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How Asynchronous Tools Help You Overcome Many Challenges at Work

Written by Pavle Marinkovic | Jun 29, 2022 8:00:00 AM

Outline of the article:

Asynchronous as a category

In a strange turn of events, the pandemic allowed us to regain time by working remotely, but now we can take it one step further by making it asynchronous.

This fancy word just means that work happens in your own time. You choose when to work, when to talk, when to engage, and when not to. Time becomes an even more tangible and malleable asset than ever before.

Ever since humankind started engraving their thoughts in stone (e.g. cave paintings), we’ve seen the need to develop asynchronous communication and work. Tablet and papyrus writings enabled the transfer of accurate information between places and over time. Workers and soldiers could take commands, written days or weeks ago, and implement them asynchronously.

Technology has taken a lot of time to evolve and people like the Greek messenger Pheidippides sacrificed themselves to compensate for the slow tech advancements. But luckily, today no one has to die for a lack of better asynchronous tools.   

It’s not a new idea, but we’ve made it better. Much better.

New challenges require new solutions

The pandemic has forced us into a new work model. It’s a framework that has completely changed how we coordinate with our teammates and carry out our tasks.

The numbers speak for themselves:

-        Remote work25% of all professional jobs in North America are expected to be remote by the end of 2022, while 89% of European companies anticipate a hybrid workforce at the end of the pandemic.

-        Flexible hours: 23% of the workforce in 7 developed countries across the world currently works flexible hours.

-        Teams across multiple time zones: 73% of remote workers across 5 developed countries report that their companies operate most frequently in 2 to 5 time zones.

With these changes in workplace dynamics, we are experiencing a handful of challenges.

Schedules have become a nightmare. Real-time meetings are time-consuming. Synchronous work constantly interrupts people from their workflow and makes them unproductive. Instead of prioritizing important work, you endlessly tackle the most urgent matters that get you nowhere.

You end up putting more effort, more time, and frankly less work gets done.

We need a different input-output approach to business-making and this is where asynchrony comes in.

Understanding asynchrony

Anything that happens outside real-time is asynchronous.

Whether it’s work, where people complete tasks at different times, or communication, where interactions are sequential, we become decoupled from the “always available” mentality.

We’re used to synchrony. We all follow the same schedule and are expected to answer in a timely manner. People are usually in the same time zone and they attend frequent meetings (face-to-face or online).

When we switch to asynchrony, people start working independently (personal schedule), they reply when it’s convenient for them, and can easily work from any time zone.

We still get to work and talk with others but not necessarily at the same time. We not only overcome time constraints but more importantly, we give people their time back. They can now choose when to work and when to interact within certain limits of course.

How it looks to work at an asynchronous company

Here’s an example that will help you grasp the idea.

As an early bird, you like to start work at 6:30 am. You check your email, some Slack chats, and Asana entries (async) to get an update from yesterday’s events. Your boss left your team a video input (async) detailing some key things to consider for the next milestone. In addition, your teammates already left some audio comments (async) on the post thread to clarify a couple of things.

You prioritize your morning work session and start tackling each task. At 11:00 am you take a break. You rapidly answer some emails (async), leave an audio update on your progress in your boss’ video thread (async), and go out to do some errands. A few hours later you meet with a client for lunch (sync), get one last errand done for the day, and continue work from a café nearby. You’re still full from your last meal but you need that coffee to wake you up. Thankfully, you’ve left some easier tasks for the evening session.

To finish things off, you get on a one-on-one call (sync), previously scheduled, with one of your teammates who’s just starting his morning routine in another country. It’s 7:00 pm and you call it a day. Tomorrow you’ll just do some work in the evening since it’s your brother’s birthday and you’re all going to an all-day event out of the city.

How does it sound?

Even if the majority of your work and interactions are asynchronous, it doesn’t mean that there’s no space for some synchronous tasks. It’s not an all-or-nothing scenario, and part of the flexibility of an asynchronous job implies fitting in some sync communication once in a while.

