Growing up it did not occur to us that we might one day write documents with people, collaboratively, in realtime. The technology did not exist.

We’re thinking of Google Docs and apps where your partner’s words appear as they type. As they think and edit themselves. You see their cursor hop around.

Now this is common practice. So many orgs live in Google Drive. Coders hop into Codepens and Glitch projects. Designers zip around together in Figma. We make our newsletter each day using Dropbox Paper.

While commonplace, working collaboratively still seems such an intimate thing. No matter your age, we imagine it’s a little awkward sharing a doc with someone for the first time. What if they realize I’m not so smart!

Our feeling is that it’s supposed to be awkward for a while. The comfort and confidence that develops working with a trusted collaborator must be created over time. The only way to get there is to keep diving in, keep typing.