The Shape of Work

#113: Josh Little on rethinking remote communication, why async wins, and building a Slack challenger

September 14, 2021 Springworks Season 1 Episode 113
The Shape of Work
#113: Josh Little on rethinking remote communication, why async wins, and building a Slack challenger
Show Notes Chapter Markers

“If you could attend fewer meetings, would you? The answer is not in talking less, but in talking differently.”

Serial entrepreneur Josh Little knows a thing or two about running successful software and technology companies. He has founded numerous global software companies, including Qzzr, Bloomfire, and Maestro eLearning. His previous stints include working at Pfizer as National Account Manager.

He currently brings his entrepreneurial expertise to clients as the CEO of Volley app - a video-first platform for businesses to have efficient and productive communications.

Further along, Josh has been carrying on his family's legacy for the last 10 years by making the most delicious pickles just like his great grandfather used to make.

On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, Josh clarifies what asynchronous communication is and what it isn’t, and offers some great insights on async communication and remote work.

We discuss with Josh:

  • His journey from being a teacher to being the CEO of four successful tech companies
  • Why async wins
  • Volley’s mission: enable the future of work and save the world from death-by-meetings. 
  • Why more companies are frustrated with the concept of Async communication for remote teams
  • His thoughts on the future of the workplace 
  • Asynchronous video communication as the next big thing in the world of remote work: building a Slack challenger.

Why are more companies frustrated with the concept of Async communication for remote teams?

As per Josh, people have been doing things a certain way for decades. There are only two ways in which companies can communicate with their workers, which are typing (memos, email, chat) and talking (meetings, video conferences and tools like zoom). The need to talk has increased slightly because there is less proximity and less ad-hoc communication. Since a lot of people have been working remotely during the pandemic, the frequency of meetings has increased by 13%.

Why do companies need to change their current ways of communicating with employees?

Josh says that companies need to pick their poison, implying, they need to choose between talking and typing. However, typing is 7 times slower than talking as an average person can compose written business communication at 19 words per minute. On the other hand, an average person can speak 150 words per minute. Josh added that when you communicate through speaking, only 7 per cent of that is the words that we choose to speak, 38 per cent is how we sound when we speak and 55 percent is what I look like when you are speaking.

Asynchronous video communication as the next big thing in the world of remote work: building a Slack challenger?

As per Josh, Volley aims to create a hybrid of both, richness of talking and flexibility of texting, which looks like a video messaging app. It would help to deal with the major issues of remote working, namely loneliness and lack of communication. Josh stated that Loom characterizes video as a piece of content, just like YouTube. 

Why is Volley being a separate platform altogether and why async wins?

Josh says that Volley can replace some of the meetings as on one end of the spectrum it is achromous and on the other hand, it can replace a lot of brainstorming and one on one meetings. He believes Volley can make achromous communication better to a great extent. Some teams use volley; however, according to Josh, some teams fall back into the same behaviour and use slack. Zoom is said to be the dark age of remote work.

Follow Josh on LinkedIn

Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast host: Abhash Kumar

His journey from being a teacher to being the CEO of four successful tech companies
Why more companies are frustrated with the concept of Async communication for remote teams
Asynchronous video communication as the next big thing in the world of remote work: building a Slack challenger.
Volley’s mission: enable the future of work and save the world from death-by-meetings.
His thoughts on the future of the workplace