Improve User Education for Slack’s Save for

Later

Slack’s Product Vision

Slack aims to make work life simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.

They strive to create a collaborative environment for teams of all sizes. Using technology as its core focus, Slack
provides solutions that help companies save time, eliminate inefficiencies associated with traditional forms of
communication like emails or face-to-face meetings and streamline processes across multiple channels.

One valuable addition in this ecosystem is their Save For Later feature, designed to help users organise and
revisit important messages or files effortlessly.

However, despite its potential to improve user productivity, adoption remains surprisingly low, with only 12% of
users actively using it. Let’s delve deeper to explore the psychology behind this feature, its intended purpose, and
how low usage can impact the overall user experience.

WHY we need to drive this feature adoption

Information Overload
The primary challenge in modern workplace communication is managing the constant flow of information.
Without effectively using Save for Later, users likely resort to:

Scrolling back through conversations repeatedly to find important information

Improve User Education for Slack’s Save for Later 1

 Taking screenshots or notes in separate applications

Asking colleagues to reshare information they've previously posted

These workarounds create friction and waste time that could be spent on actual work. This directly impacts
workplace productivity and diminishes Slack's value proposition as a streamlined collaboration platform.

Context Switch Costs

When users can't quickly save and return to important messages:

They often feel pressured to address everything immediately to avoid losing track

This leads to constant interruptions and context switching

Research shows it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully regain focus after an interruption

The constant pressure to immediately address messages creates a cycle of interruptions that severely impacts
deep work and focus time, fundamentally undermining Slack's mission of enabling more efficient and productive
workplace communication.

Platform Stickiness is Impacted

When users don't fully utilise features like Save for Later:

They're less likely to develop efficient workflows within Slack

The platform becomes less integral to their daily work

This could affect long-term user retention and platform adoption

Potential Barriers to Discovery and Adoption

User Interface & Discovery Barriers:

The save feature might be hidden behind a message menu (three dots) or require multiple clicks

The save icon/button may not be immediately visible or intuitive

Users might be unaware where to find their saved items later

Mobile and desktop interfaces might handle the feature differently, creating confusion

Behavioural & Habit Patterns:

Users are likely already habituated to their own workarounds (screenshots, copy-paste)

Many users operate in "reactive mode" during work, focusing only on immediate needs

The extra step of saving, even if small, might feel like unnecessary friction in the moment

People might forget about saved items since they're not immediately visible

Technical & UX Friction:

The process of accessing saved items already takes multiple clicks. The additional status options (In
Progress, Archived, Completed) creates decision paralysis.

Users facing a simple need are confronted with a task management system they didn't ask for. These status
options create cognitive overhead:

"Do I need to manage these statuses later?"

"What happens if I mark something as completed?"

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 "Is this for personal task tracking or team visibility?"

The need to Google these features defeats the purpose of quick information saving. Users might abandon the
save action entirely when faced with too many choices

The feature tries to serve two different use cases:

Simple bookmarking for future reference

Task/action item tracking

This is a classic example of making a simple action more complex than necessary. While the status options might
be valuable for power users, they create unnecessary friction for the 88% of users who aren't even using the
basic save functionality.

Key User Groups: High-Impact Opportunities

1. Sales & Customer Success Teams

2. Engineering Team Leads

Sales & Customer Success Teams

Challenges
Unable to quickly surface past pricing discussions, preventing them from responding to urgent client requests

Can't organise successful deal materials, limiting their ability to reuse winning strategies

Difficulty tracking scattered feature requests, reducing their effectiveness in advocating for customer needs

How Save for Later Helps:

Save pricing approval threads in "In Progress" until finalised, then move to "Completed" for quick future
reference

Store successful case studies and pitch examples in "Archived" for easy reuse across deals

Save important feature requests with reminders for product team sync-ups

Engineering Team Leads

Challenges
Can't efficiently track ongoing code reviews, hindering implementation and feedback loops

No organised way to store deployment guides, slowing down critical operations

Struggle to keep track of technical discussions, leading to repeated explanations and lost context

How Save for Later Helps

Store active code reviews in "In Progress" with reminders for pending feedback

Bookmark deployment procedures and guides for quick access during releases

Keep technical discussions saved and categorised for easy retrieval

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 Strategies to Drive User Adoption

Contextual Feature Hints

Strategy: How This Addresses Adoption & Education:
This strategy addresses key pain points by identifying
Show subtle tooltips when users copy messages
moments of user friction and providing immediate,
or take screenshots
contextual education about Save for Later as a better
Highlight the Save feature during moments of solution. By teaching the feature exactly when users
information sharing need it most, we solve both discovery and adoption
Display quick tips when users search for old challenges: users learn about the feature when they're
messages repeatedly most receptive, and they immediately see its value in
improving their current workflow.
Surface feature reminders during onboarding
milestones

Implementation Example: When a user searches for the same message multiple times:

💡 Looking for this message often?

Save important messages to find them instantly later.
[Try it now - 1 click] [Learn more]

Role-Based Learning
Strategy: How This Addresses Adoption & Education:
This strategy directly solves the education gap by
Create short (2-3 min) role-specific video tutorials:
teaching features at moments of maximum relevance,
"Save for Later for Sales Teams" while driving adoption through clear demonstration of
"Engineering Team Quick-Start Guide" role-specific value. The focus on role-specific use
cases ensures users see immediate value in their daily
"Manager's Guide to Information Organisation"
workflow, making adoption feel natural rather than
Embed these in relevant Slack channels forced.

Include quick-start templates for each role

Implementation Example: In engineering channels:

🔧 Engineering Team Quick-Start

See how other engineering teams use Save for Later to:
- Track architecture decisions
- Organise deployment docs
- Manage code reviews

[Watch 2-min demo]

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 Success Metrics

Metrics to Test proposed strategies

Run A/B testing on tooltip variations across user segments to measure which design and timing drives the
highest engagement with Save for Later.

Monitor whether users who receive contextual prompts adopt the Save for Later feature more quickly
compared to those who don't

Track the increase in Save for Later usage among users who have watched their role-specific tutorials

Metrics to Track feature adoption

Increase in percentage of users who save at least one item within first week of feature education

Number of unique users who save items / total active users

Percentage of users who continue to save items at least weekly after first month

The low adoption rate of Save for Later indicates that while Slack has developed a valuable productivity
feature, there remains a significant opportunity to bridge the gap between feature availability and user
engagement. Through targeted educational strategies and measured implementation, we can help users
discover, understand, and integrate this tool effectively into their workflows, ultimately advancing Slack's
core mission of enhancing workplace collaboration and productivity.

~ Thank You

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