Slack For Dummies Excerpt

Slack
by Phil Simon
Award-winning author of The Age of the Platform
Cal Henderson
foreword by
Founder and CTO of Slack Technologies
Two chapter excerpt courtesy of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Slack™ For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937263
ISBN 978-1-119-66950-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-66952-4 (ePDF); ISBN 978-1-119-66951-7 (epub)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Ta le of contents for Slack For Dummies pro ided as a pre iew. This excerpt includes the
oo s Introduction and hapters and .
Table of Contents
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
INTRODUCTION ...................................................1
About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
PART 1: WORKING SMARTER AND BETTER

WITH SLACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 1: Why Slack Exists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introducing Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Meeting Slack s Users and Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Understanding Why Slack xists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
mail The blessing and all-too-frequent curse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Trapped institutional knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
mployees often can t find what they want quickly
or even at all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
What Slack Specifically Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
mployer benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
mployee benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
CHAPTER 2: Getting Started with Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

eviewing Slack s Different ersions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Free plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Standard plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Plus plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Enterprise Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Changing your Slack plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Describing Slack’s cost structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Beginning our Slack Journey with the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Creating a new Slack workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Signing in to an existing Slack workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Accessing your new workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Using the Slack desktop app . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Introducing the Slack user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Summarizing Slack s Different oles and Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
Administrative roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
Non-administrative roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Table of Contents v
Managing member roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Enterprise Grid roles and permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Starting our New Workspace Off on the ight Foot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Expanding your existing workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Configuring your member profile and key account settings. . . . . .54
PART 2: COMMUNICATING WITHOUT CHAOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

CHAPTER 3: Targeting Your Communication
with Slack Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Introducing Slack Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
xploring the Different Types of Slack Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Public channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Private channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Multi-workspace channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Shared channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Creating Public and Private Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
Creating your first public channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Building an intelligent channel structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
iewing basic channel information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Performing Channel Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Group actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Individual actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
Adding Members to xisting Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Manual additions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Default workplace channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
xploring xisting Public Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Communicating via Slack Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Posting simple channel messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
Understanding channel etiquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
CHAPTER 4: The Wonderful World of Slack Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Understanding Slack Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Sending a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Performing basic message actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94
Formatting your messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Finding people in your workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98
Editing messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Deleting messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Muting conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Setting message-specific reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Saving DMs and channel messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Pinning DMs to conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
vi Slack For Dummies

Creating special types of messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Converting group DMs into private channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
Using threads to create topic-specific containers. . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
Sharing in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Sharing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Sharing messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114
Comparing Email and Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
Forwarding mail to Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Communicating Outside of Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
CHAPTER 5: Staying Informed with Notifications,

Statuses, and Feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Getting our Arms around Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
Managing Slack notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
eviewing the different types of Slack notifications . . . . . . . . . . . .122
etting Others now our Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Setting your status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
iewing your colleagues statuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
Editing your status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Clearing your status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Setting yourself to away/active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Unplugging with Do Not Disturb mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Configuring Device-Specific Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
nabling notifications on mobile devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
Understanding when settings collide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
Finding Other Ways to Stay Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Receiving emails on recent activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
iewing mentions and reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139
PART 3: BECOMING A SLACK POWER USER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
CHAPTER 6: Going Deeper into Slack’s Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Making Calls in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Types of calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
Calls and security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
Sharing Your Screen in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Presenting and viewing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Saving Even More Time in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Invoking keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Using commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
Managing Your Life with Reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Table of Contents vii

Saving Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Saving files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Saving messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Quickly accessing your saved items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Creating User Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156
CHAPTER 7: Finding What You Need with Slack’s Powerful

Search Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Searching for Better Search Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
Performing Searches in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Searching by workspace members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
estricting searches to specific date ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
Using negative keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Referencing multiple keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Restricting search results even more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
Searching by user reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
Searching by wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168
Searching by fuzziness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169
Searching by additional modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
Getting the Most Out of Search in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
Start small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
mbrace modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
Remember that results change over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172
Be patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172
CHAPTER 8: Personalizing Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Getting to Know Your Slack Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174
Configuring global workspace settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
Personalizing your Slack options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Customizing User Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Creating custom fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186
Populating custom fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
Organizing our Sidebar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
Using sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189
Sorting channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
CHAPTER 9: Keeping It Safe: Reviewing Slack’s Security

and Privacy Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Getting Acquainted with Slack Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194
Security and Slack’s Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194
Configuring Slack s Access and Security Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
Confirming sign-ins via email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
Resetting your password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
iewing access logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197
viii Slack For Dummies

Enabling two-factor authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
Additional security features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200
Enhancing Security via Slack Enterprise Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
xamining Privacy in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Message encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
What data Workspace Admins can Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
Workspace message-retention settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
File-retention settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
Understanding Slack s Tricky egulatory nvironment . . . . . . . . . . . .208
estrictions on data and file retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208
Data residency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208
PART 4: EXTENDING SLACK’S NATIVE

FUNCTIONALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
CHAPTER 10: Making Slack Hum with Robust
Third-Party Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Understanding How Slack Has mbraced Platform Thinking . . . . . . .214
Comparing Public and Private Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Public apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Private apps and integrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
nhancing Slack with Third-Party Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
Looking at app costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
The Slack App Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Introducing Some Popular Slack Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218
Polling apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218
File- and content-sharing apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .220
Scheduling apps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Productivity and project-management apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223
IFTTT Slack applets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
ideo-calling apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Email apps and integrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Miscellaneous apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226
Finding and Installing Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
Browsing the Slack App Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228
Installing a Slack app in your workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228
Searching for specific apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230
Experimenting with new apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230
Managing Apps and App Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
Approving specific apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231
Regulating workspace apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232
iewing all your workspace apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236
nforcing your organization s app policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .236
Removing apps from your workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238
Table of Contents ix
Disappearing apps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Disabling and re-enabling preserved apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
iewing app activity logs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240
Using Workflow Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Creating workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Heeding workflow warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244
CHAPTER 11: Analyzing, Importing, Exporting,

and Updating Slack User Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Analyzing Workspace Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246
Slack’s analytics dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246
Channel-specific analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250
Member analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252
iewing Member Access ogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .253
Moving Data Around in Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254
Exporting data from Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254
Importing data into Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258
Consolidating Slack workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259
Avoiding mistakes when migrating data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261
Performing Mass Updates to User Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262
CHAPTER 12: Integrating Slack with Popular

Enterprise Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
A Brief Primer on nterprise Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .264
Back-office systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .264
Front-office systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
Slack and Current Enterprise Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
Exploring current system integrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .268
Creating new system integrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270
Looking forward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274
PART 5: SUCCESSFULLY INTRODUCING SLACK

IN THE WORKPLACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
CHAPTER 13: The Elements of Persuasion:
Slack-Adoption Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
A Brief Primer on Network ffects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278
eviewing the Different Slack-Adoption Approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . .279
The bottom-up method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .279
The top-down method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280
The middle-out method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280
Making Slack Stick at Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281
Organization-level strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281
Strategies for handling difficult employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .286
x Slack For Dummies

CHAPTER 14: The Inherent Risks of Deploying Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Identifying the isks of Using Slack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .298
Business risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .298
Technology and security risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304
Listing Slack’s Environmental Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307
Slack s financial pressures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .308
Stiff competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .310
Ongoing legal and privacy concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
CHAPTER 15: The Future of Slack: We’re Just Getting Started . . . 315
Increased Use of Automation and Bots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316
AI and machine learning make Slack smarter much,
much smarter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317
Slack begins to monitor employee morale and diagnose
cultural issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318
Tighter Integration with Popular nterprise Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . .319
Better Dashboards and Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319
A More Powerful Slack Work Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .320
Continued Borrowing of Popular Features from Other Apps . . . . . . .322
ey Acquisitions and Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .326
PART 6: THE PART OF TENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

CHAPTER 16: Ten Great Slack Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
espond Promptly to New Users equests, uestions,
and Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
egularly iew Slack Analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
Tread Lightly with New Hires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
stablish Slack as the Default Medium for Internal
Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
mphasize Slack s Carrots More Than Its Sticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
eep an ye Out for New Slack Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
Tell Overly Exuberant Slack Members to Tone It Down. . . . . . . . . . . .331
Publicize our Status and Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
Try Before ou Buy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332
now When to Turn Slack Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332
CHAPTER 17: Ten or So Common Slack Myths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Slack Is Just mail 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333
Slack Decimates the Need for Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334
All Organizations Configure Slack in a Uniform Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334
Slack Obviates the Need for In-Person Communication . . . . . . . . . . .335
Slack Solves very Conceivable Business-Communication
Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .335
Slack Is Too Expensive for Our Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .335
Table of Contents xi
Our Company Has Built a Tool That s Just as Good as Slack . . . . . . . .336
Our Employees Don’t Need Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .336
Our Company Uses Slack and Nothing lse for Collaboration . . . . . .337
You Can’t Misuse Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .338
CHAPTER 18: The Top Ten or So Slack Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Slack Online Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340
Contacting Slack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340
Browsing the Slack support site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340
Opening cases or making suggestions within the Slack app. . . . .340
Finding Slack tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340
Submitting Slack feature requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341
Other Online Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341
Official resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341
Unofficial resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .342
Developer resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343
In-Person esources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343
Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343
Meetups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .344
In-person training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
xii Slack For Dummies

Foreword
M
y cofounders and I never could have imagined that our internal collabo-
ration tool would eventually revolutionize workplace communications
and change how people work. At that time, email was the default coor-
dinating point for communications and information, but inside our company
which was split between New York City, San Francisco, and Vancouver it was
simply too slow. We wanted a better, quicker solution than email for working
together and across great distances. So, like any group of engineers would, we set
out to build one.
Designed to bring the tools you use and the people you work with every day into
one place, Slack, we believe, is a better way of working together than email.
Meaningful teamwork and engagement on Slack happens in channels, which you
can read more about in Chapter . Channels and shared channels (between mul-
tiple organizations) represent a more efficient mechanism for workplace com-
munication and are organized by team or projects, which helps facilitate relevant
exchanges and productivity.
These channels quickly become rich, dense, searchable archives of information,

