Slack pro-tips

Hi, I’m Andrzej Krzywda

In 2007 I founded Arkency

Arkency has been remote and async from the

beginning

We’re now 18 people

We love Slack

We learnt how to use Slack in the best ways

Today, we’d like to share those lessons with you

Let’s start!

create a channel for each project

in project channels make a topic with the link to github, trello and hackpad describing the project.

use the channel topic to create a list of tickets - manually

update after every change.Think about it as micro-trello. We use it for managing customer support issues for people who bought books. We keep a list of leads that await our answer. When trello is too much for given

micro-project, just use topics as TODO list.

create a `#project-with-customer` private channel

(they don't see other channels)

star the most frequently visited channels for you - they will appear at the top

mute the channels which distract you the most and

don't bring daily value

create a `#calendar` channel which overcommunicates about absent times. We

use it to write that we will be on holidays, absent, starting later, finishing earlier than

usually. That kind of stuff.

create `#alternativeworld` channel where all crazy ideas are welcome, but all scepticism is not welcome

are you going to a conference together? - create a temporary channel for that and discuss it over

there - when it's already after the conference, consider archiving it. This works great before the conference to discuss itinerary, payments,

schedules, routes, in general to plan every aspect of it. It works great during the conference

for writing notes and comments.

create `#recruitment` channel - where you coordinate all

recruitment activities

create `#social` channel and integrate all the people twitters here - easier for others

to RT or Fav. We have integrated our coworkers twitter notifications there as well

as our gurus and inspirators.

use `/collapse` to collapse all the files ( `/

expand` to revert)

`/shrug` to make the shrug thingy ` ¯\_( )_/¯ `.

disable notifications in Notifications in System Preferences. Nothing is

more disruptive than random '@channel' or chatter.

use `@here` to ask for review or feedback. It won't send external notifications to those who are not right now on Slack. They will only see in-app notification when they are on Slack. It's a great technique when want to communicate something to more people but there is no need for immediate action, no urgency.

create a self-channel (`#andrzej`) for yourself (as the developer), invite all,

but accept that some may not be interested in reading/attending

overcommunicate your ideas/thoughts/tasks in you self-

channel, treat is as a microblog

if you often create new channels, periodically remind others about them. We

do it on `#arkency`, our most general channel

suggest a routine to your team to review the list of channels - maybe they're missing some new ones?

`/hangout` is the fastest way to open a new hangout (and you don't need to go through the

broken google UI)

create #links channel - encourage people to post interesting links. Avoid discussion

on how old/fresh the link is. Don't care about duplicates. People discover internet

in their own tempo.

watch the links people post and turn them into tweets. Same

with thoughts and smart replys.

Slack-driven blogposts

http://blog.arkency.com/2015/10/slack-driven-blogposts/

create `#non-work-related` channel (ours is called `#lifestyle`) - nice way of learning each other, learning some lifehacks etc. Your internal company facebook wall.

post code snippets (use three grave accents to wrap it) - it's a great way to start

discussions about something real - the code

not everyone deals well with huge walls of text - if you wrote a lot of things, add a TLDR at the end

some people are frustrated when you @mention them, some are totally OK with this - learn what's best to everyone - remind them, they can setup the notification settings to avoid interruptions.

if you feel/fear that during a conversation things are hard to explain

- consider recording a screencast (Tapes is a great tool for that)

http://usetapes.com

if you feel/fear that during a conversation things are hard to explain - consider jumping into

hangout/skype/mumble/screenhero

t's OK to defer answers/dicussions - that's the spirit of async, you don't need to drop all you do, just because someone asked

you something (use `/reminder` to go back to it later)

you were asked for something, but you don't remember on which

channel? consider searching for '?' in the Slack search

you can bookmark any message by Starring it - then you can

access it in the Starred Items menu option

slackbot random responses

You can use it to randomly select one person

let slackbot resolve shortcuts. For example writing 'mumble' generates a response

with link to open Mumble connected to our server `mumble://mumble.arkency/weekly`

use shift-ctrl-cmd-4 to make screenshots (mac-only?) and then paste the picture directly to Slack

use shift-cmd-4 to make Dropbox screenshots (benefit: it saves in Dropbox and

you get the link, drawback: takes longer to upload and often doesn't expand in Slack)

be careful with integrations after

renaming a channel

don't send private messages unless it's

really private

when quoting a slack massage - copy the link instead of plain text (simply right click on the time next to message, then choose something like "Copy link address", then

paste the link as a quote)

use `+:emoji:` to add a _reaction_ that others can

upvote. For example `+:rage:`.

close Slack. you don't need it open all the time. Close it

and enjoy your focus.

use ctr-enter to write longer messages - this a good trick to avoid scepticism and criticism before you

actually explain everything.

use backticks `foo` to highlight one part of some message and refer to that. It's a good way of answering some longer

messages with multiple points.

THAT’S ALL!

Did you like it?

Interested in learning more how to make your team

more async and remote?

You may enjoy our ebook: Developers Oriented Project Management

http://blog.arkency.com/developers-oriented-project-management/

Not sure yet? Read the interview with Robert - the main author

http://www.infoq.com/articles/developers-oriented-project-management