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Writing Style Library

Slack Message

A short, async-first message designed for team channels - direct, scannable, and respectful of the reader’s attention in a high-volume feed.

Slack Message

Section titled “Slack Message”

A Slack message in a professional context competes with dozens of others in the same channel. The reader skims. The effective Slack message acknowledges this and works with it rather than against it: the most important information appears in the first line, the message is short enough to read without scrolling, and any required action is explicit.

Canonical template

Section titled “Canonical template”
[One-line summary - the message should be understandable from this alone]


[Optional: 2-4 bullet points for supporting detail]


[Optional: @mention for required action]
[Optional: thread invitation for discussion]

When to use

Section titled “When to use”

Team status updates, quick questions, sharing a link with context, incident notifications, async decisions.

When not to use

Section titled “When not to use”

Formal communication requiring a paper trail, communication with external parties, emotionally complex topics that deserve more space.

Pairs well with

Section titled “Pairs well with”

operator, friendly-mentor, matter-of-fact, candid, warm

Often confused with

Section titled “Often confused with”

prd: A PRD is a structured multi-section document defining product requirements. A Slack message is a short async communication in a team feed - the two should not be confused in practice, but “format” as a category occasionally causes library navigation confusion.

adr: An ADR is a permanent record of an architectural decision. A Slack message is ephemeral async communication - it may contain a decision, but it is not a record of one.

Instruction

Section titled “Instruction”
Write as a Slack message for a professional team channel. Lead with the most important
information in the first line - the message should be understandable from the first line alone.
Keep it short enough to read without scrolling. If the message is complex, use bullet points to
make it scannable. Make any required action explicit and specific: "@alex can you confirm by
EOD?" not "let me know what you think." Match the channel's tone - standup channels are more
formal, social channels are warmer. Respect the reader's attention in a high-volume feed.

Template

Section titled “Template”

See the Slack Message template.

Section titled “Related”

Pairs well with

Section titled “Pairs well with”

Operator, Friendly Mentor, Matter of Fact, Candid, Warm

Avoid with

Section titled “Avoid with”

Pastoral, Reverent, Columnist

Often confused with

Section titled “Often confused with”

Product Requirements Document, Architecture Decision Record

Examples

Section titled “Examples”

Proposal: try async standups for 30 days starting May 19

Our 9am standup is hard on the India team and the info disappears after each call. Want to run an experiment:

  • Each person posts to #team-standup by 10am local time (3 fields: shipped / in progress / blocked)
  • Blocked items @mention the person who can unblock
  • On-call reads the channel by 9am PT and responds to blocks within 30 min
  • We keep Thursday 3pm as a real working session for anything that needs live discussion

@priya @arjun @deepa - this gets you out of 9:30pm standups. Want to hear your reaction first.

:thread: Drop thoughts in thread by Friday and I will send a final plan Monday.