giving users quick access to all the information they need in one centralized loca-
tion. (You can find out more on the power of search in Slack in Chapter 7.) Slack is
made even more powerful by integrating third-party apps to accomplish a range
of tasks spanning all major categories of work, including project management,
finance, design, customer support, and more. As you can read in Chapter 10, Slack
has thousands of apps in its directory all designed to make your workday more
productive.
Even in its earliest iterations, we viewed Slack as more than a simple messaging
tool. When we talk about Slack as a collaboration hub, we don’t ust mean people
sending messages to one another, but more broadly, the work that is enabled
across teams on a single platform. Slack started as a tool we built to answer our
small company’s needs, and it turns out those needs were pretty universal, from
coffee roasters to healthcare offices to some of the world’s largest financial ser-
vices companies. If you’re reading this book, it’s likely you’re in a similar situation.
I hope Slack For Dummies gives you strong foundational knowledge about what
Slack can do to improve your workplace communications, and by reading it, you’re
able to pick up a few tips and tricks along the way. In the end, every business is
made up of teams who are looking for a better way to work together. We’re happy
and grateful to be a part of your journey.
Cal Henderson, cofounder and Chief Technology Officer, Slack Technologies, Inc.
Introduction
N
ot that long ago, the world’s most successful organizations relied upon
typewriters, landlines, inter office memos, and secretaries. Email and
even fax machines didn’t exist. Back then, employees took actual
vacations.
Don’t believe me? Watch a few episodes of AMC’s Mad Men. Odds are that you
probably won’t recognize the 19 0s’ world of work. Although it predates me by a
few years, it’s an authentic portrayal of office life back then.
The modern day workplace is a far cry from those uaint days. Employees today
are bombarded with a constant barrage of often pointless emails, text messages,
meeting re uests, phone calls, and information. The era of Big Data is here, and
far too often multi tasking reigns supreme. The idea of working without inter-
ruptions is foreign to many employees. Thanks to smartphones, we’re almost
always reachable, even when we are supposed to be on vacation.
If you’re stressed while on the clock, at least take solace in the fact that you’re not
alone. According to a 201 Korn Ferry survey, Nearly two thirds of professionals
say their stress levels at work are higher than they were five years ago. (Read the
study at https://tinyurl.com/y2jxeatr.)
Enter Slack, a tool that makes work more manageable and less overwhelming.
Slack’s cohesive set of powerful features allows employees to regain control of
their professional lives in a number of simple yet effective ways. In addition, Slack
allows you to communicate and collaborate well with your colleagues, managers,
clients, partners, and vendors.
No, Slack doesn’t solve every conceivable workplace problem. No software pro-
gram can. Still, when used properly, Slack helps employers build valuable organi-
zational knowledge bases, increase productivity and transparency, and often
maintain an edge over their competition. Employees benefit as well in the form of
less chaotic work environments, fewer emails, being able to more easily find key
information, and much more.
Introduction 1
About This Book
Slack For Dummies is the most extensive guide on how to use this powerful, flexi-
ble, affordable, and user friendly collaboration tool. It provides an in depth over-
view of Slack’s most valuable features some of which even experienced users
may have overlooked since adopting it. This text goes beyond merely showing you
how to install, configure, and customize Slack. It also offers practical tips on how
individual users, groups, and even entire firms can get the most out of it. In short,
this is the book that I wish I had when I taught myself Slack years ago.
As with all titles in the For Dummies series, you’ll find the book’s organization and
flow straightforward and intuitive. The tone is conversational. Ideally, you’ll have
fun while concurrently learning how to use an increasingly important, popular,
and useful application. I certainly had fun writing it.
Foolish Assumptions
I wrote Slack For Dummies with a number of different cohorts in mind
» People who are frustrated from wasting time at work mired in their inboxes
and have finally had enough.
» People who generally want to know more about how Slack works.
» Organization decision makers who (correctly) believe that their employees can
collaborate and communicate better and be more productive.
» mployees at organizations that have already experimented with or pur-

chased Slack and want to do more with it.
» People in different social or professional groups who need an easy way to

communicate with fellow members, coordinate events, and the like.
Slack For Dummies is geared toward everyday users, not application developers. To
be sure, I mention a few resources for people who want to know more about build-
ing new apps. Make no mistake, though This book is for normal users. If you are
a proper developer and you’re looking for a text on how to build Slack apps and
access its application programming interfaces, unfortunately you’ll have to go
elsewhere.
2 Slack For Dummies

Slack For Dummies presumes zero prior use or even knowledge of the application.
Nada. If you’re not exactly tech savvy, then fret not. Perhaps you’re merely curi-
ous about what this Slack thing can do and how you’d do it. Congratulations
You’ve found the right text.
I do, however, assume the following
» ou are curious about how Slack can make your work life less chaotic.
» ou receive plenty of internal emails and sometimes struggle managing your

inbox.
» ou know how to use a proper computer, whether it s a Mac or PC.
» ou can navigate mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets.
» At some point in your life, you ve accessed the World Wide Web with an
Internet browser.
I’m a firm believer in truth in advertising. By way of background, my editor and I

wanted to keep this book at a reasonable length and cost. To do so, we made a few
conscious decisions about its content, and I want you to know about them from
the get go.
First, the book that you’re holding isn’t nearly as long as War and Peace, but it cer-
tainly isn’t slim. Please understand going in that Slack For Dummies does not
include step by step directions on how to configure and tweak each and every
setting or feature in any single Slack plan, never mind all four of them. Such a task
is simply impractical. Even if it were, Slack adds new features on a regular basis
and sometimes changes existing ones. All software companies do today. The fleas
come with the dog.
Just about every other author of a contemporary book of a robust application has
had to confront the same inherent tradeoff. I’m not special. Consider Greg
Harvey’s Excel 2019 For Dummies (Wiley Publishing, Inc.), a 2 page tome on
Microsoft’s iconic spreadsheet program. As comprehensive as that text is, it does
not contain detailed examples of all Excel functions and features because it can’t.
Nor can it cover all of the subtle distinctions between the Excel Mac and PC
versions. The same limitation applies to the e ually lengthy WordPress For Dummies
(Wiley) by Lisa Sabin Wilson and countless others in this series.
I’ve deliberately chosen my battles here. Slack For Dummies highlights
» What I believe are Slack s essential and frequently used features
» Obscure features that members should use or at the very least know
about and how to intelligently use them
Introduction 3
In some cases, I describe a feature without spending valuable space on how to
actually do it because Slack makes it self explanatory.
Second and in a similar vein, I have intentionally written all the instructions in
this book to be as device agnostic as possible. In other words, I demonstrate how
to do things in Slack by using its desktop application. In some necessary cases, I
do the same by accessing Slack via a browser. Put differently, I almost always
demonstrate Slack’s functionality using a proper computer, whether that’s a PC or
a Mac.
No, I’m not living in the 1970s and 19 0s. (Well, maybe with my taste in music,
but that’s a different discussion.) I know full well that mobile devices arrived in
earnest a long time ago. At times, I’ll mention how you can perform a specific
Slack action on a smartphone or tablet. Largely due to space considerations, how-
ever, I simply cannot replicate how to execute each Slack task on all iOS and
Android versions and devices. Minor differences persist. Even if I somehow man-
aged to pull that off in the following pages, you’d probably find half of my direc-
tions irrelevant to you. I have met very few people who use both types of devices.
People typically pick one side or the other. Brass tacks To borrow a line from
Greek philosophy, in this book the needs of the many outweigh the needs of
the few.
Fear not, young Jedi. The vast ma ority of users find Slack to be remarkably intu-
itive. You’ll soon be able to naturally perform most of Slack’s key functions on the
mobile device of your choice. In the event that you’re flummoxed about how to
accomplish something on your phone or tablet, Slack’s website contains detailed
instructions on how to do whatever you want on ust about whatever device you
want.
Icons Used in This Book

Throughout the margins of this book are small pictures that highlight key
information
This icon highlights shortcuts that should save you some time.
Be careful whenever you see this icon.
Slack For Dummies

This icon highlights technical information that may or may not interest you.
If not, then feel free to skip it.
You’ll want to keep key points in mind as you work in Slack. This icon highlights
those points.
Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free
access anywhere Cheat Sheet that gives you a Slack term glossary and a list of
keyboard shortcuts. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and
type Slack For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.
Where to Go from Here

You need not start this book on page one and continue to the end Slack For Dum-
mies isn’t a novel. If you’ve already dabbled with this powerful collaboration tool,
then you can ump around to the sections that pi ue your interest. I’ve written it
in that vein.
If you’re only considering hopping on the Slack train or have only heard about it,
then you should start with the first two chapters. From there, you’ll want to read
the book in a relatively linear manner.
Regardless of where you ultimately start reading, you’ll find it helpful to create a
new, free Slack workspace or log into an existing one. I also recommend down-
loading the Slack app for your computer and at least one mobile device. I have
taught myself how to use plenty of new programming languages, applications,
and technologies over the years. Throughout my career, I have found that getting
my hands dirty and doing the exercises myself to be invaluable.
The ourney begins now.
Introduction 5
THANK YOU
Thank you for buying Slack For Dummies. I hope that you find it useful, informative, and
even a little entertaining. Throughout this book, I have emphasized the many potential
benefits of Slack and how to take advantage of them.
I qualified the previous statement because Slack has never been an elixir to all corpo-
rate ills and sources of dysfunction. It never will be nor will any technology or app, for
that matter. mployees who revert to email and use Slack intermittently will fail to rec-
ognize its considerable advantages. As with any new tool, Slack s ultimate success
hinges upon many factors. At the top of my list are opening your mind and setting real-
istic expectations for what it can and can t do.
I wish you the best of luck on your journey to communicate and collaborate better with
your colleagues. et me know if I can help.
Slack on,
Phil Simon www.philsimon.com
April 28, 2020
6 Slack For Dummies

IN THIS CHAPTER
» Identifying the reasons that so many

employers and employees embrace
Slack
» Uncovering Slack’s advantages over

email
» Understanding the many business

problems that Slack solves
Chapter 1
Why Slack Exists
W
hat is Slack anyway? Where did it come from? Was it the result of
long-term planning, a eureka moment, or a happy accident? And what
business problems can it solve, anyway?
This chapter answers these questions in spades. Further, it provides some back-
ground information about Slack.
Introducing Slack
Slack stands for Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge. This is what many
in the business world call a backronym: a contrived acronym. To be sure, I’ve seen
plenty of backronyms especially in my HR days. In this case, though, the term
happens to be entirely fitting.
Slack is where work happens. This is the pithy answer and the one that
adorns the company’s website. The company’s lofty mission is “to make work life
simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.”
I’ll cut to the chase: Mission accomplished.
At a high level, Slack is a relatively new and powerful application that allows
people to work, communicate, and collaborate better one that has become
CHAPTER 1 Why Slack Exists 9

increasingly popular since its launch way back in August 2013. At its core, Slack
brings people together to accomplish goals through what it now calls a workspace.
(Slack used to call this a team.) Figure 1 1 shows what one looks like.
FIGURE 1-1:
Slack workspace
of a college
professor.
If you’re chomping at the bit and can’t wait any longer, take an online tour of
Slack by visiting https://slack.com/features.
Slack’s popularity has exploded since its early days. As such, you may think that
the idea behind Slack required years of meticulous planning and deliberation. And
you’d be wrong. If you’re curious about Slack’s origins, check out the nearby side-
bar “A happy accident: Slack’s background and history.” To listen to a longer ver-
sion of the Slack story from the mouth of CEO and co founder Stewart Butterfield
himself, go to bit.ly/sl-podc.
In effect, Slack accidentally popularized and some would argue even created
a new and colossal product category. This is no easy feat. International Data Corp
labels this category the team collaborative applications market. The research firm
estimates that worldwide spending on collaboration software is currently $16.5
billion and will reach more than $26.6 billion by 2023.
Slack is a nicely packaged set of integrated collaboration tools. In the interest of

full disclosure and as Chapter 1 covers, though, other software vendors previ-
ously released somewhat comparable products.
Chapter 7 covers Slack’s search functionality in depth.
10 PART 1 Working Smarter and Better with Slack

A HAPPY ACCIDENT: SLACK’S BACKGROUND
AND HISTORY
In 2009, Stewart Butterfield, ric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov
started a company called Tiny Speck based out of ancouver, British Columbia. The
company was building a massively multiplayer online game called Glitch.
After a few years of toiling away, the Tiny Speck founders realized that Glitch was never
going to reach critical mass. Most startup founders have a hard time killing their dar-
lings, but Butterfield and his cofounders could no longer ignore the obvious It was time
to abandon ship.
Don t mistake this story, though, as another example of an irresponsible startup deplet-
ing its funds. By way of background, Butterfield and his team were experienced entre-
preneurs. (Butterfield s previous company, udicorp, had sold its photo-sharing service
Flickr to ahoo in 2005 for roughly 25 million.) Tiny Speck managed its money well and
still had plenty of runway, to use the parlance of Silicon alley.
Tiny Speck s founders offered to return all their remaining funding to their investors, but
the entrepreneurs first wanted to float an idea. While building Glitch, the team had cob-
bled together a valuable internal collaboration tool. The entrepreneurs enjoyed working
with one another, and they were curious about where this new tool could go. Tiny
Speck s investors agreed and let them pivot.
Slack launched the beta version of its product in August 2013. oughly 8,000 people
immediately signed up. Slack grew quickly and organically, largely thanks to marketing s
holy grail word-of-mouth.
Growth has exploded since then. With Butterfield as C O, Slack Technologies, Inc.
started trading on June 20, 2019, on the New ork Stock xchange under the apropos
symbol WO . Its value exceeded 14 billion on February 11, 2020, after it closed a
massive deal with IBM. Here are some fascinating Slack statistics
• As of January 2020, more than 12 million people use Slack. Collectively, they send
more than a billion messages every day.
• very week and on average, an astonishing five billion actions take place on Slack.
I m talking about reading and writing messages, uploading files, commenting on
them, searching for content, automating tasks, and interacting with third-party
apps.
(continued)

