Why AsyncBrain

Our pain

There is a mature layer of tools for where the work happens. Dozens of tools for project management. Figma for designers, Github and Linear for engineers, Dovetail for product, ERPs for operations and so on. But taking a step back, there is a gap in the market for the layer above, where the most impactful decisions happen.

AsyncBrain is the tool we wish we had while building Good Pair Days. A tool to help structure our decision-making, create clarity and accountability across our org, learn from our experiments, mistakes and successes, and to bring our whole team along the learning curve with us.

We made decisions and changed the course of the company based on gut and intuition. We made these decisions in Slack threads and Notion comments. In coffee chats and Zoom calls. We rarely recorded them, didn't measure the outcomes precisely and did a poor job communicating them to the wider team.

Decisions like whether to move to a new warehouse, how to structure our product team, to change the company's name, to change our pricing structure, to offer free shipping, to launch a big marketing campaign, to use new suppliers, to change our packaging, to change our software providers and countless more. And then there were the countless ideas, proposals, non decisions that, once raised, went stagnant through lack of contribution, or got stuck in decision paralysis, or withered and died with lack of team buy-in.

Some of these decisions worked out, and some of them didn't, but with most of them it's difficult to tell as we didn't structure, measure or communicate well enough to even really know.

We made mistakes and solved them, only to not learn from them and to repeat them again as the team grew. We raised the same ideas constantly and repeated similar discussions previously raised, because we didn't communicate or keep track. We'd waste hours looking for old threads or trying to find what we said in meeting notes.

We'd get frustrated with team members for not being across everything and reading our minds, or with the lack of buy-in for paths chosen. But we rarely adequately communicated what was going on in the wider organisation, why certain directions had been chosen, or gave them the opportunity to provide their feedback and expertise.

Yes, we continued to move forward. But for every two steps forward, we would take a step back. How much quicker could we have moved and how much more effective could we have been with a tool that helped solve all the above?

Our vision

There needs to be a tool that gives leadership super powers to run their companies, whilst involving, communicating and ultimately empowering their teams.

Imagine a company that has a structured process for all key decision-making, utilising frameworks and processes that fit the level and type of decision. Teams that either sped it up when necessary or slowed it down for wider consultation when it needed to be more considered.

A company that involved all the key people needed in the discussion. That kept people accountable for the input. That communicated the outcomes and directions decided with the wider team so everyone was across it. That explained the background and rationale and asked for their team's input and confidence levels, keeping everyone engaged.

Why now

Now is the perfect time for a tool like AsyncBrain. Remote work is here to stay. And we think this is an advantage. Face-to-face team meetings aren't great tools for effective decision-making. Amazon knew this decades ago and implemented their memo system to limit wasted time. But now more than ever, with team members working remotely, a tool facilitating asynchronous collaboration, combined with structured decision-making, can revolutionise the effectiveness of team operations.

Companies are actively looking for solutions to make remote and hybrid more effective and are open to trying out new tools. AsyncBrain will give both leadership and teams more visibility of what is going on across the organisation than a water cooler ever could. For teams that dread the regular video stand-ups, check-ins and brainstorming sessions, Async will give teams a decision-making structure and process to contribute where they are best able, when they are best able.