- We use Slack for chatting with the team – whether as a whole, in smaller groups, or one on one.
- Ensure your status is set to "available" in Slack when online and free to chat, and "away" when not.
- Consider getting the Slack desktop app - either the native OS X / Windows one, or the Chrome app, which you can set up to run as a standalone app on system start up.
- Slack organizes communication into channels. A channel can be public, so that everyone can join, or private, so that messages are shared with only select individuals. Most project channels are private by default.
- We default to open, so when in doubt, message the group in a public channel instead of a direct message, or one-on-one.
- There are a wide variety of different channels you can join, from work-related to topic-related.
- Mandatory channels include: General, Announcements, Engineering or PM, your Pod, your project channels
- Recommended channels: Random, SOTD, QOTD, Onboarding
- The Announcements channel is for announcements only. All replies or conversation regarding announcements can transpire in the General channel. Keeping announcements chatter to a minimum ensures that anyone who hasn't been paying attention to the General or other channels will be able to quickly locate important or not-to-be-missed information.
- An Onboarding channel exists which you can use for any general onboarding questions if needed.
- To notify someone in particular, type @name with your message.
- If you want to call attention to everyone subscribed to channel, write @channel or @group.
- To alert only those in a channel/group who are online, write @here.
- Consider using the word "ping" to check on the availability of someone
- You can adjust notification preferences:
. - Wrap your text in single asterisks for bold, underscores for italics,
grave accentsfor code, and start the line with a > sign to make it a block quote.
is similar to Markdown. - To wrap single line output, use one pair of backticks (
Your code here). For multiple lines, wrap with three backticks (Your code here. Some more code.).
. - Create a Google Hangout from Slack: type /hangout (will need to authorize the slack app in hangout too)
- To quickly bring back the last message you sent back to the text box, just press the Up arrow key.
- We use mailto:ca-team@lists.civicactions.net for all team wide communication, and important announcements (slack #announcements used often too)
- We us mailto:ca-employees@lists.civicactions.net for HR notices, etc. (it is generally low traffic)
- Other email lists: ca-[functionalgroup] -hydra, -orion -sales, -dev, -team, etc.
- Every project has its own list - a way to overhear each other
- mailto:teach@lists.civicactions.net (includes clients)
- mailto:teach-int@lists.civicactions.net (just for CivicActions staff)
To get someone's attention, put their name in all caps in subject. Or use "ALL" to get everyone's attention. For example:
- Subject: "RICHARD: are you around this afternoon?"
- Subject: "ALL: please update your hours by EOD"
- Subject: "URGENT: please update your hours by EOD"
Consider using filters to help manage you mail in preparation for quick archive.
- Set your location, time zone and working hours (& keep them current) using calendar settings:
- Always send invitations to mailto:first.last@civicactions.com
- Make sure your main mailto:first.last@civicactions.com calendar is at sharing at least free/busy with everyone in CivicActions
- Consider enabling "speedy meetings" (in Settings)
- Reply to meeting invitations (yes, no, maybe)
- Use the "optional" feature for attendees who are not required to attend
- Use the Find a Time feature:
feature to identify a meeting time where all required participants are free. - Complete the Event Details section when creating an event
- If your event is related to a ticket, then include the ticket reference in the event title (i.e. a Jira RD-19 ticket event could be "Prototype Meeting RD-19")
- You can create a Hangout link from the event (actually, Hangout links, aka "video calls" are automatically generated when you create a new event)
- Add the Out of Office Calendar
calendar
- Be on time - please! Every 10 seconds actually matters
- Add a photo to your account so it shows up in Hangout
- We use the chat and screensharing features often
- Turn off your camera or reduce bandwidth if connection is poor
- Use the mute button so mute is transparent to all (vs headphone muting)
- Use some kind of headset or headphones instead of relying solely on computer mic (computer mics can sometimes create echoes)
- You can also use the Hangout to call people in via phone:
- We can invite people outside of CivicActions, too
- Use proper etiquette for Hangout professionalism (consider the appropriateness of background visuals/noise, attire/dress, use of effects, eating, muting, etc.)
- It's okay to mute other each other
- /to, /msg [user][message] - Sends an inline private message to the specified user.
- /shortcuts - Open keyboard shortcut help screen
- /help, /? - Displays a list of command descriptions and usages.
- /goto [user] - Opens the profile of the specified user in a new tab.
- /mute - Mutes the audio of the caller.
- /unmute - Unmutes the audio of the caller.
- /vmute - Mutes the video of the caller.
- /unvmute - Unmutes the video of the caller.
- /users - Displays a list of participants in the video call.
- Google Docs allows you to create and share a variety of documents such as text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms.
- Google Docs should be shared with your CivicActions email account
- If a link is shared with you, you can add yourself to the share list so you can reference it later on
- If you are using a template, always make a COPY
- Update default paragraph styles to match CivicActions standard styles when creating new docs to use/share
- If you create a document, make sure the whole team can find it and has access to it so you don't need to grant individual permissions
- We use BlueJeans video conferencing software for larger meetings, such as our weekly and montly All Hands Calls. To participate, you may download the BlueJeans app, view in browser, or call in from a telephone (just don't forget to mute yourself!).
- There are times when a phone call in may also be necessary, such as when wifi is not available or to call in to BlueJeans
- Don't rely on speaker feature, but have a headset handy
- You may need to be called into a Google Hangout if you can't attend the video meeting
- Sharing your phone number with the client/PO is optional