(continued)
• Approximately half of Slack s daily active users live and work outside of the United
States.
• ou can find Slack users in more than 150 countries in the world.
• More than 600,000 organizations use Slack more than 100,000 of which pay for
it. Customers include Pinterest, Airbnb, CNN, Target, and Zappos.
• At least 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies pay for Slack.
• As of this writing and according to inkedIn, 42 percent of Slack s more than 2,000
employees in its 18 offices previously worked at a top-80 tech company. By com-
parison, at Google that number is 58 percent.
• Nearly 22 percent of Slack employees graduated from a top-30 university. This

number is second to Google s 22.3 percent.
• The accounting firm ruze Consulting found that 60 percent of funded startups not
only use Slack, but they pay for the privilege of doing so.
For more interesting Slack facts, go to bit.ly/sl-facts.
UNDER THE HOOD

Slack uses an impressive array of powerful, contemporary technologies, programming
languages, and frameworks to work its magic. That is, it does not attempt to cram every-
thing into a single language or framework because one size does not fit all.
According to chief technology officer Cal Henderson (and author of this book s
foreword)
• Slack s web client/desktop app runs on a mix of JavaScript, CMAScript 6 ( S6), and
React.
• Slack s Android client is written in a mix of Java and otlin.
• Slack s iOS app relies upon both Objective C and Swift.
As for hosting, Slack engages Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world s most popular
provider of cloud computing. isit bit.ly/slackstack for more on the specific tech-
nologies that Slack uses.

Meeting Slack’s Users and Customers
Thanks to its flexibility, Slack appeals to the smallest of startups, the largest of
conglomerates, and organizations of every size in between. Firms old and new
have jumped on the bandwagon.
Next, using Slack is not a binary. As you can see in Chapter 2, organizations can
test its waters without making long term financial commitments. (In this case,
you can get a little bit pregnant.) Beyond that, individuals, groups, and depart-
ments can benefit from using Slack even if it hasn’t spread throughout the entire
organization yet. To be fair, though, putting less into Slack means that employ-
ers will get less out of it.
The industries that use Slack run the gamut: technology, media, music, higher
education, retail, hair salons, and restaurants. I’m hard-pressed to think of an
area that Slack hasn’t touched. Beyond scrappy upstarts and for profit organiza-
tions, government agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the State Depart-
ment also call themselves Slack customers. Tech-savvy and tieless ex-Democratic
presidential candidate Andrew Yang used it to quickly bring his new campaign
volunteers up to speed. I could keep going but you catch my drift.
As for age, Slack users run the gamut. If you think that it’s a tool exclusively for
millennial hipsters, think again. I’m anything but a 20-something, and people far
older than I use it on a daily basis.
Most fascinating to me, an increasing number of informal groups creatively use

Slack to assign tasks, plan events, and communicate. I’m talking here about book
clubs, hiking groups, sports leagues, and others. Then there are families. Yes,
families. (Read more at bit.ly/sl-fam3.)
Bottom line Slack appeals to diverse types, sizes, and compositions of formal
organizations and informal groups. Every day, Slack allows millions of people to
eschew outdated and ineffective communication methods. The biggest culprit the
mass email thread. Slack’s ability to significantly curtail internal email represents
a major reason that so many enlightened souls have embraced it.
To read detailed case studies on how different organizations and industries use
Slack in creative ways, go to bit.ly/slackwow.

HOW I BECAME A SLACK FANBOY
In August 2016, I began my new career as a full-time college professor. I started teach-
ing technology- and data-related subjects at ASU s W. P. Carey School of Business.
During my first year, my plate was beyond full. In no particular order, I had to familiarize
myself with material for three different 400-level classes. Beyond preparing lectures,
I felt compelled to overhaul most of my predecessors opaque syllabi, assignment
rubrics, and presentation slides.
Oh, I m nowhere close to finished describing my to-do list.
I also needed to complete a number of obligatory school-specific training courses,

figure out how academe works, meet with students, grade papers, design exercises to
promote active learning, record videos, and become proficient at the school s learning-
management system or MS at the time (Blackboard). Oh, and I wrote a book for my
analytics class.
No, I wasn t bored.
On the collaboration and communications side, like many of my colleagues, I immedi-

ately found Blackboard wanting. Given my other responsibilities, though, I wasn t about
to rock the boat from the get-go. ( ven if I had loved Blackboard, using another tool
would have benefited my students. After all, the vast majority of my students certainly
wouldn t be using an MS after graduating.)
During my first two semesters, I experimented with some different in-class communica-
tion tools, such as Google Forms and WordPress. Ultimately, nothing really struck my
fancy. es, those tchotchkes were useful, but they just weren t integrated. I didn t want
to confuse my students. What s more, those standalone tools didn t encourage targeted
communications with them.
With a year of teaching under my belt, in fall 2017, I decided to give Slack a whirl.
In a nutshell, Slack changed everything. I have proudly used it every semester since for
all my classes. I have even convinced some of my hidebound colleagues to give it a shot.
Not a day goes by that I don t use Slack. For the most part, my students love it.
Understanding Why Slack Exists

In hindsight, the birth of Slack was serendipitous. Lest you dismiss it, though, the
problems that Slack solves are anything but trivial.

Let me start by asking you a few questions:
» How would you characterize communication and collaboration between and

among people in your group, department, and company
» How often do you experience communication-related issues
» Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed and/or disengaged while at work
» Does locating key documents or conversations take longer than it should
» Have you ever wondered if there was fundamentally a better way to work
Be honest.
If you answered no to all those questions, then feel free to skip the rest of this
chapter. I’m guessing, though, that you responded yes to at least a few of them.
I don’t know your current situation, but let me go out on a limb: Some or even
most of your work-related anxiety stems from the sources I describe in the fol-
lowing sections. As you read them, at least take some solace in two facts:
» ou re not alone in feeling this way.
» There s a light at the end of the tunnel, and its name is Slack.
Email: The blessing and

all-too-frequent curse
Much of the time wasted at work stems from email or, more precisely, our misuse
of email. Don’t take me at my word. though.
In July 2012, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released a report titled “The
social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies.”
(Read the study at mck.co/mgislack.)
MGI discovered that knowledge workers spend roughly 28 percent of their work
time dealing with email. The math here is downright scary: For example, if you
work 50 hours per week, then you’ll spend 1 of them in your inbox. (If you only
clock 0 hours every week, then expect to spend about 11.2 of them in email hell.)
Alternatively, think about it this way Thirty years ago, professionals spent zero
hours sending and reading emails every week. Today, those two tasks make up
nearly one-third of their workday. McKinsey urges employees to use more col-
laborative tools in lieu of email. The report suggests that this change would let us
recapture seven to nine percent of our workweeks.

Here are the two things to remember from this report
» Slack is one of these tools.
» In the eight years since the publication of the Mc insey report, I strongly
suspect that, in most organizations, the employee email headache has only
exacerbated.
Nay on the vacay

At least there’s vacation, right? Imagine the thought of unplugging on a one-week
sojourn in Paris or chasing golf balls in verdant Myrtle Beach.
Hmm, maybe not. Most people are unable to escape email’s menacing wrath even
when taking hard earned time off.
A 2019 LinkedIn survey revealed that nearly three in five of employees on vacation
admitted to checking in with their bosses or coworkers every day. Nearly one-
uarter checked in three or more times per day. Employees who truly do go off the
grid return with inboxes overflowing with new messages.
If you’re going to be working or ust thinking about work anyway, then why
even bother taking time off Plenty of Americans share this sentiment. In August
2019, the consumer financial services company Bankrate reported that a mere
2 percent of U.S. citizens planned to use all their allotted vacation time. In 2017,
Pro ect Time Off found that Americans s uandered 212 million days off annually.
Constant connectivity
I could keep going, but you get my point: Thanks in large part to email and con-
stant connectivity, for many people, work has become the very definition of a
no-win situation.
Trapped institutional knowledge

The near universal use and overuse of email has confined a great deal of
valuable organizational knowledge in the inboxes of individual employees. When
employees leave a company, IT typically deactivates or deletes their email accounts.
No matter the method, the result is the same Those employees’ essential files,
important conversations, decisions, and institutional wisdom effectively dies.

IT’S COMPLICATED. OUR LOVE-HATE
RELATIONSHIP WITH EMAIL.
Many people are critical of email as a communications medium. I ll unapologetically put
myself in this camp. My 2015 book Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is
Broken and How to Fix It (Wiley) is in part a screed against its overuse.
But think about the utility of email for a moment. People of a certain age remember the
inefficiency of life before email. I m talking about the 1980s and early 1990s. In college, I
used to photocopy letters and mail them to my friends because it was the easiest way
to stay in touch with them. Business correspondence back then was hardly fast, even
with the advent of fax machines. Thanks to email, those days are long gone.
More than 25 years since its widespread adoption in the corporate world, email remains
remarkably powerful because of its ubiquity. When was the last time that you saw a busi-
ness card without an email address Anyone can email you about anything and vice
versa inside and outside of your company. With rare exception these days, those mes-
sages arrive both securely and instantly. Oh, and did I mention that email is essentially free
When it comes to responses, email applications let you reply to individuals and groups
without restriction often too frequently. veryone has done it before and recognizes
the following subject line
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: [insert name of topic]
No, email isn t perfect. No technology is. To deal with its limitations, people block certain
senders, unsubscribe from newsletters, create filters and rules, and flag messages as
spam.
Perhaps you ve reflected on this tried-and-true model of a single, overflowing inbox with
an interminable stream of context-free messages. The idea of hundreds of unread emails
is unsettling, although many people store messages in different folders and sub-folders.
Brass tacks For a long time, email was probably the best that employees could do.
Thanks to Slack, that is no longer the case.
Employees often can t find what they

want uickly or even at all
At work, employees generate an enormous amount of content much of which
they can’t find easily or even at all. I’m talking about Excel spreadsheets, Power-
Point presentations, contracts in Word, and other key documents. Workers often

A BLEAK PICTURE: AN OVERWORKED,
DISENGAGED WORKFORCE
mployees suffering from email hell and information overload aren t exactly happy
campers. The 2017 Gallup State of the American Workplace report found that a full
70 percent of workers are actively disengaged while on the job. The situation is
downright alarming. What s the cost to U.S. companies Oh, not much. Just anywhere
from 500 to 600 billion dollars. very year.
struggle to find key messages in their bloated inboxes. Case in point The Findwise
2016 Enterprise Search & Findability survey found that a full one-third of respond-
ing organizations claimed that their employees experienced problems finding
basic information. (Read it by visiting bit.ly/findwise-sl.)
The problem is so acute that an entire category of software is dedicated to helping

employees find key documents and information. In basic terms, enterprise search
technology (ESR) also known as enterprise search and retrieval allows employ-
ees to more quickly locate content while on the clock. And this is no niche market.
In late 201 , Grand View Research estimates that the ESR market will reach nearly
9 billion by 202 .
Think about the irony here: As of this writing, people routinely google more than
130 trillion webpages in less than a second. It’s an astonishing number, but they
uickly find what they need and gleefully move on with their day. At the same
time, untold millions of employees often can’t pinpoint simple conversations or
Microsoft Word documents. The words crisis and opportunity come to mind.
For a much deeper look at this problem as well as some solutions, check out Over-
whelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time (Picador) by Brigid Schulte.
hat Slack Specifically Does

When used correctly, Slack helps individuals, groups, and even entire organiza-
tions solve these grave workplace problems. In other words, Slack offers a number
of benefits to both employers and their employees.
Employer enefits
No doubt Slack’s customers realize significant benefits from using it. Fair enough,
but what are those perks? The next section lists a bunch of the most important ones.

