How to Use Slack for Project Management

Slack is a communication platform widely used by millions of people around the world.
We’ll discuss the different ways you can use Slack as a project management tool.

Maricel Rivera
Technology Journalist Updated February 7, 2021

Every day around the world, about 10+ million users log in to Slack to
communicate with colleagues, making the platform an indisputable leader in
communications technology.

But even though about 90% of a project manager’s time is spent communicating
with various stakeholders, managing projects requires the use of multiple tools to
ensure success, whether it’s project management for small business or larger
enterprises.

So how can Slack, which is primarily a communication and collaboration tool, be

used as a project management app?

Let’s find out.

Overview: What is Slack?

Slack’s story starts with Tiny Speck , a company launched in 2009 by the same
people behind Flickr, the photo-sharing service Yahoo acquired in 2005. Tiny
Speck’s mission: to build a massive multiplayer online game.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. Glitch, Tiny Speck’s flagship

offering, closed in 2012. In 2014, instead of introducing another online game, Tiny
Speck did a major pivot with its launch of Slack — and the rest, as the saying
goes, is history.

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 Slack started out as an internal communication tool connecting Tiny Speck’s U.S.
and Canada offices. Fast forward to today as more than 750,000 organizations
worldwide turn to Slack to communicate, collaborate, and get things done.

Teams that use Slack perform a wide range of functions, including engineering,
financial services, sales and marketing, IT, human resources, customer support,
project management, and media.

How does Slack work?

To understand how Slack works, let’s take a look at some of its primary
components:

Workspace

Slack teams, usually from the same project team or organization, have their own
workspaces, which are made up of different channels. Within a workspace, teams
may:

• Connect work-critical online collaboration tools and services

• Share files
• Search through conversation archives to find relevant information, such as
locating the documents necessary for project planning, determining the
success criteria of your deliverables, and so on

To join a workspace, you need to be invited. You may also create your own
workspace if you’re unable to join any existing ones. Users can join multiple
workspaces using the same email address.

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 How a Slack workspace looks in both desktop and mobile formats. Source: Slack.

Channel

A channel is where you find the files, people, information, and tools necessary to
successfully complete work. To keep things organized, different channels can be
created for different purposes: projects, teams, or topics. Channels can be public
or private.

Threads

Threads are useful for organizing Slack discussions. Team members and guests
can start message threads in channels and direct messages. With threads, you
can split off conversations so you don’t clutter the main conversation view.

You can also follow or unfollow threads, depending on whether you still want to
stay notified of new replies or activities.

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 Voice calls

Slack comes with a built-in calling feature, which you can use to call at least one
of your teammates via a direct message, regardless of the Slack plan you’re on.

However, calling from a channel or group direct message is only allowed if you’re
subscribed to a paid Slack plan. You may also integrate other calling apps with
Slack, such as Zoom, join.me, RingCentral, and Cisco Webex.

To start using Slack, someone in your company must first sign up for it, pick a
team URL, and then allow team members to join by approving their email
addresses.

If your team is new to Slack and you’re still testing the waters, start with the free
version. It archives up to 10,000 of your most recent messages (you can send an
unlimited number of messages), which you can search through and retrieve on
demand.

The free plan also lets you integrate up to 10 apps, store files up to 5GB per
workspace, and create unlimited channels. If you need additional features and
more space (e.g., unlimited message archiving and more file storage capacity),
here is the price list for Slack’s paid versions:

Pricing options for Slack’s paid subscriptions. Source: Slack.

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 Users can access and use Slack via:

• The web: On your browser’s address bar, enter your Slack URL, email address,
and password. If you don’t know your Slack URL or the exact name of the
workspace you’re joining, use the workspace finder tool , then enter your
email address. Slack will provide a list of all the workspaces you’re permitted
to join.
• A desktop app: Install the app on your desktop (available for Mac, Windows,
and Linux), then join a workspace.
• A mobile app: Once you’ve downloaded Slack to your device (available for
Android and iOS), you’ll be prompted to either sign in or “get started.”
Whichever option you choose will help you set up Slack on your phone or
tablet. Simply follow the instructions.

For more information on the different Slack features, check out The Blueprint’s in-
depth review.

5 ways you can use Slack for project

management
On its website, the company states: “Slack shouldn’t replace the tools you already
use for project management — but it does make them better.” At its core, Slack is
a communication tool and doesn’t come equipped with the robust project
management features Asana, Wrike, Jira, and Smartsheet bring to the table.

