Slack anti-patterns

We are using Slack at Ministry of Programming for a long time, and after 20+ slack projects we have identified certain recurring anti-patterns in Slack, which are not a problem with Slack as a tool, but with the way people use Slack to communicate.

Overuse of direct messages and private channels

We believe transparency, collaboration and collective ownership of information is key, but many projects tend to have more than 50% total messages in direct messages or private channels that are not accessible to others.

Many teams consider heavy private communication a great feature, and more appropriate than public channels, but we believe that for software projects that is not a good idea.

Having most communication in direct messages and private channels results with the following:

• Important information hiding
• Unhandled misinterpretation of information (inability to communicate misunderstandings)
• Unhandled accidental disclosure (inability to react to accidental disclosure of information)
• Chatting about non-important topics (anti-work)
• Isolated message history and search

We like to promote communication on public channels, and redirect any private discussions to a public channel. A perfect Slack project should have 1% communication on private channels and direct messages.

Public channels are also appropriate for relaxation, so everyone can have a laugh.

Of course, having most communication on public channels can cause a lot of noise if not handled properly, which is a separate problem.

Uncontrolled notifications

Slack is great for managers, but it’s usually not so great for developers and designers. The immediate feedback model disrupts concentration, and managers tend to overuse the slack notifications.

It is known that focus/flow is key for the productivity of a developer or designer, and we often see Slack being overused by managers, which consider Slack an awesome tool for fast feedback.

Research backs experience of hyper-productivity, suggesting that “achieving a flow state is positively correlated with optimal performance in the fields of artistic and scientific creativity” and that “flow is positively correlated with a higher subsequent motivation to perform and to perform well”.

Slack promotes the expectation of 24/7 availability by default, which also disrupts normal working hours, if not controlled.

There are too many messages. Too often. And at wildly inappropriate times of day. It’s hard to even stay engaged in the flood, much less work in it. — Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

A good mechanism is to agree on a controlled approach, and use slack in periods of agreed availability. Controlled notification strategies can be used to trigger immediate attention.

Bad channel segmentation

Good channel segmentation by topic and people is key for a clean separation of concerns in Slack. However, most projects have crappy segmentation of channels. The two most recurring patterns:

• Single-channel communication
• Over-segmentation

A lot of projects communicate in a single channel and don’t segment discussion by topic in multiple channels to reduce noise on the main channel.

Many other projects create dozens of channels, which often overlap in purpose and usually 20% of the channels are used, while 80% have very sporadical communication. Notification hell makes the whole team go crazy.

To fix this, channels should be taken care of, segmented properly, retired when not used, the invite list should include only people that are relevant to the discussion, and the notification settings should be carefully setup.

Replacing focused tools with Slack

Slack is often used as a single point of truth and communication, and as a replacement for dozens of tools. A good example is using Slack as a replacement for project management tools like Jira or Trello in the project management process.

A couple of things that Slack should not be used for:

• Planning a sprint, documenting requirements and acceptance criteria (use tools like Jira)
• Talking about code-details and reviewing code (use Github instead)
• As a medium for important conversations like strategy, inflammatory discussions and performance reviews (talk via Skype or in person)
• As a replacement for pair programming (sit together)

Slack should be used as an integration point, and not as a replacement for more focused tools and more efficient techniques.

Giphy and general integration overuse

Giphy can be extremely fun, but it also gets overused and extremely annoying.

Slack should still be considered a tool for work and open communication, so giphy noise should be kept to the minimum.

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For more reading on the topic:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3057712/group-chat-doesnt-suck-the-way-youre-using-it-sucks