Go async-first with your team.
If you and your team wish to work async-first and you’re not sure which practices to adopt, you've reached the right place. This method stack offers ideas for small changes you can implement on your team to go async-first, one step at a time. The launch video on this page (from a few years back) offers a quick overview.
Use the filters below to find async-first methods that are relevant to your team. For detailed articles, check out the blog.
Revisit your workflow statuses and transitions
Most project management tools allow you to define a workflow for your team and visualise that workflow as a task board. When you revisit your workflow be careful not to design for the exceptions and worst-case scenarios.
Make the task-board the central communication tool
Most project management tools allow you to define a workflow for your team and visualise that workflow as a task board. Your task board should be the source of truth for all the work your team is up to.
Make "async-first" part of your vocabulary
This play has examples of how you can bring the phrase “async-first” into everyday conversation, by making it a catchphrase.
“Go DEEP” with artefacts
Distributed projects are chaotic to run without artefacts. The DEEP acronym provides you a mnemonic to remember what to document.
A WUCA approach to complexity
Complex topics need time to understand and to engage with. WUCA outlines a team approach to deal with complex discussions.
Organise using team topologies
To minimise each team’s cognitive load and to limit noisy interactions, you may need to revisit your team structures. Team topologies offer you a handy framework to rethink what teams you need and how they interact.
Introduce the spectrum of synchronousness
Distributed agile needs a shift-left to move from a fully synchronous medium to a fully asynchronous medium.
Identify value
Asynchronous work is a means to an end: an end that wholly synchronous ways of working cannot achieve.