Where Document management, Task management & Team Collaboration Connect

nAll online office conversations are pretty similar.  There’s lots of discussion going on about various projects and more often than not when using a communication app like Slack, finding a crucial piece of information can become very difficult as it gets buried under layers of newer messages. nTeam collaboration is crucial so everyone can be on top of what needs to be done in realtime.  The trouble is when there are too many message notifications popping up at once that you don’t know which to give more of your time to. nWe decided to look at how we were sharing information as a company, and how we thought we could enhance our own experience while staying connected. nSo what exactly makes for a perfect collaboration software?n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>1. It should capture and manage all documents and files along the way</h3>nDocument management should be connected with team collaboration. A large part of team collaboration is about creating, sharing and managing information, so work can get done better. Yet collaboration software ignores document management. Simply attaching documents to messages or walls isn’t good enough any longer and it is causing more valuable information to get lost. Also, are you sharing the right information? Or even the right version!n<!–more–>n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”> 2. It needs to not just be a one trick pony</h3>nCommunications apps like Slack are only marginally better than email – find out why below – while folder-based cloud file sharing (DropBox, Google Drive, MS everything) alone is not collaboration. This is just folder based cloud storage. Want to lose information? Put it in a folder.nUncontrolled and unstructured collaboration tools provide no more benefits than emails. The context and content is hidden in an app, away from the business.nReal collaboration should move you away from email hell, pointless meetings, and disruptive messaging – to a truly valuable and rewarding way of working.n  n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>3. Non-disruptive!</h3>nSocial media type apps are designed to disrupt. Do you really want this in your business?nThey are also addictive and disruptive, with too many notifications. Why does this matter? We’ll tell you more in an upcoming piece.n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>4. It must allow users to work the way they want</h3>nAnd provide a frictionless user experience – making it super easy to share ideas and information, creates tasks, get decisions made, and create fast and user driven workflows. All while ensuring that information is captured during the process. After all, it’s a business asset.nCollaboration should support varying modes of complexity (from simple file sharing to pre-defined workflow) which means you can collaborate about anything in your business on a single platform, and never have to leave that platform.nHaving information at hand, and ready to be put to work, is a massive help.nModern businesses work with a lot of external people and teams so collaboration shouldn’t be restricted to internal people. Your platform should break down the barriers but not control.n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>5. The perfect platform provides visible benefits to the user and the business</h3>nThe acid test is this: are you achieving more with less email, less meetings and less disruptions… nCan you use your collaboration app for everything – ideas, file sharing, task, projects, workflow. ONE application… and never leave the app?n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>6. It must also be secure and managed</h3>nThe end result of whatever you achieved through collaboration must remain a record of truth. Compliance! Who made that decision? Who updated that version? Who released that to the client?n n<table style=”height: 1107px; background-color: #130773; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” width=”647″ cellpadding=”20″>n<tbody>n<tr>n<td style=”width: 641px; vertical-align: top;”>n<h2 style=”font-weight: 400; text-align: center;”>The problem(s) we found with Slack</h2>n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>It’s addictive</h3>nBecause conversations in Slack happen on a one-way conveyor belt, our team began feeling like they had to stay constantly connected to keep up. This style of communication was especially problematic for a remote-first company like ours. How do you stay in the loop when earlier topics have already been discussed and are buried by the time you even wake up? It wasn’t healthy for our team, and it wasn’t helping us focus on the hard work that really moves projects forward.n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>It’s built for shallow conversations</h3>nSlack was useful for quickly checking on things, but we found that it was a troublesome channel for big-picture discussions. It was nearly impossible to sustain a full conversation from start to finish.nEven when conversations stayed on topic, everything still required an immediate response. With Slack, there was no breathing room to take a step back and follow up on it later. We still needed separate tools – in our case, email and Wedoist – to have deeper conversations about our work.n n<h3 style=”font-weight: 400;”>It was disorganised</h3>nWith multiple, simultaneous conversations happening inside a single Slack channel, we began losing track of things. Ideas were proposed, discussed for a bit, and lost. As a result, the same questions and issues were often brought up multiple times.n nIt only simulated transparencynThe lack of organisation inside Slack had real consequences for our team’s access to information. We quickly discovered that real-time messaging wasn’t meant to preserve history or promote transparency.nSlack had awesome search if you were looking for something very specific like a file, but there was no way to get insight into what was