuals for support and technical questions.

Instead, we should use the appropriate channels for the team. This is a simple way to make work visible, share knowledge, reduce context switching, avoid silos and share the support load

Avoid sending DMs/PMs for support and technical questions

We value making work visible

Part of this is achieved by us making an effort to ensure we’re asking for support and technical questions by starting a thread in our squads (or the relevant) room - instead of via of direct messaging (or calling) an individual.

This helps with:

• Sharing knowledge amongst the team.
• Identifying common problems that others might be having or aware of.
• Balances support to prevent any individual getting overloaded.
• Helps ensure a timely response.
• Allowing others to keep up to date with ongoing issues.
• Eases cognitive load by:
  • Reducing the number of notifications people receive
  • Reducing context switching.
• Allows people to search for previously occurring questions and answers.
• Highlighting documentation gaps.
• Making work visible.

For more information see:

• Slack collaboration etiquette tips
• Beware of private conversations
• GitLab’s Communication Handbook - Don’t Send Direct Messages

Thank you, 😊