Themes for Discussion at the Top of the Doc
Bubble up the spiciest 3 topics live; answer the hundred nitpicks offline.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
A tactic for async doc-review cultures where an exec leaves a hundred comments and you can't tell what matters. You add a 'themes for discussion' section at the top that surfaces only the biggest and most controversial issues that can only be resolved live, reserving scarce meeting time for those and handling everything else as follow-ups. Use it for any silent-read doc or Loom review.
Origin
Fain describes Webflow's culture of silent doc reads and Loom-watching in meetings, and her habit of triaging a comment-smattered doc into live themes versus offline answers to protect the group's limited discussion time.
Core principles
- 01The scarce, non-recoverable resource is live discussion time with the group; protect it.
- 02Logistical questions (timeframe, staffing) can be answered offline; only the controversial calls need the room.
- 03The safer people feel and the more they see you've identified the spicy issues, the better the input you get.
How to run it
- 1
Read all the comments and sort them
Go through the exec's scattered comments and separate the biggest, most controversial items from the merely curious or logistical ones.
- 2
Bubble up live-only themes at the top
Create a 'themes for discussion' section at the top of the doc listing the few pieces that can only be resolved in live conversation.
Pro tip Confirm you understood by asking 'was that right, did I get your thoughts right, anything you'd add?' before diving in.
- 3
Divert the rest to follow-up
Explicitly note that curiosity or logistics questions (timeframe, staffing needs) will be answered offline or as follow-ups, so the meeting stays on the high-value debate.
In the wild
When a leader smatters a doc with a hundred comments, Fain adds a top section surfacing the most controversial pieces for live debate and answers the 'what's the timeframe / staffing' questions offline.
→ The group spends its limited time on the spicy, high-leverage decisions and reaches a better outcome.
Common mistakes
Trying to address every comment live
Working through a hundred scattered comments in the meeting wastes the one thing you can't get back: group discussion time.
Is it for you?
Best for
Teams in async, doc-driven or remote cultures where execs review by comment.
Not ideal for
Purely live presentation cultures with little written pre-read.
From the transcript
“I have a section at the top to say themes for discussion. I bubble up some of the biggest and most controversial pieces that can…”
“What I can't get again is the time for discussion with that group”
From the episode
The art of influence: The single most important skill that AI can’t replace
Jessica Fain (Webflow, ex-Slack)