Don’t get me wrong.
I know a bunch of people who use Slack for async communication which is good until you start treating it as another PM tool and that’s where the problem lies.
It first starts with asking minor questions in real-time and then the clients start assigning tasks directly to Slack. Thus, messing up with your project management process 🤮
For example, If you are working for a SaaS client and use Asana for project management.
Your client assigns a task on Asana and adds task-related comments.
Your end client may choose to refer to the Slack communication tool, and totally ignore your PM tool.
Then they share the task link on Slack and ask task statuses there creating giant threads clogging your channels 😐
Your developer/designer spends enormous time replying to threads that should be spent on task completion.
They get distracted!
While your team and you refer to the PM tool and place Slack on lower priority.
Tasks are never just one-off and without follow-up required. It needs to be something that is visual, and something that can be used to hold people accountable.
Get this: If the client is on a budget, and free Slack has limited history, how and where are you going to refer to things later on in future?
Your company has its own budget too, so why would you be the one ending up footing the bill for Slack and for your clients, and their freelancers? Because you wanted their sales? No!
They don’t see the value in Slack as well, that’s what! That is coming from numerous experiences of people.. most recently being 2021.
There is always a balance between being realistic and being diplomatic with your clients.
With PM tools these days, you can provide access as long as your team are using it, without billing a dime to your clients.
So it won’t go away. The plus point is, that you don’t need to worry about the chat history limitation.
It’s already a win-win 🙌🏻
And then use Slack for communication during emergencies.
Tasks should still be posted in your PM tool during an emergency (and not just day-to-day).
Let the PM tool become a single pane of glass where your clients and your team can view everything in one go.
No need to refer anywhere else, as if you’re finding clues to solve some murder mystery.
Let’s be real, we are not in the cast of Manifest!
A tool is there to aid everyone and not create more hassle because someone likes it 🤷🏻
Reduce your need for stand-ups, check-ins, and lame alignment meetings. All these are there because someone decided that one tool can be used for everything 🙂
If you are reading this, and you observe your own team using Slack for everything, then I plead with you: STOP 🙏🏻
Life is hard enough, don’t make managing a project another item to increase the difficulty. No one comes out a winner because they have many tools, or being one.