Tech Lead Journal

#215 - The Async First Playbook: Build Effective and Inclusive Teams with Less Meetings - Sumeet Moghe

May 5, 2025

Sumeet Moghe, an Agile enthusiast and product manager at Thoughtworks, shares insights from his book, The Async-First Playbook. He discusses the pitfalls of excessive meetings and how async communication can boost productivity. Sumeet reveals intriguing survey results about remote work preferences and explains why companies like GitLab and Automattic thrive by prioritizing written communication. He emphasizes inclusion in async work, empowering diverse team members, and introduces the ConveRel Quadrants for effective meeting strategies.

01:03:03

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Quick takeaways

Emphasizing asynchronous communication prioritizes deep work over frequent meetings, significantly improving team productivity and engagement.

The preference for remote work highlights the need for flexibility, allowing organizations to retain top talent and promote work-life balance.

Adopting an async-first approach fosters inclusivity, empowering all team members to contribute effectively without pressure from dominant voices.

Deep dives

The Shift Toward Async Work

Meetings have increasingly become a primary form of communication within teams, but it's now understood that they should be the last resort rather than the first option. The average IT worker spends a substantial amount of time in meetings weekly, which hampers their productivity and ability to engage in deep work. This highlights the difference between speed and productivity; just because actions are completed quickly doesn't equate to effectiveness. By prioritizing asynchronous communication—where writing takes precedence—teams can alleviate these burdens and foster a more productive environment.

Intro

2min

Exploring Asynchronous Work and Leadership Evolution

2min

Revolutionizing Code Understanding with AI and Static Analysis

2min

Navigating Remote Work in a Post-Pandemic World

5min

Navigating the Shift to Asynchronous Work in Tech

2min

Embracing Async Communication

31min

Mastering Effective Writing and Engagement

7min

Navigating Remote Work Dynamics

12min

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Are too many meetings killing your productivity and making your team less effective?
Discover a new approach to work where meetings are no longer the default and deep work takes the center stage.

In this episode, Sumeet Moghe, the author of the “Async-First Playbook”, shares actionable insights on building high-performing teams through async-first approach.

Key topics discussed:

The real reasons behind the return-to-office trend, and why remote and async work are far from dead
How async-first companies like GitLab, Shopify, and Automattic operate, and why it’s not an all-or-nothing approach
Surprising survey findings: Why most people want to work remotely, and how meetings and interruptions are damaging productivity
The async-first mindset: Making meetings the last resort, prioritizing written communication, and defining reasonable response lags
The ConveRel Quadrants: A framework for deciding when to meet based on relationship strength and meeting purpose
Inclusion as a first-class responsibility: How async work empowers introverts, non-native speakers, parents, and diverse team members
The “default to action” principle: How teams can move faster by embracing reversible decisions and reducing bottlenecks
Async-first leadership: Building trust, modeling the right behaviors, and creating systems that replace performative busyness
Practical tips for better business writing and reading, plus how AI tools can supercharge your communication
The future of work: Why top talent will continue to demand autonomy, and how AI and fractional work are shaping new collaboration models

Tune in to discover how to build high-performing, effective and inclusive teams with fewer meetings by adopting async-first.

Timestamps:

(02:19) Career Turning Points
(06:21) The Return to Office Trend
(11:36) Companies Embracing Async-First
(13:20) People’s Working Style Preference
(17:37) What is Async-First?
(21:39) Team Handbook and Ways of Working
(23:24) The ConveRel Quadrants
(27:41) Inclusion as a First-Class Responsibility
(32:14) Defaulting to Action
(35:50) Async-First Leadership
(40:38) Being Good in Written Communication
(44:35) AI Usage in Written Communication
(46:17) Time to Read and Reading Comprehension
(51:14) The Future of Work
(58:33) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom

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Sumeet Moghe’s Bio
Sumeet Gayathri Moghe is an Agile enthusiast, product manager, and design nerd at Thoughtworks. Sumeet has recently authored The Async-First Playbook. His practical recommendations for effective collaboration within remote and distributed teams stand for what he’s learned from his colleagues, their successes, and their occasional misadventures.

Sumeet kicked off “The async-first manifesto” , a set of principles he is co-creating with volunteer enthusiasts from around the world. He is also bringing async-work to life with stories of “Humans of remote work” .

Follow Sumeet:

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/sumeetmoghe
Website – asyncagile.org
📚 Async-First Playbook – https://informit.com/async

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