- More formal need
- Clear documentation trail and need to archive
- Lengthy discussions, with lots of details
- When you want privacy
- When you want the recipient to have time to reflect and respond thoughtfully
- More important information that could be critical or referenced later
- When specific instructions need to be followed
- When someone external to the team needs to be included
- When sending files
- First time contacting someone
Chat
- Less formal need
- Concise information
- Quick questions that need a fast response and/or are simple
- Group brainstorms
- Looking for real time collaboration
- Something funny (create a separate chat channel for this where people can turn notifications on/off)
- Thematic topics that are on-going over long periods of time (separate chat channels for each topic)
Virtual Meeting/Call
- To gauge reactions via tone and body cues
- Heavy, sensitive issues
- Complicated topics when people are likely to get confused
- When email and chat have failed to lead to a clear resolution