The current state of the asynchronous market

Global view of the market

The asynchronous industry is not a unified field. It’s divided into several branches depending on what solution they offer to their clients:

-        Education: from its 2018 valuation of $18.2 billion, the global e-learning market revenue is expected to surpass $74 billion in 2016 (19.2% CAGR), with the asynchronous learning type accounting for over 51% of the total share.

-        Team collaboration software: from its 2021 valuation of $21.7 billion, the global market revenue is expected to reach $56.7 billion in 2030 (9.5% CAGR), of which an important part refers to asynchronous tools.

-        Messaging apps: from its 2021 valuation of $21.4 billion, the global market revenue for this industry is expected to reach almost $41 million in 2028 (9.6% CAGR).

Asynchronous companies

Apart from looking at some general growth trends by market type, it’s fascinating to see how much support some of these asynchronous companies have received until now.

Claap might be on the path to dethrone Zoom. This French-based startup is aiming to increase asynchronous meetings by getting people off the frequent (but usually unproductive) 30-minute catch-up video calls. Instead, employees record short videos of them on a specific topic, let colleagues view the video and respond before a deadline, and record decisions for everyone to see whenever they want. With a $3 million pre-seed funding and over 30 angel investors, Claap could change our video-calling habits for the better.

Swell is the antidote to how we currently engage in social media. With an increase in polarization across groups and fewer authentic online interactions, this audio-driven social platform aims to improve how we talk with each other. By making posts asynchronous, people are encouraged to have thoughtful conversations and listeners can easily catch up with the conversation. The voice-based social platform has secured $3 million in funding to take us one step further into a more genuine approach to social media.    

If you’re like me, two examples aren’t enough to satiate your thirst for this revolutionary industry. Without further ado, let your curiosity run wild with the following list of asynchronous companies:

Asynchronous video coordination

Asynchronous Video Coordination

Motto

Description

Webpage

Claap

Less meeting. More doing.

“Record quick videos of your screen, get contextual feedback, and make decisions. The modern way to align hybrid teams.”

https://www.claap.io/

easyUp

-

“Dentist's appointment? Train delayed? Enable your team to collaborate more efficiently by holding regular video check-ins - from anywhere.”

https://easyup.app/

Grapevine

Keep your remote team connected. No meetings required.

“Grapevine's async video and audio messages allow team members to collaborate daily without the time drain of live meetings.”

https://grapevine.team/

Loom

Show it, say it, send it

“Record quick videos of your screen and cam. An essential tool for hybrid workplaces.”

https://www.loom.com/

Volley

The fastest way to human connection.

“Volley is a video messaging app that makes it possible to talk face-to-face flexibly. It's the killer app for coaching, community, and collaboration.”

https://www.volleyapp.com/

Weet

Say it with video

“Video & screen recording made easy. And free. Share quick videos instantly.”

https://weet.co/

Yac

Talk it out without calling

“Record quick voice message threads of your voice and screen. Then just send a simple meeting link.”

https://www.yac.com/

ZipMessage

-

“Asynchronous, threaded conversations with video, voice, screen and text.As simple as sharing a link.”

https://zipmessage.com/

Herakles

The digital pre-selection solution

“Herakles.works for a high volume of applications. The solution that recruiters and candidates love.”

https://herakles.works/

 

Asynchronous meetings management

Asynchronous Meetings Management

Motto

Description

Webpage

Fellow

Great meetings are just the start.

“Fellow is where teams gather to have productive team meetings and meaningful 1:1s, build collaborative meeting agendas, record decisions, and keep each other accountable.”

https://fellow.app/

Friday

Free Your Friday

“Check out our management tips, tools, templates, and productivity hacks to start saving one day a week.”

https://friday.app/

Jell

Focus on What Matters

“Automate your daily standup and check-in meetings.”

https://jell.com/

Geekbot

Geekbot brings you peace of mind!

“Join thousands of teams that use Geekbot to automate standups, surveys, and daily reports.”

https://geekbot.com/

Lorros

Group decisions and productivity

“LORROS is for boards, committees, or any groups that make formalized decisions.”

https://lorros.com/

Know Your Team

Lead your team with care.

