37signals Internal Communication: Principles and Practices

37signals’ approach to internal communication centers on calm, deliberate, mostly written communication rather than constant meetings or real-time chat. The aim is to give people enough context to make decisions and do focused work, while keeping important discussions, decisions, and project updates accessible to the wider team.

Background: a written-first company

37signals is the company behind Basecamp and HEY, and its communication ideas are closely connected to the software it makes. The company has long described itself as a distributed, remote organization. Its practices reflect a broader conviction: work should not require everyone to be in the same room, online at the same time, or available for interruption throughout the day.

These ideas are laid out across the company’s public writing, including the book Remote by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson and the Basecamp book It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. The materials are not a universal corporate standard or a step-by-step policy for every employer. They are a set of principles shaped by 37signals’ own work and products.

A useful distinction is that “written-first” does not mean “never talk.” It means defaulting to communication that people can read when they have time, then using calls or meetings when conversation is the better tool—for example, when a sensitive issue needs nuance or a quick exchange would resolve genuine ambiguity.

Core principles: calm, context, and fewer interruptions

The central goal is to protect uninterrupted work while ensuring teammates are not left guessing. In practice, that means sharing information in a durable place, stating what is needed, and avoiding an assumption that every message deserves an immediate reply.

• Prefer asynchronous communication. A message should usually be useful even if its recipient reads it later. This supports people working different hours and reduces the pressure to stay constantly available.
• Write for understanding. Give enough background for someone who was not part of the original conversation. A request without its purpose, constraints, or deadline often creates more back-and-forth.
• Make work visible. Put project discussions and progress where relevant colleagues can find them, rather than relying on private conversations that leave others without context.
• Limit work in progress. Starting fewer projects and keeping priorities clear reduces the communication overhead of switching among many urgent threads.
• Use meetings selectively. Meetings have a place, but should have a clear purpose and not serve as the automatic response to every question.

“Calm” does not mean slow or indifferent. It means distinguishing a real emergency from a routine update, and setting expectations so people can focus without fearing that a short delay in replying will be treated as neglect.

How it works: choose the right channel

37signals’ products illustrate how its principles can be put into practice. Basecamp is organized around projects and provides spaces for discussions, to-dos, schedules, documents, and announcements. Its specific features can change, but the broader idea is to give work a shared home. Instead of scattered messages that disappear in personal inboxes, project information can remain attached to the work it concerns.

For a routine project update, a written post can explain what changed, what remains, and whether anyone needs to act. A teammate who is offline can catch up without requiring the sender to repeat the update. A decision can be recorded in the same project space, with its reasoning, so a newcomer can understand not just what was chosen but why.

Real-time tools, including chat and video calls, can still be useful. They are best treated as tools for particular situations, not as proof of productivity or a permanent open door. A quick conversation may help resolve a complicated disagreement; a routine status report generally does not need to interrupt several people.

• Use a project space for ongoing discussion, decisions, task ownership, and material that future contributors may need.
• Use a direct message when a question is genuinely private or concerns only one person. Move consequential project decisions back to a shared record.
• Use a call when tone, sensitivity, or rapid mutual clarification matters more than a durable written thread. Summarize decisions afterward if others need the result.

Writing useful updates and making decisions

A strong written update is not necessarily long. It answers the questions a colleague would otherwise have to ask: What is happening? Why does it matter? What has changed? Who owns the next step? When is a response needed, if one is needed at all?

For example, “The launch is delayed” gives little guidance. “The data import is taking longer than expected, so the launch moves from Tuesday to Thursday; Morgan owns the revised checklist, and no action is needed from design today” gives context and clarifies responsibility. This is the kind of specificity that makes asynchronous work practical rather than merely slower email.

Written communication also helps decisions survive beyond the people who made them. A useful decision record captures the choice, the main reason, and any important trade-off. It need not document every comment. The goal is to preserve the information a teammate will need later, not to create paperwork for its own sake.

When a discussion becomes circular, the answer is not always another paragraph. It may be time to call, identify the unresolved question, or ask a decision-maker to make the call. Afterward, record the conclusion in the shared place where the work continues.

Common problems and misconceptions

“Written-first means no meetings.” It does not. The principle is to avoid meetings that could be handled more effectively in writing, not to prohibit useful conversation. A focused meeting can be appropriate for complex collaboration, sensitive feedback, or a decision that needs real-time discussion.

“Asynchronous means everyone can reply whenever they want.” Not quite. Teams still need explicit expectations for genuine deadlines, urgent incidents, and handoffs. Without those agreements, people may either overreact to ordinary messages or miss requests that really are time-sensitive.

“More documentation is always better.” Excessive documentation can bury the useful signal. Write down the context, decisions, and next actions that help people do the work; avoid turning every informal exchange into a report.

Another common failure is spreading work across too many channels. If updates appear in chat, email, a task list, and a meeting without a clear source of truth, colleagues cannot tell which version is current. Teams should agree where a given kind of information belongs and link to that home when another channel is used.

Adapting the approach to another team

37signals’ methods are examples, not a package every organization must copy. A small, distributed team may be able to centralize most project discussion in a shared workspace. A team handling urgent operations, customer-facing incidents, or tightly coordinated work may need a more explicit real-time response path.

When adapting the principles, start with the communication problem rather than a tool purchase. Ask where decisions get lost, which interruptions are genuinely necessary, and what colleagues need to know to work independently. Then agree on practical conventions:

• Choose a recognizable home for each project’s current discussion and decisions.
• Set response-time expectations that distinguish routine messages from urgent requests.
• Write down decisions and owners, especially when they affect people who missed a conversation.
• Review recurring meetings and chat interruptions; keep the ones that provide value and change the rest.

These practices work best when managers model them. A written-first policy loses force if leaders routinely demand instant replies, call unplanned meetings, or make key decisions in private conversations that the rest of the team cannot see.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does written-first communication mean at 37signals?
It means using written, accessible communication as the usual starting point, so people can read and respond without being online at the same time. It does not rule out calls or meetings when those are more suitable.

Does 37signals use meetings?
Yes. The approach favors purposeful meetings rather than treating meetings as the default. A conversation can be useful when an issue is sensitive, complex, or difficult to resolve through a written exchange.

Why does 37signals favor asynchronous communication?
Asynchronous work can reduce interruptions, support distributed schedules, and leave a record people can revisit. It also requires clear writing and agreed expectations for issues that truly need a fast response.

Is Basecamp required to follow these principles?
No. Basecamp reflects and supports some of 37signals’ ideas, but the underlying practices—shared project context, written decisions, and selective meetings—can be applied with other tools.

How should a team handle urgent messages?
Agree on a separate, clearly understood way to flag genuine urgency, and define what counts as urgent. Do not rely on routine project posts or assume that every chat message will be seen immediately.

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