Use consistent emoji vocabulary
making titles and headings more browsable 2024-10-22 #collaboration
When you use contemporary collaboration tools like Slack and Notion, you have a choice. You can either complain about the emoji and call them unprofessional, in which case you need help, or you can develop and use a consistent emoji vocabulary that makes document titles and section headings easier to browse.
If you don’t stop there, you also end up with an #emoji-language Slack channel,
for questions and answers about correct emoji usage, and their rules, exceptions and dialects.
And if it escalates, you go beyond the standardised Unicode emoji,
and start adopting slang, in the form of
Slack custom emoji.
In the following vocabulary, each entry has an example of a title or heading that each emoji can introduce, to categorise it, group it with similar items, or add visual structure to a document outline. You can develop your own similar vocabulary, focused on whatever you write about.
Note that you don’t need to remember what each emoji means. Instead, their value comes from making the content they proceed more recognisable. But if you use them consistently, it won’t take long before you can read them
A-C
🤝 agreement - something you agreed to, in a meeting write-up
❗️ assumption - an unresolved issue, in discovery and design documentation
🤖 automation - a software development task, in a work tracker
🐛 bug - software development work, in a work tracker
🖼️ canvas - a virtual whiteboard link in a calendar invitation
📌 context - a document introduction section
🧑💼 customer - a (B2B) customer name
D-E
🚛 delivery - a product delivery to a customer
🎨 design - a work type, or team
🈹 discount - a discount code or percentage
💬 discussion - a calendar event
📖 documentation - a document type
📧 email - a document/message type
🚨 emergency - an issue priority
F-I
💎 feature - software feature documentation
🚩 feature flag - a software release toggle
🗯️ feedback - received customer feedback
🎯 goal - a business objective
🏖️ holiday - a day off in a calendar
💡 idea - something to think about
⚡️ integration - software integration or an API
M-Q
📣 marketing - a work type, or team
📈 metrics - product data
🌱 needs - customer needs, in discovery work
🆕 new product/feature - software development work, in a work tracker
📝 notes - a document type
🛎️ notification - a document/message type
P-R
🏎️ performance - a non-functional requirement
📦 product - a catalogue entry
❓ question - an unresolved issue, in discovery and design documentation
🧑🔬 research - a work type
👀 review - a work type
S
📆 schedule - a planned event
🔍 search - a software feature type
🚢 shipped - a software release announcement
🏪 shop - a web shop
🌼 spring - a season
🚀 strategy - a business work type, e.g. product strategy
T-Z
🔨 task - a work type
🧹 technical debt - a software development (clean-up) work type
🧪 testing - a software development work type
🔭 vision - a business work type, e.g. product vision
