Communication

Our team spans nine countries from the Philippines to the USA, making thoughtful communication essential to our success. We believe in keeping things simple and transparent, adapting our communication style to support both real-time collaboration and asynchronous work across time zones.

Our Core Communication Values

Communication at Avalonia centres around three fundamental principles:

  • We assume positive intent and approach discussions with grace. Text-based communication can sometimes lose nuance, so we always interpret messages with optimism and goodwill.
  • We value diverse perspectives from our global team. Your unique viewpoint, shaped by your location, culture, and experience, helps us make better decisions.
  • We embrace constructive feedback. Direct, kind feedback helps everyone improve and keeps our company growing stronger.

Communication Platforms

Telegram

Telegram serves as our primary communication hub. We use it for daily conversations, quick updates, and team coordination. While we encourage public channels for most discussions, we understand that some conversations require private messaging.

Messages should be considerate of different time zones. No one is expected to respond outside their working hours, and we encourage team members to mute notifications during their off-hours.

GitHub

Currently, our engineering team uses GitHub for code collaboration and project management. We're gradually expanding its use for broader company documentation and organisation. Public repositories host our open-source work, while private repositories contain sensitive business information.

Google Meet

We use Google Meet for video calls when synchronous communication is necessary. Video calls work best when:

  • Your calendar should be kept updated with your working hours and availability. This helps teammates across time zones schedule meetings considerately.

Public vs Private Information

We believe in transparency by default. This means we share most information openly, with a few key exceptions:

  • Publicly shared information includes our general product direction, most documentation, and overall company progress.
  • Internal information includes exact revenue figures and detailed telemetry data. However, we often share percentage changes or abstracted metrics to give team members a sense of our trajectory without exposing sensitive details.
  • When in doubt about whether something should be public or private, simply ask. We prefer to have this conversation explicitly rather than risk either over-sharing or unnecessary secrecy.

Communication Best Practices

  • Keep the team informed but avoid notification overload. Before sending a message, consider whether it needs immediate attention or could be shared asynchronously.

  • Time zones matter. When sending messages or scheduling meetings, remember that your afternoon might be someone else's early morning or late evening.

  • Documentation helps everyone. Write things down, share context, and keep information accessible. This helps new team members get up to speed and ensures we all stay aligned.

  • If a conversation feels unclear or tense, switch to a video call. Sometimes a quick face-to-face chat can resolve misunderstandings that might take dozens of messages to sort out.

Written Communication Style

  • Write clearly and concisely. While we use British English as our standard, clarity matters more than perfection.

  • Avoid unnecessary acronyms and jargon. If you must use them, explain their meaning the first time they appear in a document.

  • When sharing links, use descriptive text rather than writing "click here" or "this link." This makes our communication more accessible and easier to understand.

  • Remember that written messages lack tone and body language. Use emoji thoughtfully to convey tone, but keep things professional.

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