ADDRESSING THE SLACK SKEPTICS
Maybe you re saying to yourself, Hold the phone. ou really seem to love this funky
new collaboration tool. Fine, but there s just one holdup My colleagues and I already
communicate well without this Slack thing for years. Why change
I ll give you the benefit of the doubt here Communication at your employer isn t entirely
dysfunctional. Odds are, though, that you can still reap massive rewards from using
Slack.
et me allay another concern that you may have about Slack right out of the gate Using
it requires zero technical sophistication. Nada. To use Slack, you don t have to roll up
your sleeves and code. If you know how to operate a computer or a mobile app, then
you can use Slack just as well as I do.
There’s a world of difference between theory and practice. Sure, each of the ben-
efits in the following sections is possible. That doesn’t mean, though, that any of
them is guaranteed to occur never mind all of them. (Chapter 1 provides
recommendations on how to cross the chasm between what can happen and what
will happen.)
Build a permanent, comprehensive, and searchable

organizational knowledge repository
Consider the following questions:
» How much rich institutional knowledge lives in your inbox
» How many messages detail key, job-related interactions and decisions
» How much information about organizational processes is in your head and

not formally documented anywhere else
Think about these questions for a moment. I’ll wait.
Now, consider what happens to those key insights if you left your company.
At best, they’ll remain dormant. At worst, an IT administrator deletes them for-
ever. And the knowledge that’s locked in your head? Gone forever.
Slack solves this problem far better than any email inbox does only if employ-
ees use it, of course. Slack effectively retains an indefinite record of these valuable
files, decisions, and conversations. Employees simply search Slack.

Enhance employee productivity
Slack allows employees to spend less time sending mass emails and trying to
locate key documents. Where is that damn TPS report?
If you accept this premise, then it stands to reason that employees will waste less
time and be more productive. I have yet to meet a single manager, company presi-
dent, or CEO who didn’t want her employees to be more efficient and more effec-
tive while on the clock. Slack helps employees do this in spades.
Improve employee corporate communication

and collaboration
Consider organizations that rely predominantly or heaven forbid exclusively
on in-person meetings and email back-and-forth. With rare exception, they tend
to do poorly in these regards. Along with Google Docs, Dropbox, Zoom, and others,
Slack is part of a new breed of tools that obviates the need for many meetings,
email messages, and other old-school ways of communicating that often fail.
Facilitate remote work

Remote work is growing in popularity with no end in sight, In October 2019, the
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank found that the share of Americans who primarily
work from home has risen in recent decades. A few numbers stand out:
» In 1980, a mere 0.7 percent of full-time employees worked primarily from

home. By 2017, that number had risen to 3 percent.
» Seven percent of full-time workers telecommuted four days or more

per month.
To read the research for yourself, see bit.ly/ps-wfh.
Of course, you need not be an economist to know that, over the last 20 years, the
idea of working from home has gained significant traction. Few of us ever heard
the term digital nomad in the 1990s. Then again, smartphones, powerful broad-
band connections, and contemporary cloud computing didn’t exist.
Increase employee job satisfaction

Slack lets employees work effectively from home. As a result, everyone concerned
can reap its rewards. Consider a 2013 study by the University of Melbourne and the
New Zealand Work Research Institute. The two organizations discovered that
employees who work at home one to three days a week are more productive than
employees who need to slog into the office every day. In 201 , Stanford professor

Nicholas Bloom published a paper detailing his own findings. He found that work-
ing from home boosted employee output by 13 percent.
Beyond this study, there’s no shortage of other research that has correlated
remote work with higher employee job satisfaction. For example, recently Owl
Labs a video conferencing company released its 2019 State of Remote Work
report. It confirmed that remote workers are happier and stay in obs longer.
(Read the report at bit.ly/2oJNHOu.)
For years now, remote work has been growing in popularity. What’s more, it
confers ust about everyone benefits from it. Against this backdrop, you’d think
that most organizations would be prepared for it. And you’d be spectacularly
wrong. (If you’re wondering why, see the nearby sidebar “Not remotely prepared
for remote work.”)
Maybe you’re furrowing your brow at this point. Allowing employees to work
remotely does not necessitate using Slack. That’s true, but what about being able
to e e e work outside of the office Put differently, how can employees be
productive if they lack the right tools?
Slack is particularly effective in this regard. Its powerful functionality facilitates

distributed workplaces. I’m talking here about multi-user videoconferencing and
screensharing, instant messaging, the ability to post meaningful status updates
and availability windows, and real time file collaboration. By providing these rich
features, Slack makes it easy to accomplish things while outside of the office.
NOT REMOTELY PREPARED FOR

REMOTE WORK
In 2019, Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group released a lengthy
study called Future Positive How Companies Can Tap Into mployee Optimism to
Navigate Tomorrow s Workplace. The two organizations surveyed 11,000 workers and
6,500 business leaders. ( ead it at hbs.me/2uDQxbc.)
One of the study s findings is particularly apropos here mployees consistently voiced
their preference for remote, autonomous work and work-life balance. Sadly, a mere
30 percent of those surveyed indicated that their businesses were prepared to even
offer it.
It s a sad state of affairs, but one that any organization can change by embracing Slack.

Allow employees to begin their
jobs with less training
Slack functions in a similar way to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other popular
social networks. (For example, if you use any of those social media sites, you’ll
immediately grasp what the @ and # symbols do.) As such, employees won’t
require days or weeks of expensive, time-consuming training to get going. (Trust
me The learning curve isn’t steep. The one day, on site class that I offer to my
clients gets the ball rolling.)
You don’t need to fear costly training outlays. Effectively using Slack does not
require sending employees away for days at a time.
Increase organizational transparency

In recent years, many organizations have become more transparent with their
workforces. The benefits in this vein can be significant.
Consider 2019 research from JUST Capital. The nonprofit reviewed data from
nearly 900 publicly traded U.S. companies. JUST assessed transparency and return
on e uity (ROE) on nine worker issues. On all but one of them, being more
transparent with employees resulted in ROE boosts of anywhere between 1.2 to
percent. (Read the study yourself at bit.ly/2U0j9n9.)
For legal, ethical, and business reasons, few employers to my knowledge have
embraced radical transparency. Make no mistake, though: Just being a tad more
forthright with employees often improves employee perceptions of their firms’
culture and their management. Sure, workers may not agree with a particular out-
come or trend, but at least they’re more likely to understand it.
Slack helps organizations communicate more transparently with their workforces.

Compared to mass email blasts, the application does a far better job of allowing
management to share information with rank and file employees, gather
responses, and gauge them. For their part, workers can easily discuss topics and
make decisions out in the open. Just as critically, Slack can publicly or privately
capture why people make decisions.
Organizations need not use Slack to be transparent with their workers. Using
Slack just makes doing so really easy.
Help companies attract and retain top talent

Since its launch, Slack has developed a well-deserved reputation as a cool tool
among many employees, especially those with hot skills. To this end, savvy
recruiters sometimes play up the Slack angle when trying to lure candidates from
white hot fields, such as data science and software development.

No, by itself, the fact that Company X uses Slack won’t get an applicant to take a
30-percent pay cut from a previous job or endure two-hour daily commutes. Still,
positioned properly, Slack can serve as a signal to coveted candidates that Com-
pany X is a chic place to work. In turn, they may be more inclined to sign their
offer letters.
Lessen voluntary employee turnover

Workers quit jobs for all sorts of personal and professional reasons. You probably
know someone who was very content in her station. Maybe she even worked in her
dream ob. Still, her employer went bankrupt. As a result, she found herself filling
out job applications online.
Don’t get me wrong: Using Slack at work isn’t going to make you love the job from
hell. For example, what if you despise your boss and coworkers and make a frac-
tion of what you think you should? Using Slack won’t change your mind.
I have yet to see an academic study that controls for every conceivable factor driv-
ing employee satisfaction and retention. All else being equal, though, I’d bet my
house on the following statement Organizations that effectively use powerful
collaboration tools such as Slack overwhelm their employees less. It stands to
reason, then, that these employers are better able to retain valuable employees.
It’s not hard to envision lower recruiting costs, a more stable workforce, and a
better culture resulting as well.
Easily train employees and diagnose issues

Slack’s one-to-many screensharing functionality is ideal for holding small inter-
nal webinars, conducting formal training sessions, and more. On an individual
level, this feature helps IT personnel to diagnose technical issues.
Employee enefits
What if Slack only benefited employers That is, imagine if Slack saved organiza-
tions money and allowed them to grind more productivity out of their employees.
It would still be a valuable tool, but you might ustifiably be suspicious. Maybe you
think that it would do nothing for you as an employee.
Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Slack benefits employees
ust as much as if not more than employers in a number of key ways. To the
extent that you’re still a skosh skeptical, though, the following sections provide a
sneak preview of how Slack can change how you work for the better.

Tame the email beast
How many emails do you receive during a normal business day It varies, of course.
In a 2015 study from Digital Marketing Ramblings, the average office employee
received 121. That number is downright unmanageable. Market research company
Harris Insights Analytics found that workers can handle a maximum of 50 per day.
Yeah, but each one of those emails really matters, right?
I beg to differ. How many relevant emails do you receive every day I’m not talk-
ing about spam; I mean company-wide missives that, at best, only tangentially
apply to you?
Slack’s channel functionality (discussed at length in Chapter ) allows you to

receive only messages that you want when you want them. Think about that the
next time that you’re playing whack-a-mole with your inbox.
By using Slack channels (the communication containers discussed in Chapter ),

you’ll reduce your dependence on email especially from your colleagues. You
may even attain the vaunted Inbox Zero: This rigorous approach to email manage-
ment endeavors to keep employee inboxes empty or almost empty at all times.
Slack goes way beyond minimizing the sheer number of emails that employees
receive, though.
PROVIDE A COMMON VIEW ON A TOPIC

OR WITHIN A DEPARTMENT
Slack channels allow groups, departments, teams, and even entire firms to get
easily on the same page and stay in sync. In this way, Slack promotes real group
and organizational alignment. Employee inboxes provide only individual views of
what’s going on. Channels make it easier for groups to row in the same direction.
Management consultants refer to this elusive state as alignment.
REALIZE THE BENEFITS OF CONTAINED DISCUSSIONS

Slack channels allow employees to hold and contain discussions in clearly defined
buckets. When you don’t need to spend a few seconds deciphering each message’s
context, you reduce your cognitive load. That’s just a fancy way of saying that
Slack quickly provides key information about each message.
MORE EASILY REACH CONSENSUS

Polls allow employees to vote and more easily reach key decisions. It’s remarkably
simple to take the temperature of a room, department, or division. Slack users can

invoke polling functionality by installing any number of third-party apps. (Chap-
ter 10 covers apps in far more detail.)
uickly find what you need

