# Channels and async work > When to talk live and when to write, messages people can act on, time zones and outages, and what to hand to a tool. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Meetings and communication - Lesson 18/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/channels-and-async ## A message at 23:00 **Sofia:** Last night at 23:00 Taras sent me five messages in a row: "hi", "got a sec?", then a question about a refund, then "never mind", then "actually, still need it". **Alex Tutor:** That's a team without agreed channels. Each message has two questions: how urgent is it, and does it need back-and-forth? Those two answers pick the channel. **Alex Tutor:** Urgent and tangled: a call. Urgent and simple: the team chat with the urgent tag, as your working agreement says. Not urgent: the ticket thread or a written update, answered within the agreed time. **Alex Tutor:** Everything that doesn't need people at the same moment is **asynchronous communication**. For a team across Kyiv, Lviv and two hours west, it's the default, not the exception. > **Exercise:** Match each situation with the channel that fits it best. ## A message people can act on **Alex Tutor:** Async only works if a message is complete. Rewrite Taras's five lines as one: the family, what happened, what he tried, what he needs from you, and by when. **Sofia:** "Family X, refund for 3 lessons lost to a tutor no-show. Policy covers 2. Can I approve the third? They're waiting; tomorrow 10:00 is fine." **Alex Tutor:** That one you can answer at 8:00 without a single follow-up. And it says "tomorrow is fine", so nobody needs to reply at 23:00. **Olha:** Can we make that the team rule? No more bare "hi" messages. My phone buzzes all evening. > **Exercise:** Which of these belong in an async message that someone can act on without a follow-up call? Select all that apply. ## Time zones and outages **Alex Tutor:** Two of the team work two hours behind Kyiv. Their morning starts when Kyiv's queue is already full, and EU families write in their evening. Rotate the inconvenient hours; don't leave them to the same two people. **Alex Tutor:** How would you share those inconvenient hours? > **Exercise:** Two coordinators work two hours behind Kyiv, and EU families write in their own evening. How should the team cover the inconvenient hours? **Alex Tutor:** Then outages. Assume any person can lose power or connection mid-shift. What does the team need so that no family waits? **Sofia:** A short handover note in each open ticket, a backup channel on mobile data, and a buddy who picks up the queue. **Alex Tutor:** And one line in the team chat when you go dark: "No power, buddy has my queue, back around 15:00." Thirty seconds, and nobody has to guess. > **Exercise:** Bohdan loses power in the middle of his shift with six open tickets. Which setup keeps families from waiting? ## What to hand to a tool **Alex Tutor:** Now the AI draft assistant. It's good at first drafts of routine replies, summaries of long threads and turning meeting notes into a tidy list. A person checks every word before it goes out. **Alex Tutor:** Never hand it decisions about people: feedback, evaluations, warnings. Never bad news to a person, a refund outside the policy, or a family's or child's personal details pasted into a tool the company hasn't approved. **Sofia:** Bohdan would add: never a reply to a family that's upset. **Alex Tutor:** He's right. When someone needs to feel heard, a person writes it. The tool can save time on the easy work so there's time for that. > **Exercise:** Which of these are reasonable to hand to the AI draft assistant, with a person checking before anything is sent? Select all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** And the other side: what should never go into the tool? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** pasting a family's and child's personal details into any AI tool is fine, as long as a person checks the draft before it's sent. ## Quiet hours, clear times **Iryna:** One thing from my side: async doesn't mean "whenever". If a family's question waits two days in a thread, that's not async, that's lost. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. Async needs agreed response times per channel: urgent tag within 15 minutes on shift, ticket threads the same working day, written updates read within a day. **Alex Tutor:** And quiet hours: outside your shift, nobody expects a reply. Schedule messages for the morning, or say "no need to answer tonight". **Sofia:** So Taras's 23:00 question was fine to send, just not to answer at 23:00. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** in async work, a reply can wait as long as the reader finds convenient. **Alex Tutor:** So what should Taras have done with that question at 23:00? > **Exercise:** Taras has a non-urgent refund question at 23:00, outside your shift. What's the best way to send it? ## Your turn: one message for the team **Alex Tutor:** Write the message that introduces the outage rule to the team. Nobody will be on a call for it: it has to work on its own. **Sofia:** Context, the rule, what each person does, from when, and where to ask. **Olha:** Keep it short enough to read on a phone in a dark kitchen. **Alex Tutor:** And ask for comments by a date, so the rule is the team's, not only yours. > **Exercise:** Write the **async message** (5–7 short lines) that introduces the outage rule to the team: why, what each person does when they lose power or connection, the buddy and backup channel, from when it applies, and by when to comment. > **Key ideas** > > - Pick the channel by two questions: how urgent is it, and does it need back-and-forth? Call, urgent tag, ticket thread or written update. > - **Asynchronous communication** is the default for a team across Kyiv, Lviv and abroad; it works when a message is complete: context, what you need, by when, what you tried. > - Rotate inconvenient hours across time zones instead of leaving them to the same people. > - Plan for outages: handover notes, a one-line post on a backup channel, a named buddy. No status watching. > - Hand the AI draft assistant routine drafts, thread summaries and notes, with a person checking. Never decisions about people, bad news, refunds outside policy, or personal data in unapproved tools. > - Async isn't "whenever": agree response times per channel and keep quiet hours outside shifts. **Alex Tutor:** Next time: the news that doesn't travel through any channel, because nobody dares to send it. - Previous lesson: [Do we need this meeting?](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/do-we-need-this-meeting.md) - Next lesson: [Bad news up, decisions down](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/bad-news-up-decisions-down.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.