I discovered these during my recent attempts to make Slack more usable. None of these requires configuring bots or adding heavy integrations, so after reading these articles you’ll be ready to use these tips in no time.
Keyword-based notifications
This one is by far the best power move that I discovered on Slack to this day.
How?
- Click on your avatar in the top right corner of the Slack app
- Go to Preferences
- On the left, choose Notifications from the menu
- Go to My Keywords section
- Type in a comma-separated list of phrases that, when used by someone in a channel that you are a member of, should trigger a…
I am an engineering manager, working with an agile team in software development. A little over half a year ago, a product manager that was working with my team for six straight years was going to leave the company. With recruitment barely even started, my team of nine software engineers was left without help on the product front. Since there was no one around to ask for help, I decided to take over the product management for my team in the interim. That helped me learn the true value that a skilled product manager brings to the table. …
You look at the clock and it’s ridiculously late. Your friends post photos of themselves eating dinner with friends and you’re counting minutes to the last meeting of the day, which starts at 7:30 pm. If you’ve been in such a situation in your life, you probably know very well what it means to work in a cross-ocean team.
I do too. I work in remote teams for 6 years now. Different setups, different companies, different people, but what remains unchanged is a huge time difference between people working in the same team. During the years I learned there are some patterns to make this setup a bit smoother. …
(Excluding the fact that it always rains in London). I mean, seriously, it was pouring rain all the time, all they say about London weather is pretty much true.
The positive impact of diversity and inclusion
There were multiple talks at the conference that were oscillating around the subject of diversity and inclusion. To be honest, at some point in the past I started treating a combination of both as inseparable and forming a sort of a slogan about tolerance and embracing differences between people and didn’t really bother digging deeper into it. At the conference, I did make up for it and finally realized the difference between the two and it’s now clearer than ever. …
If you work in a software development company as I do, there’s a fair chance you are not completely in love in the number of meetings you have on a weekly basis. There’s even a big chance you have stopped believing in the sole concept of the meeting. It has become a productivity-killer, a multi-threaded one as it would usually waste the time of more people than just yourself.
We’ve all been there!
Do not give up just yet. I‘d like to share with you what made meetings in my team better for us. …
