This is my first post in a series entitled"Why we are building Kwaga".
I write a lot of mail to a lot of people. And I have huge expectations. I really would like mail exchange to be more like a conversation.
However, conversations that take place in real time and real space have one big advantage: when the opposite party doesn't hear you, it's pretty obvious. No such feedback in mail. How many threads fade out from the absence of an answer from one of the members of the group?
I'm not perfect either, I certainly fail to answer my own fair share of threads. I used to "Star" threads that I really wanted to get an answer to. This didn't work so well because I often forgot to "Unstar" them once I got an answer. Also since it worked in only one direction this did not help when I was the one forgetting to answer.
So we dreamed up a new feature for Kwaga: "Send and Follow".
When I expect a reply, I use the "Send and Follow" button instead of the standard "Send" button. I can even set a time delay, would i like a reply for tomorrow or next week? That way, I can regularly review my "Followed mail" list and see which threads are lagging and need to be followed-up, confident knowing that already answered threads are automatically untagged.
As a bonus, if both my correspondent and me have installed Kwaga, I'll see all incoming emails that my colleague needs me to answer. Just like when I had a personal assistant. Neat.
This is an example of why we are building Kwaga.
And you, how do you follow-up forgotten emails and threads?
- PhL
