Item: Slack
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Slack

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a distributed team with employees in the US, Hong Kong, mainland China, India and Thailand we need to all be able to communicate bot synchronously and asynchronously. Slack affords us that ability. And when we can't all meet up on Google Meet or Zoom due to time differences, Slack is a good alternative to create groups that effectively are ongoing meetings. Also, the ability to tie into Google Drive and Figma is useful as well.

The only downside is that conversations, replying in threads, etc. can create missed conversations as the complexity increases. We recommend allowing users to keep it simple so that trying to go back and find specific info in a thread is easier. Search helps but can create even more noise.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Allow for asynchronous conversation across the planet
Allow for uploading changes in Google docs/sheets, presentations
ability to see when a collaborator is online

Cons

As noted, the threads can lose conversations and make it hard to find the information you're looking for
Creating vast numbers of groups of users can be challenging to navigate

Return on Investment

Hard to put a number on this but clearly this tool helps optimize work across distributed teams saving money and increasing output, throughput

Usability

Great tool for distributed teams but can get confusing with all the threads and the unlimited number of groups that can be created.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams Rooms, ClickUp, Chanty, Flock and Google Chat

I have yet to try any of these but for my needs and our smaller team - I suggest going with the simplest tool is the right choice for us. As we expand moving to a more developed tool with deeper integrations would make sense.

Key Insights

Do you think Slack delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Slack's feature set?

Yes

Did Slack live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Slack go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Slack again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Evernote Skitch, Evernote, Google Drive

Likelihood to Recommend

As noted, for distributed teams Slack is essential. That way team members working on their time-zone can communicate valuable information while other team members are sleeping or off and they can then see it the next day.

Slack Feature Ratings

Comments

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Slack Is a Wonderful Communication and Productivity Tool