Checklist - How to Create a User Guide for Better Communication
Just as an instruction manual helps you understand how to use an appliance when it’s brand new, a user guide helps colleagues better understand one another more quickly.
What is a User Guide?
A user guide is a short document that an individual fills out providing more details about themselves, including communication preferences and personality traits. Just as an instruction manual helps you understand how to use an appliance when it’s brand new, a user guide helps colleagues better understand one another more quickly.
Sample Topics and Questions to Include in a User Guide
- About Me: personal information, family, interests, etc.
- Qualities I Value
- What Frustrates Me
- My Quirks
- How to Earn a Gold Star with You
- Things You Might Misunderstand About Me
- The Best Ways to Communicate with Me
- The Best Way to Convince Me of Something
- Tips for Getting/Giving Feedback
- Where You Can Find Me Online
- Optional: Personality Assessment (like Myers Briggs)
Additional Recommendations
Incorporate user guides into your onboarding process. Share your teams’ user guides with new hires during their onboarding process. Plus, ask new hires to complete a user guide in their first few weeks.
Customize topics based on your team. User guides are fully customizable so you can include information that will be most relevant for your team. For example, perhaps your team works in different timezones or carry different schedules/shifts. Include a topic on working hours to know when your teammates will be online.
Have fun with them! Much like ice breakers and happy hours, user guides are a great tool to get to know your colleagues on a deeper level and connect about things you may not have known about each other before.
