The ultimate communication checklist

Ever play the game of telephone? Choose a phrase, whisper it to the person next to you, and as it travels from person to person it changes subtly, but by the 15th person, a simple message like

The Beta launch will be in APAC after the Sales kickoff

turns into

I bet the lunch will be served ASAP after the soccer game.

whaaaaat?

Half the battle of leadership is to determine the goals and direction for the team.... the other half is to make sure they know it. While in a perfect world, everyone is always present and listening, in reality, unless you're getting sick of yourself saying the same message over (and over, and over, and over) again, other people probably haven't heard you.

I've found that getting the message across works best when I use multiple different communication mediums. And I use them as often as necessary to reach the right stakeholders. Some of the worst situations I've been in are those where I've forgotten to tell someone something important and then they found out about it in a game of telephone. In order to avoid that, I've created these lists of ways to communicate and an ultimate list of stakeholders to make sure I haven't missed anyone. I've used them for myself, maybe they'll come in handy for you.

Ways to Communicate

In person 1:1 (<--- the best, but never scales)

In person team meetings

In person team kickoff meetings

Vision documents

Fake "press release" or Sales Kickoff document

Product Requirement Document (PRD)

Slide decks

Slack Public Groups

Slack Private Groups

Slack DMs

Video calls

Email 1:1

Email project updates

Internal Wikis

Internal posters (especially effective on the inside of bathroom doors)

Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR)

Executive presentations

Company meetings

Show 'n tells

User research briefs

To Whom?

The Core Team

Designer

Tech lead / engineering manager

Individual developers (front end/ back end)

Your manager

Your skip-level manager

User Research

Project management

Data analyst

The launch team

Product Marketing

Public Relations

Legal

Internationalization

Helpdesk / Knowledgebase

Internal Communications

The "big deal" team

C-Suite

Finance

Business Analysts

Product Operations

Service, Sales, Support Enablement

Market research

Business development

The key to the game of telephone is to have the right message (clear and concise) and once you have that, use as many different communication methods that will eventually reach the right stakeholders.

You'll know when the message has sunk in once the telephone game starts and the message getting repeated is the message that you initially crafted.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. - George Bernard Shaw.

...

The biggest problem of communication is that it has taken place - George Shaw

...

This problem of communication has taken place - George

...

This communication has taken place.

...

:)