Dharmesh Shah’s communication with Flashtags

A few weeks ago Dave Martin told me about Dharmesh Shah’s unique way of providing context to communication with hashtags. Shah cofounded Hubspot with Brian Halligan at MIT in 2006. At some point in the history of Hubspot he found himself struggling with conveying how strongly he felt about information he shared.

• He could share something that he “just thought was interesting” and teams would run with it as if it was something to act on.
• He could share an opinion and because of his position his opinion might end up overruling that of someone closer to the work leading to poor outcomes.
• Occasionally he would have a very strong opinion and it could get lost without a response.

To counter this he started adding hashtags to his communication that gave more context. He calls these Flashtags.

• #fyi: “I don’t feel strongly at all.” For when you’re just passing along information that you find interesting and think others may as well.
• #suggestion: No offense taken if someone goes another way. Something to consider along with whatever you’re considering. Assumes the recipient has the most information and can evaluate the suggestion.
• #recommendation or #strongrecommendation: Something that you’ve thought a lot about. You thought about it all night, did the research, and understand the tradeoffs. The recipient should be free to ignore the recommendation but a response (either way) is politely requested and expected. If it’s a strong recommendation a response explaining why you went the other way is probably a good idea.
• #plea: “I really, really feel strongly.” This is “please just do this.” If you feel compelled to go a different direction, let’s chat, and figure out what the issue is.

I’m not a fan of the word “plea.” Please is better but it still doesn’t feel right. I’m also not a fan of adding hashtags as they might require other people deciphering my private code. Additionally, where I work, it could get mixed up with how we use tags in our communication software. (It’s P2.)

It’s probably better to just note what you think.

1. This is just an FYI; no action needed.
2. This is just a suggestion; no action needed.
3. This is a recommendation / strong recommendation; please let me know what you think.
4. I think this is the direction we should go in; please proceed.

A statement like this can easily be prepended or appended to thoughts and direction. Plus, if you use a tool like TextExpander or Alfred you could just expand to those statements from the hashtag.

Recently, I started using “no action needed” and find it’s helpful. Having a better understanding of other levels, and more importantly, how to communicate them, is a great tool for the communication toolbox.