How we created a distant first office with a Slack reorg

This post was contributed by Julia Anderson, Tech and Product Program Manager.

In the wake of the sudden switch to full remote work, the ActiveCampaign hiring only increased. A whopping third of ActiveCampaign’s current employees started working remotely between 2020 and 2021. That growth included 186 employees in Ireland, Brazil and Australia.

Our workspaces and team communications had to adapt to the presence of these diverse new hires who came in from afar and long-time employees who were used to finding and sharing information.

Slack is our primary messaging tool, using email sparingly for time-sensitive and critical announcements. Our Slack channels are our new virtual “office space,” but we hadn’t taken the time to identify the tool for its critical role, and adjustments were urgently needed. ActiveCampaign has been using Slack since 2014. That’s seven years of rapid growth and many reorganizations to meet our ever-evolving needs with outdated Slack channels.

Our channels had to reflect our newly scaled organization. For example, although they were fun, new hires couldn’t find Slack channels with nicknames like # team-xd. It has been common for people to message teammates directly or post on other channels looking for the team / group they are looking for.

With the move from AC to virtual office space, the question arises again and again: “How can we encourage the use of channels for both work and social engagement?” How can we essentially enable people to continue to have fun and even to encourage him, but be friendlier to new employees?

Can we be social and productive?

Another problem we encountered was “noise” on all channels. Posts were not targeted and non-professional “social” chats sometimes drowned out the notifications. This challenge led many people to mute important channels because they felt they were being overwhelmed with news.

With this in mind, we realized that each channel needs a purpose of its own. If channels were given proper naming conventions, their intent would be unmistakable.

• The introduction of standard prefixes would clear up situations in which people posted to ask for clarification, on the wrong channel or cross-posts across multiple channels.
• The introduction of naming conventions would make categorization in the Slack sidebar easier. Conventions would separate socially oriented channels from essential projects. (e.g. all #topic-channels would end up in the same section.)
• Archiving dead channels would free up the sidebar for new and active channels.

After analyzing the cumulative results of our quarterly tech and product satisfaction survey for 2020, we found that social life in the workplace is crashing where it used to be proud at ActiveCampaign. When we searched mostly social channels, we found that some people weren’t as active on channels as others, and the more a channel grew, the less trust people had to post on it.

The hypothesis was that if we could work out specialized “nooks and crannies” within Slack, people would interact more as there would be fewer complications with the clarity and purpose of the message. Here, too, we are looking for a balance in which our channels have to serve new remote employees and long-term employees.

Our goals

• New employees should be able to understand the organizational structure, the different communication channels available and their purpose.
• Easily find and discover channels.
• Indicate the intended use / audience for the channels.
• Create more opportunities for regional / group-specific niche channels where audiences can be more focused on noise versus signals.
• Promote employee interaction and connection with smaller, more focused spaces.
• Help organize channels in the sidebar.

The renaming

We felt that renaming channels required careful planning, feedback, and approval from channel members so as not to disrupt members. Hopefully these changes would help with the channel organization and clear up any confusion about how the channel is used.

Before we rename Slack channels, we created a table with all 336 public channels. We consulted with our very responsive and helpful Slack reps Aryana Azmoudeh and AJ Johnson to understand Slack’s recommended prefixes for business environments and how they’d seen other organizations go through a sluggish reorganization and opted for 12 prefixes based on the main function of the channel.

To accommodate the different locations of offices and their respective channels, we also introduced 10 location-based prefixes to distinguish them from similar local channels. Channels that were once Chicago-centered like # team-sports (where we organize groups to play local sports) have become # chi-team-sports.

Now that we had our prefixes in mind, we needed to assign them to the Slack group based on what was content. Team channels were given the prefix # team-, general discussion channels on specific topics were given # topic-. After each new channel name, we reached out to each one and asked members to confirm the renaming and to appoint a person who could act as a “channel representative”.

Writing a Bulk Rename API script

The iteration of our ambitious projects is a big part of AC’s philosophy. Some project channels had shown no activity in the past 4 months or even 3 years! For project channels, we asked owners and contributors if the channel was still in use and if it would get a new name for future iterations.

summary of results

• 220 Channels contain prefixes.
• 78 inactive channels have been archived.
• AC employees have voluntarily reorganized themselves and requested renaming for private channels.

While we tried to make the project as little disruptive as possible, there were inevitable cases where the reorganization caused some confusion and disruption. Some employees reported that their channels sidebar now needs to be changed after staying in the same order for years.

“I think the effort has made the use of the channels clearer. I think it also made Slack more difficult to use with a large number of channels, or maybe I just have to break old habits. ”- ActiveCampaign Software Engineer

Renaming Slack channels has also been reported to make finding things more difficult in general. These issues can be resolved by organizing the sidebar into groups. As a continuation of this project, we’re now focusing on socializing Slack training and pro tips like channel grouping with a new #help-slack channel and promoting Slacks Certification programs.

As we hoped, many others reported that they thought the renaming made clearer purposes for the channels. This was one of the reasons naming conventions were implemented to help new members understand the purpose of channels.

“I’m a huge fan of the Slack renaming project, although I wish it was done before it started so I wouldn’t have to re-learn the channel names (mostly jokes). But seriously, I love the way it tidies and organizes my Slack life. I think it was a great move. ”- ActiveCampaign Software Engineer