So how can teams use Slack for project management?

1. Create project-specific channels

Slack allows teams to create as many project-specific channels as they want. That
way, you bring together the correct information and people into the right channel.
No more inundating team members and stakeholders with email messages they
don’t need.

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 Create as many channels as you need for your projects, teams, or topics. Source: Slack.

Plus, you can pin messages and files (e.g., designs, documents, briefs, etc.) to a
direct message or channel for easy reference. Pinned items are accessible to
anyone in the channel or direct message.

2. Connect the tools you already use

Slack allows you to connect the tools you already use via the Slack app store so
you can pull project notifications into Slack and perform actions without switching
between applications.

With the Asana-Slack integration, for example, you can create tasks within Slack,
turn Slack messages into tasks, or perform task actions without leaving Slack.

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 You may also build custom apps to address your company’s unique needs using
the Slack API.

Visit Slack’s app directory to integrate the third-party tools your team already uses, or find new ones
to help you stay on task. Source: Slack.

3. Automate reminders
Meetings, reviews, approvals, status updates — if you aren’t tracking them
carefully or sending yourself (and your team) an automated reminder, there’s a
good chance something will slip through the cracks.

You can set up Slack reminders in several ways:

• Create a reminder for yourself: Click the shortcuts menu (lightning bolt
icon). Select “set myself a reminder.” Then, add the date and time of the
event you’re reminding yourself about, plus a short description.

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 Add a date and time, plus a short description, when setting a reminder for yourself. Source: Slack.

• Come back to a message at a later time: If you can’t attend to a message

right away, you can come back to it at a later date or time. To set a reminder,
click the three dots icon next to the message you want to be reminded about,
then select “remind me about this” from the menu. Once done, choose a
timeframe or create your own by clicking on “custom.”

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 Locate the three dots icon next to a message to remind yourself to get back to it at a later time or
date. Source: Slack.

• Create a custom reminder using a slash command: You may also create a
custom reminder for the entire channel, a specific team member, or yourself
by using the /remind command.

When you type the command “/remind,” Slack will show you this formatting template. Source: Slack.

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 Examples of what you can input when using the /remind command to create Slack reminders. Source:
Slack.

• Use third-party apps: Connect your Google Calendar app to Slack to send the
entire team daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reminders. Or create a
Zapier workflow recipe to get daily or weekly reminders in Slack at a specific
time.

4. Manage tasks
There are multiple ways to manage tasks in Slack:

• Integrate a task management app: Add a task management tool such as

Trello, Todoist, or Wunderlist so you don’t have to leave Slack to add items to
your personal or team task list.
• Use /todo or /mytodo commands: If you want to keep task management
entirely within Slack (no email notifications, sign in using your Slack account),
add Workast to Slack and then use commands such as /todo to assign tasks to
other team members or /mytodo to manage your personal tasks.
• Pin or save messages: If you’d rather not use a task management app, you
can create a Slack to-do list by pinning or saving messages. Pinned messages
can be viewed using the details icon on the upper right-hand side of the Slack
channel or direct message, while saved items can be viewed by clicking the
“saved items” option near the top of the left sidebar.

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 5. Share files and collaborate
If you need input on a presentation or final approval on a design, simply upload
and share a file to initiate collaboration. You may add files from your computer,
mobile device, or storage services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, or
OneDrive.

All uploaded files can be shared across your workspace, and everyone in the
channel or direct message where a file is added can download the file, save it, or
share it to another conversation.

Work smarter, communicate better with

Slack
If your team isn’t on Slack yet, now is probably the best time to try it out. But
despite the many benefits, keep in mind that it’s fundamentally a communication
and collaboration tool, not a full-fledged project management software system.

So if your projects are complex and roles overlap, or you need to define
milestones, visualize actual timelines against the project schedule, compare
spending against approved budgets, turn recurring tasks into work templates, or
collaborate on tasks using kanban boards, then Slack’s best use is to supplement
the capabilities of a project management system.

Slack’s strength, after all, is providing a central place for project discussions —
provided everyone commits to using it, and there are guidelines in place to avoid
being overwhelmed.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors.
Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s
board of directors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Atlassian,
Box, Microsoft, Slack Technologies, Smartsheet, and Zoom Video Communications. The Motley Fool
has a disclosure policy.

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