Google docs vs Hackpad:Don’t kill your remote

communication!

123 Ship.it - Why remote communication is crucial for us:

• 15 people in our team work remotely

• We work in different time zones

• over 5 software projects simultaneously

• every tool that empower our communication is crucial for us

Why we need collaborative documentation

• speci"cations,

• discussions,

• important decisions,

• researches,

• content creation,

• ideas,

• asynchronous discussions.

Before: Communication and creating documents in google docs

• GD: free, a lot of features and different document types, rich text formatting. But...

• ...we created docs only when there was no other option

• we pushed other channels of communication to the limit

• Creating a doc seemed to be necessary evil

• Result: communication mess

New hope: discovery of hackpad.com

• you can create text documents,

• share it easily with others,

• edit in realtime,

• link between documents,

• create collections.

• much simpler than googledocs

•

After: How communication changed after switching to hackpad

• With hackpad simplicity we started to create new docs right away

• It take less than 10 seconds to create new "pad" and share it with others

• pads often change into long (and productive!) discussions

• A lot of different hackpads with million of thoughts, often out-of-date or unnecessary

• We organize all pads on weekly basis

Google docs have a lot more features. Some of them seem important, but the thruth is

when you start using hackpad you realize that you don't

need them at all. Simplicity wins.

Hackpad: Lean documentation• Create often and you will have a lot of unnecessary

documents

• Validate it and just delete not-so-important-ones, leaving only meaningful reference

• Don't be afraid to write!

• When productive communication just happens, do not try to cut it down, focus on better organization

Hackpad use cases:• Fast to-do lists. In some cases management tools

(in our case trello) seem too slow and we create quick to-do lists in pads.

• Content creation. I'm writing these slides on a hackpad, sharing it with team and editor :)

• Ideas and discussions. When somebody has a new idea worth considering, we put it in a hackpad and start to discuss if it makes any sense.

Hackpad use cases:• Text references. Every valuable piece of text about

any of our projects is added to project collection.

• Every piece of text that need to be written down fast - after inspiring meetings or customer interviews. If it's valuable, we move it further (for example to the spreadsheet with customer interviews).

• Small texts that can be changed by others like meeting agenda.

• Communication with client. It's often more productive to send link to pad than writing an e-mail with things about project to discuss. Trust me, it's faster and more effective.

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Thanks! Visit us at blog.123ship.it