“You want to bring everyone together without a false note of “kumbaya,” align your team without invoking Big Brother, and encourage honest feedback without force-feeding performance reviews.”

https://knowyourteam.com/

Hypercontext

Lead a high performing team without the annoying admin work

“Streamline meetings, goals, and morale into one workflow that gets you the results you need.”

https://hypercontext.com/

Range

Better teamwork, fewer meetings

“Range is the place for remote & hybrid teams to check in with each other, both async and real-time. Feel like a team, wherever you are.”

https://www.range.co/

Standuply

-

“Automate standup meetings, retrospectives, other agile processes and get an internal Q&A system to level up productivity of your team.”

https://standuply.com/

Tatsu

-

“Standup Meetings in Slack

Save on interruptions with asynchronous communication.”

https://tatsu.io/

Timz Flowers

Better Meetings for Hybrid Teams

“TIMZ FLOWERS lets you easily integrate live calls with asynchronous work.”

https://timz.flowers/

Team Snippets

-         

“Daily Standup Meeting in your Inbox.

Plan your day. Monitor goals and achievements. Celebrate wins.”

https://www.teamsnippets.com/

Twist

Team messaging that won’t distract you all day

“Twist is asynchronous messaging for teams burned out by real-time chat, video calls, and email. Join 450,000+ people who’ve made the radical switch.”

https://twist.com/

 

Asynchronous collaboration

Asynchronous Collaboration

Motto

Description

Webpage

Google Drive

Easy and secure access to your content

“Store, share, and collaborate on files and folders from your mobile device, tablet, or computer”

https://www.google.com/drive/

Qatalog

One Work Hub

“The go-to place for team collaboration”

https://qatalog.com/

Dropbox

Keep life organized and work moving—all in one place

“Dropbox gives you secure access to all your files. Collaborate with friends, family, and coworkers from any device.”

https://www.dropbox.com/

Almanac

Build something new together.

“Connect ideas, projects, and people in your doc editor.”

https://almanac.io/

Tettra

-         

“Tettra is an internal knowledge base that organizes your scattered company knowledge so you can use it to answer your team's repetitive questions right in Slack or MS Teams.”

https://tettra.com/

Slab

Build a culture of knowledge-sharing today.

“Easily create, organize, and discover knowledge for your entire organization, from non-technical to tech-savvy.”

https://slab.com/

 

Asynchronous podcasting

Asynchronous Podcasting

Motto

Description

Webpage

Rumble Studio

Record spoken audio, fast.

“Create podcast episodes 10 times faster with asynchronous interviews. No skills required.”

https://www.rumble.studio/

SpeakPipe

-

“Receive voice messages from your podcast listeners”

https://www.speakpipe.com/

MicDropp

The easiest way to record and send audio

“It's like an online dictaphone with a script prompter.

Capture meetings, lectures, speeches, podcasts, interviews and more. Seconds to set up and super simple to use.”

https://micdropp.com/

 

Asynchronous video communications

Asynchronous Video Communications

Motto

Description

Webpage

Videoask

GET PERSONAL WITH VIDEO

“Interact face-to-face with your audience & build stronger business relationships.”

https://www.videoask.com/

Socialive

The video content creation platform businesses trust

“Empower your team to create, broadcast and distribute studio-quality videos at scale”

https://socialive.us/

Capsule

Studio-quality video tools for your entire team

“Capsule gives you everything you need to produce stunning video at scale — no editing skills required.”

https://capsule.video/

Storyfox

The unique professional videos created by all

“Storyfox, your super friendly solution for creating videos that looks like you.”

https://www.storyfox.io/

 

Asynchronous data collection

AsynchronousData Collection

Motto

Description

Webpage

Discuss

Turn Experiences

Into Insights

“We’re purpose built to turn people’s experiences into insights that drive faster, more informed strategies and decisions.”

https://www.discuss.io/

Tactix

Explore uses.

Test your offers.

Really.

“Collect the field data you need to understand your target individuals, and quickly make the right decisions with our research solution.”

https://www.tactix-research.com/

 

Asynchronous social audio

AsynchronousSocial Audio

Motto

Description

Webpage

Swell

Swell is where the conversation starts.