happening in any given channel without manually skimming through it.nThat led to a frustrating contradiction: In theory, everyone on the team had access to all the communication that happened in public channels. But in reality, even I couldn’t keep track of all the conversations that were happening at the company.n</td>n</tr>n</tbody>n</table>n n<h2>Finding a different way to work together</h2>nWe realised we needed an alternative that was asynchronous, more mindful, and better organised. In fact, Slack the product wasn’t the issue. It was real-time messaging itself that was the problem. So in 2014—roughly one year into our Slack experiment—we started building “Twist.” Our goal was to design an entirely new platform– one that centres around calmer, more organised, and more productive communication. And on March 23, 2016, we moved all our team communication to the platform.nI firmly believe we wouldn’t be the team we are today if we hadn’t pursued this challenge and made the switch. Twist has given us a space to fully discuss complex ideas and projects from start to finish, to give more meaningful feedback, to promote transparency in our decision-making, and to disconnect to do the deep work that we’re truly excited about.nAlong the way, we’ve made a few design decisions to prioritise asynchronous communication over real-time messaging:n n<h2>Thread-first communication</h2>nThreaded conversations have been at Twist’s core from the beginning. They let anyone on the team create a conversation about a specific topic and ensure that whole conversations– ideas, issues, answers, and decisions – stay organised around that topic. Many members snooze all notifications for significant portions of the day, and some don’t have notifications turned on at all. This gives them complete control over their time and attention to do deep, thoughtful work.nSlack recently introduced the <a href=”https://www.fastcompany.com/3067246/the-unexpected-design-challenge-behind-slacks-new-threaded-conversations” data-saferedirecturl=”https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.fastcompany.com/3067246/the-unexpected-design-challenge-behind-slacks-new-threaded-conversations&source=gmail&ust=1530233991831000&usg=AFQjCNG_s43kiFAQJnv8dpZqUXZsu4AzmA”>concept of threads</a> inside the app as well. The feature is great at what it’s designed for– to hold small side conversations that branch off the main channel– but it doesn’t solve any of the issues we faced. When everything else is built around group chat, real-time communication will always be the default.n n<h2>Truly transparent conversations</h2>nFrom our experience with Slack, we knew that merely making conversations public wasn’t enough to guarantee equal access to information across the company. Instead of having to skim through single stream-of-consciousness chat channels, our team can now browse topics to get an overview of the discussions happening across the company. We can delve deeper into just the conversations we’re interested in, even if we’re not directly involved. We often share links to whole threads as reference so people can look and see how a certain decision was made.nAs CEO, having all our team conversations in Twist threads lets me keep my finger on the pulse of the company without getting overwhelmed. It frees me up to do other work without worrying that I’m missing important things.nWe’ve found that Twist has helped us stay connected in more meaningful ways—not just socialising, but actually sharing in the important conversations that determine the core of who we are as a company.n n<h2>Leaving out the online presence indicator</h2>nA small but impactful design choice we made in creating Twist was to leave out the online presence indicator. If you see that a teammate is online, you expect an immediate response. But if you see someone is offline, you’re more likely to postpone sending a message because they probably won’t get back to you right away.nWithout the presence indicator, our team has adapted to adding comments and sending messages whenever they need to. They have no way of knowing if the person is online, so they don’t expect an immediate response. Conversations may happen more slowly, but more real work gets done.n n<h2>Real time off</h2>nAnother example of how we’ve designed Twist to foster mindful communication is the time-off feature. Twist lets you set up a Time Off status that mutes all notifications from the app, changes your avatar to a “vacation” avatar, and lets your teammates know when you’ll return. This way people can properly recharge and take a well-deserved vacation, and everyone knows not to expect a response until they get back.n n<h2>Products that improve productivity and well-being</h2>nToday’s communication apps compete to grab your attention and maximise your time spent inside their apps. We want Twist to do well and be profitable, but we want it to be because it truly empowers teams (including ours) to do their best work, not because it hijacks their time and attention. It’s about having a product that’s built to serve users’ needs and not the other way around.nCalm, asynchronous communication isn’t the norm. It’s going to take a major shift in thinking to recognize that focus and balance are vital assets that companies need to protect in order to be successful.nWe’re betting that in the future, the most successful companies will be the ones that make that shift—the ones that don’t require their employees to be constantly connected, who see the value in creating space for deep work and setting aside time to fully disconnect and recharge. We’re excited to be a part of that movement.n ]]>

6 things the perfect collaboration software should do (and why Slack didn’t work for us!)

6 things the perfect collaboration software should do (and why Slack didn’t work for us!)

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6 things the perfect collaboration software should do (and why Slack didn’t work for us!)

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