Slack Workflow - How we saved 2 working days per year!
March 08, 2020
Recently I was given a problem statement to pick your favourite B2B Saas product’s least used feature and write an intermission to increase its usage.
As it is obvious from the article I picked Slack which is actively used at my present company and started exploring the least used features of slack at our organization.
The feature that caught my eye was Workflow Builder which could help automate routine processes and tasks. My first impression was that using this feature has to be complex beacuse automation sounds like “ohh now I might have to code or define some complex logic”.
To my surprise using this feature was just 6 simple steps!
What is Workflow Builder?
Workflow Builder makes it possible to automate routine actions and communication in Slack [no coding required].
Here is a video by Slack explaning Workflow Builder and how you can use it to automate routine tasks at your workplace.
Data, Data, Data
Next I wanted to collect data and validate that by using the workflow builder feature:
- What all tasks can be automated?
- How much time and effort these tasks take if we do them manually?
- Finally, How much time and effort is being saved if we automate these identified tasks using workflow builder?
To answer the above question I divided the tasks into two categories:
-
Reminder Tasks (Time Based)
Examples:
- Reminder to send the release notes at the end of every week.
- Reminder to fill your lunch sheet.
- Reminder to update your KPI’s monthly.
- Slack channel On-boarding.
- Team Stand-up reminders.
-
Request Tasks (From Based)
Examples:
- Cross-functional Service Request.
- Lost and found notification.
- Code Review Request.
- Shoutouts for amazing work.
- Weekly status updates.
- Issue reporting in shared channel.
Considering that the average person types between 38 and 40 words per minute (WPM) and with a employee count of 60, I documented the following data points for my workplace:
Reminder tasks:
| Task Duration | Words | Tasks Count | Time with Workflow | Avg. Frequency per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 - 10 seconds | 3 - 5 words | 8 | 0 sec | 4 |
| 10 - 20 seconds | 6 - 12 words | 2 | 0 sec | 2 |
| 20+ seconds | 14+ words | 1 | 0 sec | 1 |
Insights: By automating reminder based we totally eliminate the manual effort to send a routine message to a certain channel or individual at specific times and get a efficiency boost of 100%.
Time Saved per week = ((8 * 4 * 7.5) + (2 * 2 * 15) + (1 * 1 * 20)) = 320 seconds
Time Saved per year = 320 seconds * 52 weeks = 16640 seconds/year = 277.3 minutes/year = 4.6 hours/year
Request tasks:
| Task Duration | Words | Tasks Count | Time saved with Workflow | Avg. frequency per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 - 15 seconds | 3 - 10 words | 4 | 5 sec | 4 |
| 15 - 30 seconds | 10 - 20 words | 12 | 10 sec | 3 |
| 30 - 60 seconds | 20 - 40 words | 6 | 10 sec | 1 |
| 60+ seconds | 40+ words | 3 | 15 sec | 3 |
Insights: By automating form based we get a efficiency boost of 25% - 50% depending on the length of the task.
Time Saved per week = ((4 * 4 * 5) + (12 * 3 * 10) + (6 * 1 * 10) + (3 * 3 * 15)) = 635 seconds
Time Saved per year = 635 seconds * 52 weeks = 33020 seconds/year = 550.3 minutes/year = 9.17 hours/year
Therefore Total Time Saved = ~ 14 hours/year for a organization with 60 employees which is about two productive working days and as the organization grows bigger this number will only increase.
Slack Workflow Builder is really a simple and efficient way to automate your routine tasks and processes while saving time and effort of everyone.