The knowledge repository that Slack allows organizations to build doesn’t ust
benefit your employer. (See Build a permanent, comprehensive, and searchable
organizational knowledge repository, earlier in this chapter.) I cover Slack’s
powerful search functionality in Chapter 7. For now, know that Slack allows
employees to uickly and easily find key messages, documents, and information.
I’ll conservatively claim that you spend five minutes per day trying to find rele-
vant messages and documents. That’s nearly 20 hours per year minimum. Once
you get the hang of searching in Slack, that number may well drop by 90 percent.
onsolidate notifications
In a typical workplace, you’ll find employees using a bunch of disparate applica-
tions on the job. (I certainly did when I started my career as a college professor.
What’s more, I still do, albeit to a lesser extent since going all-in on Slack.) I’m
talking about
» mail
» A file storage and sharing tool, such as Box or Dropbox
» Text messages
» Social networks, such as Facebook and inkedIn (often for work purposes)
» Homegrown company systems
» eporting and data-visualization tools
» Popular enterprise systems
» Some type of instant-messaging tool, such Skype and Google Hangouts
» Productivity applications from Microsoft (Office) or Google (G Suite)
Oh, and then there’s the telephone. After all, many companies still provide land-
lines for their employees.
Yikes.
Needless to say, there’s no shortage of applications that bug employees from

all angles. No, Slack won’t obviate the need for proper spreadsheet, database, and
word-processing programs. It won’t run payroll or send your CEO a P&L

statement at least not yet. (Chapter 12 looks at integrations with enterprise sys-
tems. In Chapter 15, I offer predictions about how Slack will continue in this
direction.)
At organizations that have embraced Slack, though, many if not most employee
internal application alerts come from one single, easily controllable source: Slack.
Chapter 7 discusses Slack notifications in greater detail.
Reduce workplace-related stress

I’m no psychiatrist, but riddle me this: Say that you receive fewer emails and more
contextual messages. Even better, you spend less time trying to find things.
Wouldn’t you experience less consternation at work?
Get to know your colleagues

One of the main paradoxes of the constantly connected workplace is that employ-
ees rarely get to know many of their colleagues. For this reason, companies such
as Google, Facebook, and Zappos encourage their employees to interact with each
other by offering free meals and holding after hours social gatherings.
By encouraging friendly interactions, Slack provides the same benefit. Perhaps

you and a random coworker belong to the same Slack channel. Based on your
online discussions, you may decide to grab a cup of coffee or videochat for a few
minutes. I’ve had many spontaneous interactions with colleagues over Slack
myself.
There’s even a third-party app for forging connections with colleagues and help-
ing new hires get acclimated to their new environs. If this sounds appealing, check
out the Slack Donut app. (Chapter 10 covers apps in much more detail.)
Smoothing the acclimation process for new hires

Think about the last time that you started a new job. Consider the following
questions:
» Did the H folks or your boss inundate you with lengthy emails from day one
» Did that onslaught of information result in your missing a key deadline or

incorrectly filling out a form
» Did you soon feel overwhelmed

With Slack, companies don’t need to pepper their new hires with myriad emails
and attachments. This approach can overwhelm them. Thanks to Slack, they can
simply find relevant information in appropriate channels and digest it at their
own pace. They can also easily set reminders within the app, minimizing the
chance of forgetting to complete a key task.
Speaking of adjusting to a new environment, since Slack is so popular, employees

can frequently hit the ground running. That is, they may understand how Slack
works even though many firms use it differently. The result Many new hires will
need to learn one fewer new application when they start.
A TALE OF TWO COMPANIES

Consider the following fictional dichotomy
At the Burns Power Plant, management forbids remote work. mployees spend at least
30 percent of their day in their inboxes, and IT bans employees from using any type of
collaborative software or at least tries. Its virtual private network and firewall prohibit
screensharing. Support tickets usually take days to resolve. Its systems and data are a
mess. No one can find what they need when they need it. The term inefficient comes to
mind. As a result, employees often stay late and play catchup something that the
occasional free donut just doesn t make up for.
Now imagine Burns s polar opposite Pied Piper, a file-compression startup located in
Silicon alley. The company s management is all in on Slack. New hires quickly realize
that long email chains don t fly there. Screensharing and video calls with astern
uropean contractors Check. Being able to quickly find key information No problem.
Sure, Pied Piper personnel work hard, but they go home confident that they don t have
to worry about missing urgent emails.
All else being equal, at which company would you want to spend a good portion of your
waking hours Which corporate culture sounds more appealing

IN THIS CHAPTER
» Getting started quickly with Slack
» Making Slack stick in your

organization
» Maximizing the short- and long-term

enefits of using Slack
Chapter 16
Ten Great Slack Tips
I
n this chapter, I offer ten uick tips on getting started with Slack, getting it
to stick in your organization, and maximizing its benefits. No, it’s not a com-
prehensive list of what to do and not to do, but I have condensed much of my
advice into a top ten list.
Respond Promptly to New Users’

Requests, Questions, and Feedback
Fundamentally, Slack isn’t an individual tool it’s a group one. Many employees
will have legitimate uestions about using Slack at your organization. Others will
make suggestions about how to use Slack differently or better.
Don’t ignore or, even worse, reflexively dismiss those ideas. Respond promptly
to feedback. You’ll get more mileage out of Slack when more people at your firm
use it.
CHAPTER 16 Ten Great Slack Tips 329

Regularly View Slack Analytics
Chapter 11 shows you how to use Slack to view the most and least active workspace
members and channels. With respect to users, you can easily see the number of
messages that each user has sent as well as their days active. (Doing this does not
violate members’ privacy you cannot read their messages.)
For example, YYZ rolled out Slack a year ago. During that time, Geddy has posted
a mere four messages in it. What’s more, Slack calculates that he’s been active
for only one day. E uipped with this information and depending on his particular
ob, I wouldn’t show him the door. It’s best to tap him on the shoulder and talk
to him about why he’s invisible on Slack. Maybe something deeper is going on at
work or at home.
Tread Lightly with New Hires

New employees may become overwhelmed trying to consume a year’s worth of
material in a bunch of channels. It’s preposterous to expect them to digest thou-
sands of messages, documents, decisions, and content in public channels within
a week of starting their obs.
New employees would do well to go to each channel’s highlights to see the most
important discussions.
Esta lish Slack as the Default edium

for Internal ommunication
To get the most bang for your buck, the default communication method for an
organization, group, or department should be Slack. Sure, Slack may not make
sense when sending messages to employees at different companies. In the Slack
universe, the idea that, within the walls of any given company, Fernando from
finance routinely emails Max in marketing is absurd.
330 PART 6 he Part of ens

Emphasize Slack’s Carrots
More Than Its Sticks
Want to almost always beats have to. If employees give you static about using
Slack, emphasize the former first and the latter only if necessary.
eep an Eye ut for New Slack Apps

New productivity apps arrive all the time. Every month or so, poke around the
Slack App Directory to see what new tchotchkes developers have released. You can
bet that some new ones will be worth exploring.
Tell Overly Exuberant Slack Members

to Tone It Down
No one likes a loud mouth or a troll. Many people have worked with knuckleheads
who always had to have the last word on an email chain. I’m sure that you’ve met
a few people who couldn’t leave well enough alone.
A negative or aggressive employee may act as a bully on Slack and discourage

others from using it. This behavior can be particularly troublesome when new
employees oin and organizations begin using Slack.
If someone goes over the line, it’s imperative to nip the trend in the bud. Respect-
ful disagreement with someone in a public manner is fine, but outright hostility
and inappropriate comments are unacceptable in any environment and that
includes a Slack workspace.
Publicize Your Status and Availability

Just like with email out of the office (OOO) message, you don’t want people
expecting to hear from you in Slack when you’re snorkeling in Belize or ust off
the grid. Let other users know your status availability.
CHAPTER 16 Ten Great Slack Tips 1

ry efore ou uy
Sadly, some of your colleagues may not share your enthusiasm for Slack. After
all, no technology sports a 100 percent adoption rate, and Slack is no excep-
tion. Before waiting for management to sign up for a company wide premium
plan, consider taking Slack’s Free version for a spin with your group, team, or
department.
now hen to urn Slack

You may find it peculiar to end this list of Slack tips by telling you to stop using it.
You read right, though. You don’t want to be a slave to any tool and that cer-
tainly includes Slack. I’m taking the lead here from Slack’s succinct and refresh-
ing company mantra Work hard and go home.
332 PART 6 he Part of ens

Index
The full index for Slack For Dummies pro ided as a pre iew. This excerpt includes pages i-xi , - , - ,
and - .
public and private messages, 247–248

Symbols and Numerics regularly reviewing, 330
# (hashtag), 72
Anderson, Chris, 217
@ symbol, 88, 93, 97
Andreessen, Marc, 299
1Password, 195, 198
app activity logs, 240–241
37signals, 299
App Manager role, 233–234
Apple, 279, 310, 316, 323
A apps. See third-party apps
Accenture, 266 Arizona State University (ASU), 14, 286, 294
access logs, 197–198, 253–254 artificial intelligence (AI), 316–317
acquihires, 326 Asana, 299
acquisitions, 309–310, 326 Atlassian, 299
Adobe Connect, 225 Aurea, 299
adoption strategies, 277–295 Authy, 198
becoming go-to person at work, 294 automated testing frameworks (ATFs), 307
bottom-up method, 279 Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), 267
deployment, 281–293 Automattic, 284
middle-out method, 280–281 availability. See status and availability
network effects, 278–279 Away, 338
top-down method, 280 AWS (Amazon Web Services), 12, 299, 305
ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.), 267
Age of the Platform, The (Simon), 323
Agile software-development, 282
B
Bankrate, 16
AI (artificial intelligence), 316–317
Basecamp, 299
AIM, 288
Bassett Medical Center, 302
Airbnb, 12
Benioff, Marc, 273
Amazon, 278–279, 316, 323, 326
Berkun, Scott, 284
Amazon Alexa, 224
Bezos, Jeff, 278
Amazon Web Services (AWS), 12, 299, 305
Bianchini, Gina, 299
analytics, 246–252
Blackboard, 14
active members, 247
Block Kit, 343
channel-specific analytics, 250–251
blog posts, 224
dashboard for, 246–247
Bloom, Nicholas, 21
file sharing, 248–250
bookmarking messages, 102–103, 155–156
future of, 319–320
Boolean operators, 164, 171
member analytics, 252
Boomerang, 323
messages sent, 248–250
Boston Consulting Group, 21
Index 347
bots channels, 24, 59–89. See also file sharing
defined, 272 adding members to
increased use of, 316 automatically, 85
not including in search, 167–168 in bulk, 84–85
Oracle Intelligent Bot Platform, 272 individually, 83–84
SAP Concur Expense bot, 273 analytics, 247–251
Slackbot, 41–42, 183–184, 230 archiving (retiring), 78
Box, 221 benefits of, 61
bring your own device (BYOD) era, 298, 337 bookmarking messages, 102–103, 155
Brunner, Heather, 219 changing topic of, 77
bug-bounty program, 306 channel overload, 74
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 290 clearly defined discussions, 24
Butterfield, Stewart, 10–11, 152, 320 code and text snippets, 105–108
BYOD (bring your own device) era, 298, 337 communicating via, 87–89
alerting everyone, 88
C deleting messages, 89
etiquette, 89
calls, 143–149
mentioning people with @ symbol, 88
to channels, 147–148
posting messages, 88
group calls, 146–147
setting topics, 89
missed, 127
communication structure, 60
person-to-person calls, 144–146
contained discussions, 24
emojis, 145
default, 85, 178
ending, 145
defined, 60
initiating, 144
deleting, 80
inviting people to, 144
descriptions, 71
keyboard shortcuts, 146
changing, 77
muting, 144
defining purpose of channels, 73–74
naming calls, 144
direct messages vs., 61
screen sharing, 145–146
group actions, 77–81
settings, 144–145
hashtag (#), 72
text, 145
including in sidebar sections, 190
video, 144–146
jumping to specific dates, 82
recording, 149
leaving, 82–83
rules for, 225
message retention and deletion, 205–206
security and encryption, 148–149
moving to different workspaces, 81
video calls, 144–146, 225
multi-workspace channels, 65–67
Campfire, 259
converting channels to, 81
capital expenses (CAPEX), 34
identifying, 67, 72
Carnegie Mellon, 302
leaving/rejoining, 67
Ceridian, 267
purpose of, 65–66
Chambers, John, 193–209
setting up, 65–66
@channel callout, 129–130
348 Slack For Dummies

