Professional communication

Professional Communication

Core principle: Communication succeeds when the recipient understands and can act — not when the sender has expressed themselves.

The What-Why-How Structure

Use for any professional message: email, status update, Slack, meeting talking point.

Component	Purpose	Example
What	State the topic/request clearly	"We need to delay the release by one week"
Why	Explain the reasoning	"Critical bug found in payment processing"
How	Outline next steps/action items	"QA will retest by Thursday; I'll update stakeholders Friday"

Lead with What. Busy readers stop after the first sentence — make it count.

Audience Calibration

The same information needs different framing depending on who receives it:

Audience	Approach
Engineering peers	Technical details, code examples, architecture specifics
Technical managers	Impact and tradeoffs, brief technical context
Non-technical stakeholders	Business impact and outcomes; no acronyms without explanation
Customers	What it means for them; avoid all implementation language

Three-question test before writing:

1. Who is reading this?
2. What decision or action does this enable for them?
3. What's the minimum they need to understand to act?

The No-Hello Anti-Pattern

Direct messages get faster responses. Asking "are you there?" before your actual question forces two round-trips.

Instead of:

You: Hi
You: Are you there?
You: Can I ask you something?
[waiting...]

Write the complete message immediately:

You: Hi Sarah — quick question about the deployment script.
     Getting a permission error on line 42. Have you seen this before?
     Here's the error: [paste error]

This applies to all async communication: state the full request, not a preamble.

Email Structure

Subject: [Project/Topic]: [Specific Purpose]

Hi [Name],

[1-2 sentences: key point or request, upfront]

Context:
- [Bullet 1]
- [Bullet 2]

What I need from you:
- [Specific action]
- [Deadline]

[Optional: next steps]

Subject line matters: "Project X: Status Update and Next Steps" is findable and actionable. "Project updates" is neither.

Pre-Send Check (required before sending)

Do not assert facts without a source check. Before sending, confirm every factual detail against the actual source, not memory:

• Names and titles — check the directory, thread, or org chart.
• Dates and deadlines — check the calendar or ticket, not recall.
• Ticket/PR/issue status — open it and confirm it is actually in the state you claim.

If any item cannot be confirmed, flag it as [unverified] rather than stating it as fact.

Jargon Translation

When writing for non-technical audiences, replace implementation terms with outcomes:

Technical	Plain Language
"Microservices architecture"	"System split into independent pieces that scale separately"
"Asynchronous message processing"	"Tasks queued and processed in background"
"CI/CD pipeline"	"Automated process that tests and deploys code"
"Database migration"	"Updating how data is organized and stored"

For more examples: references/jargon-simplification.md

Reference Files

• references/email-templates.md — Ready-to-use templates by type (status update, request, escalation, FYI)
• references/meeting-structures.md — Structures for standups, retros, planning, reviews
• references/jargon-simplification.md — Technical-to-plain-language translations

Companion Skills

• writing-clearly-and-concisely — Prose editing, active voice, omitting needless words
• feedback-mastery — Difficult conversations and feedback delivery