I won’t pretend to be an expert on this topic, as one can google any number of articles, papers, and blogs on how to write the most effective emails. I am interested in learning what engineers and high-tech salesman think about this topic. What’s the ideal length, focus, level of detail, subject matter, time to send, etc. As an engineer, here is what I like to see out of an email:
1. No wordy paragraphs
If there are long-winded paragraphs of text trying to describe something technical, something is amiss. This is particularly true if there are questions and/or action items sprinkled throughout. These emails are never clear, and their wordy nature indicates that the sender is confused about something. These will result in either a) no response, or b) a multiple day email back-and-forth that accomplishes nothing. Phone calls work better when this is the case.
2. Clear, definable action items
If tasks are being handed out, they need to be described clearly in list form. Clear deliverables and target dates are an absolute must here.
3. Documented, summarized data points
Gotta love the emails with 10+ attachments full of GB of data and an email body consisting solely of “Results attached”. Go to hell, sender. These emails get sent when the attached data is a wealth of bad news.
4. Include the file path!
For engineers, it is maddening when a file is referred to and not either a) attached, or b) given the full path to find on the server. These emails create unnecessary work for others right off the bat.
5. Send at a reasonable time
Very frustrating when the sender waits until Friday at 6pm to send something out. It’s clearly a way to dodge a response and drop a bomb before the weekend. Mondays (or gulp, the weekend) are always a pain when these emails pop up. (Aside: the engineers’ version of this is often Fri at midnight for a design deliverable. This is excusable if every moment of the week was soaked up to hit that target)
6. To CC or not to CC, that is the question
First, I can’t stand the BCC (unless it is for mass distribution and the BCC is implied/known). But for the regular CC, this is a seriously hot topic. I know some that hate it. I know others that demand it. In my experience, copying your design group on almost every technical topic is helpful. If there are others that can contribute to the discussion or assist with action items, they should be copied. If there is potential schedule impact (and the prior rules I noted above are not broken), management should be copied. This is probably the number one thing on which I’d like feedback from the readers.
(cartoon courtesy of blaugh.com)
So, as engineers, what are your opinions on best email practices? What are the best emails for high-tech design? What emails annoy the most?
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I agree with all of your points, and will add two things which seem obvious but are frequently neglected by emailers:
1) Make a subject, and make it CLEAR as to the topic of the message! I can’t tell you how many emails I receive with the subject line left blank.
2) If a response is required, indicate so- and preferably with a specific name and due date! Often times, a message will be CC’ed to a group of people asking a question, but the group collectively ignores it, thinking someone else will respond. Also, personally, I organize and prioritize my tasks taking due date into account, so if a message does not indicate when the response/action must be completed, it may continually get pushed to the bottom of my list.
Great points Wendy. Number one is particularly important if you use your email as a way to stay organized. Email clients have notoriously bad search (for good reason, but that’s another post), so it’s important to be very specific and think of a subject as a descriptive heading with relevant keywords. Thanks for the comment!
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“Often times, a message will be CC’ed to a group of people asking a question, but the group collectively ignores it, thinking someone else will respond.”
Couldn’t agree more, Wendy. This is the major problem with wordy, technical emails sent to a large group of people. Too often nothing gets done because the email is jumbled and unclear from an action item perspective. A phone call or meeting is best to get into discussions that don’t have clearly defined action items, data points, and schedules.