muting, 83 proper use of, 64
naming, 69–72 #random channel, 61
notifications, 83, 123–126 referencing in DMs, 95–96
accessing settings, 125–126 sharing files via links, 112–113
missed calls, 127 sharing messages from, 114
muting, 123–124 renaming, 80
resetting to default, 125 reserved words, 69
setting, 124–126 restoring archived, 79
when members join/leave, 128 restricting searches to, 167–168
overview, 24 saving messages, 102–103
pinning items to, 76, 80–81 scripting to create multiple, 72
posting permissions, 78 scripting to delete multiple, 80
posts (rich-text messages), 105–106 shared, 67–69
prefixes, 74 converting channels to, 81
adding, 74–75 examples of, 68
number of, 74 identifying, 72
predefined, 74 number of organizations, 67
private channels, 63, 65 sharing, 67–69
analytics, 247–249 sharing files, 76
characteristics of, 63 sorting in sidebar sections, 191–192
converting group messages to private, 108–109 starring, 81–82
creating, 70–72 threads, 109–111
examples of, 63 viewing information about, 75–76
identifying, 65, 72 ChatWork, 259
leaving/rejoining, 65, 82–83 ciphertext, 202
privacy issues, 203 Cisco WebEx, 225
sharing messages from, 115–116 cloud computing, 12, 33, 208–209, 262, 267, 273,
providing for alignment, 24 300, 305
public channels, 62–64 CNN, 12
analytics, 247–249 code and text snippets, 105–108
characteristics of, 62 creating, 106–107
creating, 70–72 downloading, 108
default, 85 formatting, 97
examples of, 63–64 programming language, 107
exploring, 85–86 sharing, 107
#general channel, 61 title, 107
identifying, 65, 72 viewing raw version, 108
inviting people to, 71–72 collaboration software
joining, 87 adding Slack to long list of collaboration tools,
298–299
Slack as only collaboration tool, 337–338
making private, 79
spending on, 10
notifications when members join/leave, 128
command-line interface, 152–153
previewing, 86–87
Index 349
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) model, 266 adjusting to user interface updates, 301, 303
content ownership, 312 believing Slack can do everything, 300–301
Cook, Tim, 310 improper use of Slack, 303–304
Costello, Eric, 11 trying to placate all employees, 301
Covey, Steven, 73 environmental risks, 307–313
Cox, Lauren, 283 acquisition possibilities, 309–310
Crunchbase, 272 competition, 310
customer relationship management (CRM), need for profitability, 308
265–268, 271–274 privacy issues, 311–313
customer support, 226, 265, 274 tech and security risks, 304–307
hackers, 306
D system uptime, 305
dark mode, 180 technical issues, 306–307
Dashlane, 195 terminated employees remaining active, 307
data migration, 254–262 vendor lock-in, 304–305
avoiding mistakes, 261–262 deployment strategies, 281–293
consolidating workspaces, 259–261 handling difficult employees, 286–293
exporting data, 254–258 accountability, 293
Corporate Export, 257–258 appealing to vanity, 290, 292–293
Discovery API export mechanism, 258 carrots vs. sticks, 288–293
Standard Export, 255–257 email-to-Slack apps, 287
importing data, 258–259 real-world career changes, 290
data residency, 209 similarity to older tools, 287–288
data-related features, 245–262 stubborn people who won’t embrace Slack, 288
access logs, 253–254 “what’s in it for me?” question, 289–290
analytics, 246–252 organizational-level strategies, 281–286
active members, 247 communicating victories, 283
channel-specific analytics, 250–251 fear of missing out (FOMO), 286
dashboard for, 246–247 knowing the organization, 281
file sharing, 248–250 learning curve, 285–286
member analytics, 252 new hires that use Slack, 283
messages sent, 248–250 small victories, 282
public and private messages, 247–248 using Slack during hiring process, 284–285
data migration, 254–262 Waterfall method, 281
avoiding mistakes, 261–262 Detail view, 42–43, 75–76
consolidating workspaces, 259–261 digital nomads, 20
exporting data, 254–258 direct messages (DMs), 91–118. See also file
sharing
importing data, 258–259
mass updates to user data, 262
attaching files, 92, 97
deployment risks, 297–313
bookmarking, 102–103, 155
business risks, 298–304
channels vs., 61
adding Slack to long list of collaboration tools,
298–299 code and text snippets, 105–108

conversations, 61, 95, 206–207 Do Not Disturb (DND) mode, 133–136
deleting, 101 adjusting, 135
editing, 100 deactivating, 135
emojis, 93, 97 defined, 134
finding people, 92, 98–100 manually activating, 135
determining if someone uses Slack, 99–100 overriding for urgent messages, 135–136
by device type, 99 setting default hours, 134, 178
by role, 99 Donut, 26, 226–227
formatting, 96–97 Doodle Bot, 221–222
bold text, 96–97 downgrading Slack plans, 32
bulleted lists, 97 Dropbox, 220–221, 310, 322
code blocks, 97 Duffield, Dave, 273
code style, 97 Duo Mobile app, 198
hyperlink text, 97
italicized text, 96–97
with keyboard shortcuts, 97
E
ECMAScript 6 (ES6), 12
new paragraphs, 97
EKM (Enterprise Key Management), 201–202
numbered lists, 97
email, 15–16, 300–301
quotes, 97
amount of time spent on, 15
strikethrough text, 96–97
apps for integrating, 287
with WYSIWYG editor, 96–97
attributes of, compared to Slack, 116
group messages
checking on vacation, 16
converting to private channels, 108–109
confirming sign-ins via, 195–196
sending, 93–94
dealing with imperfections of, 17
marking as read/unread, 95
difficulty finding information, 17–18
mentioning people with @ symbol, 93, 97
forwarding to Slack, 117
message retention and deletion, 206–207
number received daily, 24
notifications, 127
receiving about recent Slack activity, 138–139
muting, 101–102
Slack channels as alternative to, 24, 59
overriding notification pausing, 93
third-party apps and integration, 225
reminders, 101–102, 127–128
utility of, 17
overriding Do Not Disturb mode, 135–136
emojis
pinning to conversations, 103–104
customized, 182–183
posts (rich-text messages), 105–106
restricting searches to messages containing,
referencing public channels in, 95–96 167–168, 170
saving, 102–103 end-user license agreements (EULAs), 313
saving drafts, 94 Enterprise Grid plan, 31
sending, 92–93 creating workspaces, 37
sending to yourself, 94 custom user profile fields, 186
sharing, 115–116 data residency, 209
threads, 109–111 exporting data, 258
Discord, 285, 310 finding people, 100
Index 351
Enterprise Grid plan (continued) exporting data, 254–258
message retention and deletion, 205 Corporate Export, 257–258
moving channels to different workspaces, 81 Discovery API export mechanism, 258
organization entity, 35 Standard Export, 255–257
phone support, 340 extracting, transforming, and loading data
roles, 51 (ETL), 260
searching, 162
security, 201–202 F
status and availability, 132 Facebook, 26, 202, 224, 279, 320–321, 322–323
third-party app management and field service management (FSM), 265
permission, 231
file sharing, 111–115
workspace customization options, 179
Enterprise Key Management (EKM), 201–202
creating links to files, 112–114
enterprise resource planning (ERP), 264, 267–268,
271–272, 274, 319 revoking links, 113–114
enterprise search technology (enterprise search sharing with people outside workplace, 113
and retrieval [ESR]), 18 sharing with public channel members, 112–113
enterprise system integration, 263–274 from existing messages, 115
apps vs., 269 filtering files, 112
back-office systems, 264–265 finding files, 112
creating, 270–274 sorting files, 112
automation options, 271–272 third-party apps for, 220–221
Infor, 272 uploading files, 112
Microsoft Dynamics, 272 Finkelshteyn, Eli, 318
Oracle, 272 Fitbit, 224
Salesforce, 273 Flickr, 11
SAP, 273 Flowdock, 259
Workday, 273 Franchetti, Stephen, 282
Zendesk, 273–274 Free plan
current, 268–269 analytics, 246, 250–252
employee expense submittals, 269 exporting data, 255
employee time-off requests, 268–269 number of apps, 176, 231
front-office systems, 265 number of messages, 163
future of, 319 number of workspaces, 74
Slack as complement to, but not replacement overview, 30
for, 265–268 searching, 162
ERP (enterprise resource planning), 264, 267–268, workflows, 244
271–272, 274, 319
Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Anderson), 217
ES6 (ECMAScript 6), 12
freemium business model, 33, 216–217
ETL (extracting, transforming, and loading
data), 260 Frontiers conferences, 344
EULAs (end-user license agreements), 313 FSM (field service management), 265
@everyone callout, 129–130 Fuze, 225
fuzzy search, 169–170

G feedback, 340
LinkedIn groups, 342
Galloway, Scott, 326
Meetups, 344–345
Gallup State of the American Workplace report, 18
online training, 342
Gates, Bill, 333–334
in-person training, 345
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), 208
Platform Community, 342
Genome, 303
Reddit, 342
Gilder, George, 278
Slack App Directory, 341
Giphy, 226, 229
support site, 340
Glitch game, 11
tips, 340–341
Gmail, 225, 323
Twitter, 342
Gmail chat, 288
webinars, 341
Google, 12, 26, 279, 305, 316, 322–323
YouTube channel, 342
Google Analytics, 316
Henderson, Cal, 11–12
Google Authenticator, 198
@here callout, 130
Google Calendar, 221
Hershey, 266
Google Currents, 310
Hertz, 266
Google Drive, 220, 227
Hipchat, 299
Google Forms, 14
Hoffman, Chris, 137
Grand View Research, 18
Howdy.ai, 316
Guerin, Lisa, 312
Guest role, 46–47
adding guests, 52–53 I
changing access, 48 IBM, 11, 31
deactivating, 53 ICQ, 288
Multi-Channel Guests, 47 IDC (International Data Corporation), 10, 160
permissions, 50 If This Then That (IFTTT) applets, 224–225
Single-Channel Guests, 47 importing data, 258–259
Guru, 226 Infor, 266, 272
instant-message (IM) applications, 287–288
H institutional/organizational knowledge
building repository, 19
Harvard Business School, 21
finding, 17–18, 25
hashtag (#), 72
International Data Corporation (IDC), 10, 160
Healthcare.gov, 266
Internet Relay Chat (IRC), 288
help resources, 339–345
blog, 342
Champion Network, 342 J
conferences, 343–344 Java, 12
contacting Slack, 340 JavaScript, 12
developer resources, 343 JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) files, 256–257
existing workspaces, 343 Jive, 299
feature requests, 341 JUST Capital, 22
Index 353
K permissions, 46
reactivating, 50
keyboard shortcuts
mentions
for formatting, 97
notifications, 120–121, 124–125
full list of, 151, 153
using @ symbol, 88, 93, 97
Office shortcuts, 151
viewing, 139–140
for person-to-person calls, 146
Merck, 266
viewing preferences, 151
Message Not Received (Simon), 17, 303
Klick Health, 303
Message Scheduler, 222
Korn Ferry, 1
Metcalfe, Robert, 278
Kotlin, 12
Metcalfe’s Law, 278
Kronos, 267
Microsoft, 279, 316, 322
Krouse, Sarah, 312
Microsoft Azure, 305
Kruze Consulting, 12
Microsoft Dynamics, 272
Microsoft Excel, 300–302, 336
L Microsoft Office, 302, 310, 326
languages, 55 Microsoft OneDrive, 221
LastPass, 195 Microsoft Outlook, 225
Lawson Software, 287 Microsoft Teams, 259, 303, 310–311, 316, 322–
LinkedIn, 12, 16, 279, 342 323, 338
links Mio, 337
file sharing via, 112–114 Mode Media, 299
revoking links, 113–114 Moore, Geoffrey, 319
sharing with people outside workplace, 113 Mourachov, Serguei, 11
sharing with public channel members, 112–113 Multi-Channel Guests (MCGs), 47
hyperlink text, 97
restricting searches to messages containing,
168, 170
N
natural language processing (NLP), 318
Ludicorp, 11
NetSuite, 272
Lyft, 309
network effects, 278–279
New York Times, 31, 137
M New York University Stern School of Business, 326
machine learning, 317–318 New Zealand Work Research Institute, 20
Mattermost, 310 Ning, 299
MCGs (Multi-Channel Guests), 47 NLP (natural language processing), 318
McKinsey, 15, 160 Nolo.com, 312
Meetups, 344–345 notifications, 83, 119–130
Member role, 46 accessing settings, 122
access logs, 253–254 alerting everyone, 129–130
analytics, 252 alerting specific people, 130
deactivating, 49 badges, 120–121
deleting, 50 channel-specific, 123–128

