Why Async Communication Makes Better Engineering Teams

December 11, 2017

Engineers need uninterrupted time for complex work. Context switching is expensive—studies suggest 15-25 minutes to recover full focus after interruption. A day with four one-hour meetings isn’t four hours of free time; it’s eight fragments too small for meaningful technical work.

Asynchronous communication—where people don’t need to be available simultaneously—protects focus time while enabling collaboration.

The Problem with Synchronous

Fragmented Time

Meetings fragment calendars. Engineers schedule deep work around meetings, but a meeting at 10am and another at 2pm doesn’t leave a 4-hour block—it leaves two inadequate fragments.

Complex technical work requires sustained concentration. Code architecture, debugging, and problem-solving suffer when done in fragments.

Availability Tyranny

Synchronous communication requires simultaneous availability. This:

Poor Information Capture

Meeting discussions rarely produce complete documentation:

When someone asks “why did we decide X?”, the answer is often “I think it was discussed in a meeting.”

Benefits of Async

Preserved Focus Time

Async communication doesn’t demand immediate response. Engineers choose when to engage with communications, protecting deep work periods.

A Slack message can wait until the current task is complete. An email doesn’t require dropping everything.

Thoughtful Response

Async provides time to think before responding:

This produces higher-quality communication than off-the-cuff meeting remarks.

Documentation by Default

Async communication is inherently documented:

When someone asks “why did we decide X?”, you can link to the discussion.

Inclusive Collaboration

Async enables:

Synchronous communication favors those who are quick, loud, and available. Async favors thoughtful contribution regardless of circumstance.

Scale

Sync communication doesn’t scale. As teams grow, you can’t have everyone in every meeting. Async communication reaches everyone equally.

Implementing Async Culture

Default to Writing

Start with written communication, escalate to sync only when needed:

  1. Write proposal or question
  2. Receive written feedback
  3. If unresolved, discuss synchronously
  4. Document conclusions in writing

This sequence captures most benefit of async while allowing sync when truly valuable.

Structured Proposals

For decisions, use structured documents:

# Proposal: [Title]

## Problem
[What problem are we solving?]

## Proposal
[What do you propose?]

## Alternatives Considered
[What else was considered and why rejected?]

## Questions
[What input do you need?]

## Feedback Deadline
[When do you need feedback by?]

Structure ensures complete communication and clear asks.

Clear Response Expectations

Set expectations for response times:

Without expectations, async creates anxiety (“did they see my message?”).

Working Out Loud

Share progress asynchronously:

This replaces status meetings and keeps everyone informed.

Decision Records

Document decisions using decision records (ADRs for architecture decisions):

# ADR-001: Use PostgreSQL for Primary Database

## Status
Accepted

## Context
[What situation are we in?]

## Decision
[What did we decide?]

## Consequences
[What are the implications?]

Future team members understand not just what was decided but why.

When Sync Is Right

Async isn’t always better. Use sync for:

Relationship Building

Building rapport and trust happens better face-to-face (or video). Regular social interaction, onboarding conversations, and team bonding benefit from sync.

High-Bandwidth Discussion

Complex topics with many perspectives benefit from real-time discussion. Whiteboard sessions, brainstorming, and rapid iteration work better sync.

Conflict Resolution

Difficult conversations need real-time interaction. Tone, clarification, and emotional content convey better synchronously.

Urgent Issues

Incidents and urgent decisions need immediate response. Don’t async production outages.

Occasional Sync

Even in async cultures, periodic sync meetings provide value:

The goal isn’t eliminating sync; it’s defaulting to async and choosing sync deliberately.

Practical Tips

Write Clearly

Async communication requires clear writing:

Poor writing creates back-and-forth that defeats async benefits.

Batch Communication

Check communications periodically rather than continuously:

Use Right Channels

Match communication to appropriate channel.

Manage Urgency

Most things aren’t urgent. Default to async, reserve urgent channels for truly urgent issues.

“Can we sync about this?” should be the exception, not the default.

Key Takeaways