Slack Usage & Channel Guidelines¶
Purpose¶
Slack is a communication tool used to share information, ask questions, and coordinate work. To maintain clarity, reduce noise, and ensure the right people see the right messages, Slack channels should be used consistently and intentionally.
These guidelines help:
- Improve visibility of work and discussions
- Reduce duplicated questions and fragmented conversations
- Protect focus time for engineering tasks
- Ensure urgent issues are routed correctly
This supports the Engineering Operating Principles, particularly:
- Urgency is defined, not assumed
- Work should be visible and documented
- Deep work requires protected focus time
Guiding Principles¶
- Use channels over direct messages for work-related communication
- Use threads to keep conversations organised
- Slack messages do not create work - tasks must be tracked in the task system
- Urgent issues must go to the designated urgent channel
- Avoid cross-posting the same message in multiple channels
Channel Usage¶
Engineering & Platform Channels¶
| Channel | Purpose | When to Use | Not For |
|---|---|---|---|
| #trove | General Trove platform discussion | Non-urgent platform questions, updates, coordination | Urgent bugs, task requests |
| #trove-orders | Order-related system notifications and discussion | Investigating order issues, order flow questions | Feature requests, general chat |
| #trove-customers | Customer-related platform context | Customer-impacting platform discussions | Support tickets, urgent bugs |
| #trove-failed-emails | Automated alerts for failed emails | Monitoring and investigation when required | General discussion |
| #trove-registrations | Registration activity and monitoring | Observing trends or investigating issues | General chat |
| #trove-registration-alerts | Registration alerts | Investigation when anomalies occur | Feature work or requests |
Urgent & Incident Channels¶
| Channel | Purpose | When to Use | Not For |
|---|---|---|---|
| #urgent-bugs-questions-trove | Trove production incidents and blockers | Production outages, revenue-blocking issues | General bugs, feature requests |
| #urgent-bugs-questions-elliephant | Elliephant production incidents | Production outages and critical issues | Non-critical bugs |
Only use these channels when:
- Production is impacted
- Orders or payments are blocked
- A live customer issue is time-sensitive
If an issue is not actively impacting production, it should be posted in the relevant non-urgent channel and tracked as a task.
Cross-Functional Channels¶
Content coming soon.