accessing settings, 125–126
muting, 123–124
P
Pareto, Vilfredo, 150
resetting to default, 125
Pareto laws, 150
setting, 124–126
passwords
when members join/leave, 128
password managers, 195
consolidating through Slack, 25–26
resetting, 40, 195–196
default, 120, 125
all workspace passwords, 201
device-specific, 137–138
while signed in, 197
conflicts between, 137–138
while signed out, 196
mobile devices, 137
Paychex, 267
direct messages, 127
PeopleSoft, 272, 273
Do Not Disturb mode, 137
PEOs (professional employer organizations), 267
missed calls, 127
pinning
muting, 101–102, 123
direct messages to conversations,
overriding notification pausing, 93 103–104
reminders, 101–102, 127–128 items to channels, 76, 80–81
threads, 128–129 restricting searches to pinned content, 170
viewing mentions and reactions, 139–140 Pinterest, 12
Plus plan
O data residency, 209

exporting data, 257
Objective C, 12
fees, 31, 47, 129
1Password, 195, 198
overview, 31
operating expenses (OPEX), 34
posting permissions, 78
Oracle, 266, 272, 319
searching, 129
Org Admin role, 51
system uptime, 305
app management and permissions, 231
Pocket, 221
custom user profile fields, 186
polling apps, 24–25, 219–220
external channel sharing, 69
Polly, 220
privacy and accessing content, 203
Simple Poll, 218–219
retention and deletion, 205
Slido, 219
Org Owner role, 51
Survey Monkey, 220
app management and permissions, 231
Polly, 220
custom user profile fields, 186
posts (rich-text messages),
exporting data, 258
105–106
external channel sharing, 69
Primary Org Owner role, 51
privacy and accessing content, 203
Primary Owner role, 44–45
retention and deletion, 205
defined, 44
organization entity, 51
designating, 45
Ortiz, Santiago, 321
determining, 45
outsourcing, 267
permissions, 45
Overwhelmed (Schulte), 18
transferring, 50
Owl Labs, 20–21
Index 355
privacy, 202, 311–313
end-to-end encryption, 202–203
R
React, 12
regulatory environment, 208–209
reactions
retention and deletion, 204–207
adding, 93
files, 178, 207
searching by, 167–168
messages, 178, 204–207
viewing, 139–140
private channels, 63, 65
recommendation engines, 320
recruitment, 22–23
characteristics of, 63
Reddit, 342
converting group messages to private, 108–109
reminders
creating, 70–72
message-specific, 101–102, 127–128
examples of, 63
setting, 153–154
identifying, 65, 72
shortcuts for, 154
leaving/rejoining, 65, 82–83
remote work
privacy issues, 203
facilitating, 20
sharing messages from, 115–116
job satisfaction, 20–21
productivity and project-management apps,
rising amount of, 20
223–224
rich-text messages (posts), 105–106
Todoist, 223
robotic process automation, 316
Trello, 223
roles, 44–55
Workast, 224
adding guests, 52–53
professional employer organizations (PEOs), 267
administrative, 44–46
public channels, 62–64
Primary Owner, 44–45, 50
Workspace Admins, 46
characteristics of, 62
Workspace Owners, 45
creating, 70–72
changing, 47–48
default, 85
configuring profiles and account settings, 54–55
examples of, 63–64
deactivating guest accounts, 53
exploring, 85–86
deactivating member accounts, 49
#general channel, 61
deleting member accounts, 50
identifying, 65, 72
in Enterprise Grid plan, 51
inviting people to, 71–72
Org Admins, 51
joining, 87
Org Owners, 51
Primary Org Owner, 51
making private, 79
non-administrative, 46–49
notifications when members join/leave, 128
Guests, 46–48, 52–53
previewing, 86–87
Members, 46, 49
proper use of, 64
reactivating member accounts, 50
#random channel, 61
restricting who can invite others, 53–54
referencing in DMs, 95–96
workspace-specific nature of, 46
sharing files via links, 112–113
Rosenstein, Justin, 299
sharing messages from, 114
Ryver, 310
Python, 72, 80

S restricting to your channels, 167–168
tabbed results, 162–163, 171
SaaS (software-as-a-service) model, 33–34, 267,
273, 304 technology behind, 163
sales force automation (SFA), 265 wildcards, 168–169, 171
Salesforce, 34, 267, 273, 319 machine learning, 318
SAP, 266, 273 for people, 92, 98–100
SCGs (Single-Channel Guests), 47 for workspaces, 38–39
scheduling apps, 221–222 security, 193–202
Doodle Bot, 221–222 confirming sign-ins via email, 195–196
Google Calendar, 221 Enterprise Key Management, 201–202
Message Scheduler, 222 hackers, 306
YouCanBook.me, 222 resetting passwords, 195–196
Schiffer, Zoe, 338 all workspace passwords, 201
Schulte, Brigid, 18 while signed in, 197
scientific sorting, 191 while signed out, 196
SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity session duration, 200
Management) API, 262 single sign-on, 201
SCM (supply chain management), 265 terminated employees remaining active, 307
screen sharing, 149–150 two-factor authentication, 198–200
during calls, 145–146 viewing access logs, 197–198
drawing, 150 vulnerability, 194
presenting, 149–150 whitelisting workspaces, 201
Scrum, 282 sentiment analysis, 318
searching, 159–172 session duration, 200
difficulty finding information, 17–18, 160–161 Several People Are Typing blog, 342
for files, 112 SFA (sales force automation), 265
keyword searches, 161–172 Shadow IT, 337
Boolean operators, 164, 171 SharePoint, 299, 310
dynamic nature of results, 172 shelfware, 34
fuzzy search, 169–170 sidebar
multiple keywords, 166–167 collapsing sections, 190
negative keywords, 165–166, 171 creating new sections, 189–190
not including apps and bots in, 167–168 customizing, 181–182
order of results, 162 moving sections, 191
patience, 172 overview, 42–43
quotes, 166–167, 171 renaming sections, 191
restricting to messages containing emojis, sorting channels, 191
167–168, 170 Siebel, 272
restricting to messages containing links, Simple Poll, 218–219
168, 170
single sign-on (SSO), 201, 307
restricting to pinned content, 170
Single-Channel Guests (SCGs), 47
restricting to specific date ranges, 164, 171
Skype, 288
restricting to starred content, 170
Skype for Business, 225
restricting to workplace members, 163–164
Index 357
Slack, 1, 326. See also adoption strategies; cultural issue diagnosis, 318
channels; deployment risks; deployment dashboards, 319
strategies; roles; workspaces
employee morale monitoring, 318
attributes of, compared to email, 116
enterprise system integration, 319
author’s introduction to, 14
machine learning, 317–318
backronym, 9
robotic process automation, 316
benefits to employees, 23–27
wish list for new features, 324–325
acclimation process, 26–27
work graphs, 320–322
consolidating notifications, 25–26
help resources, 339–345
controlling email, 24–25
history of, 10–11
finding information, 25
launch of, 11
getting to know colleagues, 26
making mistakes with, 118
stress reduction, 26
myths about, 333–338
benefits to employers, 18–23
our internal tool is just as good, 336
attracting and retaining talent, 22–23
Slack as only collaboration tool, 337–338
employee corporate communication and
collaboration, 20 Slack can’t be misused, 338
employee productivity, 20 Slack eliminates need for email, 334
job satisfaction, 20–21 Slack eliminates need for in-person

communication, 335
knowledge repository, 19
Slack is email 2.0, 333–334
lessening turnover, 23
Slack is too expensive, 335
organizational transparency, 22
Slack solves all problems, 335
remote work, 20
universal configuration, 334
training, 22–23
we don’t need Slack, 336–337
communicating outside of, 118
online tour of, 10
customizing, 173–188
plans, 29–34
dark mode, 180
cost structure, 33–34
emojis, 182–183
downgrading, 32
levels of, 174
Enterprise Grid plan, 31
personal preferences, 179–185
Free plan, 30
sidebar, 181–182
Plus plan, 31
Slackbot, 183–184
Standard plan, 30
status and availability, 184–185
upgrading, 31–32
themes, 180–181
predecessors of, 298–299
user profiles, 185–188
problems tackled by, 14–18
workspaces, 175–179
constant connectivity, 16
documenting sensitive matters in, 118
difficulty finding information, 17–18, 160–161
employees of, 12
time spent on email, 15–16
forwarding email to, 117
trapped institutional knowledge, 16
frameworks and programming languages, 12
realistic expectations for, 6
future of, 315–326
receiving emails about recent Slack activity,
acquisitions and partnerships, 326 138–139
analytics, 319–320 skeptics of, 19
borrowing features from other apps, 322–324