“Swell is a new voice-based social platform. Every post on Swell is up to 5 minutes of audio and marks the start of a conversation. All responses are also in audio and grow the conversation.”

https://www.swell.life/

Racket

Audio stories, told by anyone

“The easiest way to tell stories and connect with people who want to hear them.”

https://racket.com/

Riffr

-

“riffr is the social network that’s all about your voice. Discover great short-form audio content and post your own in the app. It’s like podcasting, but micro.”

https://riffr.com/

Omnipod

SPEAK.

SHARE.

CONNECT.

Join the social media for short-form audio and podcasting

– because your story matters.

https://www.omnipodcast.com/

Limor

Where voices meet

Build your audience and get the conversation started.

https://limor.ie/

 

Asynchronous learning

Asynchronous

Learning

Motto

Description

Webpage

EdApp

Bite-sized courses your team will love

“No more fighting attention spans. Deliver highly-targeted microlearning courses to engage your team and help them hit training goals faster.”

https://www.edapp.com/

Axonify

Get your frontline ready for anything with mobile-first training and communications

“BYOD on your mind? No problem. See how you can deliver fun, fast training that meets them where they are, on the mobile devices they use every day.”

https://axonify.com/

Seismic (Lessons)

Rockstar reps aren’t born. They’re trained.

“Train your team 62% faster with Seismic’s learning and coaching software.”

https://seismic.com/products/enablement-cloud/learning-and-coaching/

Talent LMS

Built for success

“Build a smarter organization with the training platform designed to help great teams grow.”

https://www.talentlms.com/

Kahoot!

Make learning awesome!

“Kahoot! delivers engaging learning to billions.”

https://kahoot.com/

Auzumor

Powerfully simple employee training

“Launching, tracking, and reporting for any type of training, in one centralized location, viewable on any device.”

https://auzmor.com/learn/

Trainual

Get your business out of your brain with

Trainual

“Onboarding, training, systems, processes... scaling a small business is hard. But not with Trainual. Turn every process, policy and SOP for every role and responsibility into a simple, powerful playbook.”

https://trainual.com/

Udemy Business

With the right skills, anything’s possible

“Give your team the tools they need to learn and lead.”

https://business.udemy.com/

Whale

Train and scale your team without the chaos

“Built a central source of truth for all your processes, SOPs, and best practices — so you can onboard, train, and get everyone on the same page with Whale.”

https://usewhale.io/

 

Asynchronous messaging

Asynchronous

Messaging

Motto

Description

Webpage

WhatsApp

Simple. Secure. Reliable messaging.

“With WhatsApp, you'll get fast, simple, secure messaging and calling for free*, available on phones all over the world.”

https://www.whatsapp.com/

Telegram

A new era of messaging

“Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it’s super-fast, simple and free. You can use Telegram on all your devices at the same time — your messages sync seamlessly across any number of your phones, tablets or computers.”

https://telegram.org/

Messenger

Hang out

anytime, anywhere

“Messenger makes it easy and fun to stay close to your favorite people.”

https://www.messenger.com/

What do asynchronous companies have in common?

They all aim to give more autonomy to every worker. The employees are empowered to choose when and where to carry out their tasks.

-        They tackle the problem of time more effectively: schedules, time zones, workflow, documentation, and other work-related operations become easier and more efficient.

-        They enhance productivity. Everything is documented and easily accessible, people are not interrupted during their work process, and mental health is prioritized (e.g. free from the “always online” mentality).

The list can go on, but the key idea to keep in mind is that all these different solutions aim to make life easier and simpler. Asynchrony is an upgrade to our interactions and work dynamics.

So what does this future look like? Our next articles will walk you through the future of asynchronous audio, how content is created, how the world is powered by voice, and how we use sound to shape our surroundings. Stay tuned for more!

Summary

Asynchronous tools give people back their time by leaving them in charge of when and where they engage with work. The challenges of this new model of work and communications have led many companies to create asynchronous tools to meet its multiple requirements. And the future development of this industry has never looked so bright.