Too Much and Not Enough: Providing the Right Amount of Information in Async Communication

In my last newsletter I talked about the little things that undermine async communication, including not providing enough context.?

Providing enough context, of course, is not unique to remote work or async communication. But it is especially important if your team is trying to reduce interruptions and increase autonomy by making information accessible in the moment it’s needed.?

In remote and async-first work you may often hear the advice to over-communicate. However, this advice, without guardrails, contributes to one of the challenges in digital work environments: information overload. Over-communicating doesn’t mean sending the same message in multiple channels, and it doesn’t mean providing so much information that action items get ignored.

So, how do you provide just enough context without going overboard and contributing to information overload??

Before getting into how to strike the right balance for context, here are some examples of what an imbalance looks like:?

Too Little Information?

• It’s not clear who it is directed towards, or who needs to take action?
• Key information is missing?
• Requests are vague?
• Messages are in the incorrect channel?

Too Much Information?

• Messages are too long or confusing?
• Irrelevant information is included
• Information is contradictory?
• Recipients tend to not read messages in their entirety?
• Duplicative messages are sent to multiple channels

Effective asynchronous communication involves providing the right amount of information, at the right time, and to the right people.?

Here are some ways to help you strike the right balance when it comes to async communication.?

Reflect on Past Communication

Most of the time, you don’t know if you provided just the right amount of information until after a communication exchange. Reflecting on past communication can give you insight into whether you tend to provide too much information, not enough, or just the right amount.?

Look for patterns. ?Look at previous exchanges for patterns of providing too much or not enough information. If someone comes back with multiple questions after your message, you didn’t provide enough information. If there were parts of your message that were not read or understood, it’s possible that there was too much information in your message and the recipient couldn’t filter through it.?

Get feedback. Ask for direct feedback from your colleagues on how much information you should include in messages, including whether different formats or modes may be helpful.?

Based on patterns you and others have identified, take one past communication change and reflect on how it might have been improved.?

Experiment With Your Delivery?

Switch things up. If you tend to write lengthy, multi-paragraph emails, try being more concise. If your colleagues tend to always have to follow up with questions, try to proactively provide more concrete details and links.?

Use multiple modalities to communicate. Loom is a helpful tool for providing enough context because in addition to being able to record short videos of you speaking, you can share your screen, plus it automatically generates a transcript. This comes in handy especially for people who prefer to read rather than watch videos. Note, though, that people can tend to ramble in videos, whereas with writing, it’s more likely that someone will editorialize, and condense information. Video is often not ideal for documenting information or decisions, because it’s not as easy to search as written documentation.?

Summarize information in easy-to-digest pieces. Writing whole paragraphs when single sentences suffice can lead to people losing interest or missing the main point of what you are trying to communicate.?

Refer to documentation. A Single Source of Truth should house all information about a certain topic—when communicating, refer to documentation that already exists. You’re much less likely to re-create work that has already been done, you’re contributing to a culture of documentation, and the information that is shared is going to be more consistent.?

Reflect When Composing Messages?

When composing messages, use the insights from past communications and your experiments as a guide. When someone else receives your message, do they have all the necessary information in order to fully understand what you mean and take action??

Continue reflecting, experimenting, and refining how much (and what) information you include in messages.

Of course, it's possible that even with dedicated attention to striking the right balance of information in messages, it's possible that people still may not read your messages or other documentation in full. In my next newsletter, I'll explore ways to build team commitment to reading documentation and communications.