statistics regarding, 11–12 St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, 20
tips for, 329–332 Standard plan, 30
carrots vs. sticks, 330 Stanford University, 20
expectations for new hires, 330 starring
new productivity apps, 330 channels, 81–82
responding promptly to new users, 329 files, 155
reviewing analytics, 330 messages, 155
Slack as default medium, 330 restricting searches to starred content, 170
status and availability, 331 viewing saved items, 155–156
testing before buying, 332 status and availability, 130–137, 331
troublesome behavior, 331 clearing status, 133
turning Slack off, 332 customized, 184–185
user interface, 42–44, 181–182, 301, 303 customized statuses, 131
users of default expiration times, 184–185
ages of users, 13 default statuses, 131
case studies about, 13 Do Not Disturb mode, 133–136
companies and industries, 12–13 adjusting, 135
families, 13 deactivating, 135
informal groups, 13 defined, 134
number of daily actions, 11 manually activating, 135
number of users, 11 overriding for urgent messages,
Slack App Directory, 215–218, 341 135–136
browsing, 228 setting default hours, 134
Get Essential Apps button, 217 editing status, 133
installing apps from, 228–229 in Enterprise Grid plan, 132
searching, 230 indicating you are active, 133
Slack desktop app, 40–41 indicating you are away, 133
Slack Fund, 214 red stop sign, 132
Slack mobile apps, 41 setting status, 131
Slack Technologies, Inc., 11 setting via command-line interface, 152
Slackbot viewing others’ status, 132
custom, word-based responses, 183–184 Steno, 307
purpose of, 41–42 supply chain management (SCM), 265
third-party app trial periods, 230 Survey Monkey, 220
#slack-on-slack internal channel, 282 Swift, 12
Slido, 219 synchronization, 41
Snap, 322 System for Cross-domain Identity Management
(SCIM) API, 262
software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, 33–34, 267,
273, 304 system uptime, 305
Spaces, 310
Spec developer conference, 214, 344 T
Square, 306 Tableau, 309, 336
SSO (single sign-on), 201, 307 Target, 12, 31
Index 359
team collaborative applications market, 10 scheduling, 221–222
teams. See workspaces Doodle Bot, 221–222
term frequency-inverse document frequency Google Calendar, 221
(TF-IDF), 163, 318 Message Scheduler, 222
text analysis, 318 YouCanBook.me, 222
themes, 180–181 scopes, 235
third-party apps, 213–244, 333 Slack App Directory, 217–218
activity logs, 240–241 browsing, 228
APIs, 214 installing apps from, 228–229
approving, 231–232 searching, 230
disabling and re-enabling, 239–240 two-factor authentication, 176
Donut, 226–227 vetting and guidelines for, 216
email, 225–226 video-calling, 225
email integration, 287 viewing and managing, 236
employee time-off requests, 269 viewing list of restricted, 233
enforcing policy regarding, Workflow Builder, 241–244
236–238
Zendesk, 226
enterprise system integrations vs., 269
37signals, 299
experimenting with, 230–231
threads, 109–111
file- and content-sharing, 220–221
conversations vs., 109
Dropbox, 220–221
creating, 110
Google Drive, 220
defined, 109
Pocket, 221
examples of, 109–110
Giphy, 226
following, 110
Guru, 226
notifications, 128–129
IFTTT Slack applets, 224–225
unfollowing, 111
password managers, 195
viewing, 110
permissions for, 176
time zones, 55
polling, 219–220
Time-Based, One-Time Password (TOTP) apps, 198
Polly, 220
Time.bot, 269
Simple Poll, 218–219
Tiny Speck, 11
Slido, 219
Todoist, 223
Survey Monkey, 220
training
preserved, 239–240
employees through Slack, 23
pricing, 216–217
employees to use Slack, 22
productivity and project-management,
223–224 transparency, 22
Todoist, 223 Tray.io, 271–273
Trello, 223 Trello, 223
Workast, 224 Twitter, 224, 279, 322, 342
public vs. private apps, 215–216

removing, 238–239 U
restricting, 232–233 Uber, 279, 309
restricting who can install, 233–236 Udemy, 338

University of Melbourne, 20
upgrading Slack plans, 31–32
W
W. P. Carey School of Business, 14
U.S. Census Bureau, 13
Wall Street Journal, 312
U.S. State Department, 13
Waterfall method, 281
user groups, 156–158
We Company, The, 326, 344
adding members to, 158
web browsers, signing in to Slack via, 40
creating, 157–158
whiteboard notes, 224
example of, 156
whitelisting workspaces, 201
handles, 157
Whole Foods, 326
naming, 157
Why New Systems Fail (Simon), 266
purpose of, 156
WordPress, 14
user interface, 42–44
work graphs, 320–322
changing views, 44
Workast, 224
contextual nature of, 44
Workato, 271–273
Detail view, 42–43
Workday, 267, 273, 319
history, 42
Workflow Builder, 241–244, 274
main navigation bar, 42–43
creating shortcuts to workflows, 243
main workspace menu, 42–43
creating workflows, 241–242
navigation bar, 42
warnings regarding, 244
page, 42–43
Workplace by Facebook, 310
page header, 42–43
Workspace Admin role
sidebar, 42–43, 181–182
access logs, 253–254
updates to, 301, 303
adding custom user profile fields, 185
workspace switcher, 42–43
app activity logs, 240
user profiles, 185–188
changing guest access, 48
configuring, 54–56
channel dedicated to new channel requests, 74
custom fields
converting public channels to private, 79
adding, 185–187
deleting others’ messages, 89, 101
legal issues, 188
disabling file sharing, 114
populating, 187–188
exporting data, 255–258
finding and displaying, 98–100
limiting which members can invite, 53
limiting which members can post, 63, 78
profile photos, 55
@usergroup callout, 130
new member notifications, 129
overview, 46
V permissions, 46
vacation connectivity, 16 privacy and accessing content, 203–204
Vacation Tracker, 269 third-party app permissions, 227, 229, 234
vendor lock-in, 304–305 user groups, 156
Verge, The, 338 viewing access logs, 198
video-calling apps, 225 workspace customizations, 175–179
Index 361
Workspace Owner role membership options, 176–177
access logs, 253–254 message retention and deletion, 178, 205, 207
adding custom user profile fields, 185 name of
app activity logs, 240 changing, 175
changing guest access, 48 creating, 37
channel dedicated to new channel requests, 74 overview, 35
converting public channels to private, 79 personal email display, 178
deleting others’ messages, 89, 101 personal name display, 178
disabling file sharing, 114 signing in to existing, 37–41
exporting data, 255–258 requesting and receiving email invitations,
limiting which members can invite, 53 37–38, 176–177
limiting which members can post, 63, 78 through open signup process, 38–39, 176–177
mass updates to user data, 262 via desktop app, 40–41
new member notifications, 129 via mobile apps, 41
overview, 45 via web browser, 40
permissions, 45 third-party app permissions, 176
privacy and accessing content, 203–204 town hall meeting analogy, 35
third-party app permissions, 227, 229, 234 URL of
transferring primary workspace ownership, 50 changing, 37, 175
two-factor authentication, 200 hiding, 178
user groups, 156 whitelisting, 201
viewing access logs, 198 WP Engine, 219, 283
who should have, 45
workspace customizations, 175–179 X
workspaces, 35–40 Xnor.ai, 316
call rules, 178
consolidating, 259–261
creating, 36–37 Y
customizing, 175–179 Yahoo! 11
default channels, 178 Yahoo! Messenger, 288
default Do Not Disturb hours, 178 Yammer, 299
defined, 10, 35 Year without Pants, The (Berkun), 284
deleting, 178 YouCanBook.me (YCBM), 222
expanding existing, 51–54 YouTube, 342
inviting people to, 52–53
restricting who can invite, 53–54, 177
file retention and deletion, 178, 207
Z
Zapier, 222, 271–272
finding, 38–39
Zappos, 12, 26
icon, changing, 175
Zendesk, 226, 273–274
inviting people to, 36
Zoom, 149, 225
language of, 178
Zuckerberg, Mark, 202
managing from mobile devices, 174

About the Author
Phil Simon is a frequent keynote speaker, Slack trainer, and recognized technol-
ogy authority. He is the award-winning author of eight previous books on man-
agement, technology, and analytics. Slack For Dummies arrives in August of 2020.
His contributions have appeared on The Harvard Business Review, The New York
Times, CNBC, and many other prominent media outlets. Since 2016, he has taught
information systems, data visualization, analytics, and business intelligence at
Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business.
You can find out more about his work at www.philsimon.com.
Dedication
“Suddenly, you were gone
From all the lives you left your mark upon”
—Rush, “Afterimage”
In memory of Neil Peart (September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020)
Author’s Acknowledgments
Kudos to Team Wiley: Steve Hayes, Kelly Ewing, and Prescott Perez-Fox.
My agent, Matt Wagner, helped seal the deal on book number nine. Slack For
Dummies wouldn’t exist without his help.
A tip of the hat to the people who keep me grounded and listen to my rants: Alan
Simon, Luke Fletcher, Terri Griffith, Mike Frutiger, Dalton Cervo, Rob Hornyak,
David Sandberg, Bob Schoenfeld, Chris Olsen, Greg Dawson, Steve Katz, Michael
Viola, Joe Mirza, Chris McGee, Scott Berkun, Alan Berkson, Andrew Botwin, John
Andrewski, Jennifer Zito, Mark Frank, Thor Sandell, Rob Metting, Jason Horowitz,
Mark Cenicola, Karen Gill, Brian and Heather Morgan, Steve Putnam, Josh Bernoff,
Hina Arora, and Marc Paolella.
A tip of the hat to all Slack employees and developers. Collectively, you are chang-
ing how people work and allowing us to reclaim a sense of balance. You have made
a real difference in many lives. Specific props to Sam McEvans, Cal Henderson,
and Andy Pflaum.
For decades of incredible music, a tip of the hat to the members of Rush (Geddy,
Alex, and Neil) and Marillion (h, Steve, Ian, Mark, and Pete). Your songs and mes-
sage continue to inspire millions of discerning fans. I am proud to call myself one
of them.
Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Anna
Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Betsy Brandt, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, RJ Mitte,
Michael Mando, Rhea Seehorn, Michael McKean, and the rest of the Breaking Bad
and Better Call Saul teams have made me want to do great work.
Finally, to my parents. I’m not here without you.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Executive Editor: Steve Hayes Production Editor: Mohammed Zafar Ali
Project Editor: Kelly Ewing Cover Image: © Rawpixel/Getty Images
Technical Editor: Prescott Perez-Fox
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

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Two chapter excerpt courtesy of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937263

ISBN 978-1-119-66950-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-66952-4 (ePDF); ISBN 978-1-119-66951-7 (epub)

Manufactured in the United States of America

PART 1: WORKING SMARTER AND BETTER

CHAPTER 2: Getting Started with Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

PART 2: COMMUNICATING WITHOUT CHAOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

CHAPTER 4: The Wonderful World of Slack Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

vi Slack For Dummies

CHAPTER 5: Staying Informed with Notifications,

PART 3: BECOMING A SLACK POWER USER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

CHAPTER 6: Going Deeper into Slack’s Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Table of Contents vii

CHAPTER 7: Finding What You Need with Slack’s Powerful

CHAPTER 8: Personalizing Slack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

CHAPTER 9: Keeping It Safe: Reviewing Slack’s Security

viii Slack For Dummies

PART 4: EXTENDING SLACK’S NATIVE

CHAPTER 11: Analyzing, Importing, Exporting,

CHAPTER 12: Integrating Slack with Popular

PART 5: SUCCESSFULLY INTRODUCING SLACK

x Slack For Dummies

PART 6: THE PART OF TENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

CHAPTER 17: Ten or So Common Slack Myths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

CHAPTER 18: The Top Ten or So Slack Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

xii Slack For Dummies

These channels quickly become rich, dense, searchable archives of information,

» mployees at organizations that have already experimented with or pur-

» People in different social or professional groups who need an easy way to

2 Slack For Dummies

I do, however, assume the following

» ou receive plenty of internal emails and sometimes struggle managing your

» ou know how to use a proper computer, whether it s a Mac or PC.

» ou can navigate mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets.

I’m a firm believer in truth in advertising. By way of background, my editor and I

I’ve deliberately chosen my battles here. Slack For Dummies highlights

» What I believe are Slack s essential and frequently used features

Icons Used in This Book

Be careful whenever you see this icon.

Slack For Dummies

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

The ourney begins now.

Phil Simon www.philsimon.com

April 28, 2020

6 Slack For Dummies

» Identifying the reasons that so many

» Uncovering Slack’s advantages over

» Understanding the many business

I’ll cut to the chase: Mission accomplished.

CHAPTER 1 Why Slack Exists 9

Slack is a nicely packaged set of integrated collaboration tools. In the interest of

Chapter 7 covers Slack’s search functionality in depth.

10 PART 1 Working Smarter and Better with Slack

CHAPTER 1 Why Slack Exists 11

• At least 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies pay for Slack.

• Nearly 22 percent of Slack employees graduated from a top-30 university. This

For more interesting Slack facts, go to bit.ly/sl-facts.

UNDER THE HOOD

• Slack s Android client is written in a mix of Java and otlin.

• Slack s iOS app relies upon both Objective C and Swift.

12 PART 1 Working Smarter and Better with Slack