Asynchronous Communication is the Great Leveler in Engineering

Summary

After Shopify became a remote-first company in March 2020, globally distributed engineering teams had to replace office habits and spontaneous context-sharing with remote-focused ways of working. The article presents a spectrum of synchronousness, ranging from video calls and pair programming through chats, recorded video, email, written documents, wikis, and READMEs, with increasing permanence toward the asynchronous end. It argues for writing as a primary communication mode, replacing meetings where possible, recording and rebroadcasting events, documenting decisions, maintaining a single source of truth in the Vault, and defining team norms for overlap, deep work, code review, and shipping across time zones. It also cautions that not everything should become asynchronous: synchronous meetings, pair programming, social activities, and intentional in-person gatherings preserve human connectivity, while asynchronous practices provide flexibility, equal access to information, and durable archives.

Context

Shopify's globally distributed workforce cannot rely on office-based spontaneous interactions, shared working hours, or informal context gathered through proximity. Different time zones can delay answers, make it harder to identify who can help, and complicate architectural decisions, code reviews, and shipping.

Approach / What changed

The article proposes choosing communication methods along a spectrum of synchronousness and establishing team norms for when to use each. Shopify emphasizes written communication, recorded and rebroadcast events, documented decisions, maintained company documentation, collaborative documents, developer tools, learning resources, and project updates. Teams also preserve overlap for pairing and collaboration, protect deep-work time, and maintain synchronous and in-person activities for human connectivity.

Takeaways

• Communication media differ in both timing and permanence: video calls are fully synchronous, while wikis and READMEs can remain useful indefinitely if maintained.
• Shopify encourages teams to define norms for overlap, interruption-free focus, pull-request review across time zones, and finding same-time-zone support when needed.
• The article frames asynchronous work as an efficiency mechanism and synchronous interaction as a way to maintain connectivity, recommending both rather than making everything asynchronous.

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