Wordpress has launched their own collaboration tool in a space similar to Slack, or Teams called P2 and is the tool that Wordpress‘s owner Automattic uses internally to manage their workforce.

The pandemic is changing the world in large ways and small ways. Part of the change is that some jobs that were not considered as remote work have had to become remote job quickly and office culture has had to adapt. Rather than being able to walk down to someone’s office you now need to find another way to communicate. A phone call is a possibility though you never know what the recipient is doing or what you’re interrupting when you call. A video services like Zoom is an option and their usage has skyrocketed though that still requires colleagues to be synchronously working.

Asynchronous communication methods are more important than ever as people’s work and home spheres have collide. Email and text messaging are standbys though it is no surprise that collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack have grown in popularity due to having to juggle home and work around your meetings

I’ve used both tools in my POW though teams more regularly and I have personally come to enjoy Microsoft Teams more as it integrates with the Office365, which is our primary productivity suite. (Though both Microsoft Teams and Slack have integrations that allow them to integrate with other apps). The Teams interface allows users to directly their Outlook calendar and Onenote database. My only complaint had been the video quality on the app when I first started using it more regularly in March 2020 though those issues seem to have been resolved.

P2 looks a little different in that it’s not a direct chat app per this article on Techcrunch

P2 isn’t a Slack competitor. You can’t use it for real-time chat. But P2 can be used to share important announcements — the kind of announcements that you can find on an intranet portal.

I think the most interesting part is that Automattic is a fully distributed team. Everyone is remote so this tool would have been built up in a remote environment and so I am curious how that culture has been baked into the tool from a design perspective.