What is the Murmur Method?

Focusing on the collective understanding of processes and responsibilities, the Murmur method’s a great way to practice intentional and mindful agreements with your team.
Sarah Devereaux

There are a lot of cool things about Murmur — templates, public agreements, automated feedback — but we think the Murmur Method is truly the bee’s knees. It’s a collaborative decision-making process that allows you to make every important decision at work in minutes, instead of days or even weeks. And the best part? It’s entirely asynchronous and thoughtfully instrumented for remote, global teams. With Murmur, the days of struggling to schedule a meeting across countless time zones and calendars are over. 

As the very nature of work continues to evolve, we believe the Murmur Method could be a game changer for helping teams make faster, more inclusive decisions that drive employee engagement and motivation.

The Murmur Method has three rounds: 

  • Understand: This isn't a time for participants to make suggestions (patience, young padawan). Instead, they start by asking questions to gain clarity about the contents of the proposal. The proposer then answers participants’ questions, which participants will have a chance to review at the beginning of the next round. 
  • Improve: This is participants' one and only chance to suggest changes to the proposal (finally!). This is different from the endless feedback loops and impending doom of comment chaos you've experienced in other tools: Participants make suggestions and relay their overall impressions to help the proposer during the editing process. Once the proposer finishes editing and responds to suggestions, they'll ask for final consent to move forward and make a decision.
  • Decide: Participants review changes and responses to suggestions. They’re then asked to either consent to the decision as written, or object if they truly don’t feel it’s “safe to try.” If they choose to object, participants will go through an “objection test” to make sure they understand what a valid objection looks like (hint: “I just don’t like it” isn’t going to cut it). If they still wish to object, they can, and the proposer will have an opportunity to make further edits and take another run at reaching a decision. 
Wanna just make a f#@%ing decision? Don’t make it a meeting. Make it in Murmur.
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