On Tuesday, you may see some new things in your Slack channel. Over the last few months, we've worked to understand the balance between the human element of our work, which we value so much, and the automation to improve experiences on both ends. With the rollout of these new features, we feel like we've hit the perfect balance. The work that we do is, and always will be, human. At the heart of good design, creativity, and marketing is that personal element. Whether that's us, your creative sidekick, or you and your customers, we will continue to utilize Slack to keep the free-flowing conversations going at the heart of our work. These new features are meant to improve the experience for our relationship, enabling us to better manage your projects, turn things around quicker, and keep things relatively organized.
With all that being said, let's jump into what you can expect come Tuesday. In Slack, there is something called the actions menu. Slack is rolling out additional UI updates over the coming weeks, so this menu may shift depending on when byDesign's Slack gets the update. As it stands today, the action menu is a lightning bolt found in the top right of your window, to the left of the search box. Once you click this, you'll be presented with a few options. Let's break down what those are.
You are now able to submit design requests 24/7, right inside of Slack. By clicking this button, you'll now be prompted with a few questions. A title for your request, a description, your deadline, and any links that might help us complete your project. This form will be automatically sent to our creative team to review and get started on. Once that task is marked complete on our end, you will receive a Slack message inside of your channel indicating that the project has been complete, with a direct link to the Dropbox link with your files.
If you receive your project and need to make revisions, no worries! Simply head back to your actions menu (the lightning bolt) and select Make Revision. It'll ask for the name of the project which you'd like to make revisions, as well as what revisions you'd like to make. This, again, immediately gets sent to our design team to start working on the necessary changes. Once the changes are made, you'll be sent another message letting you know that your project is complete with a link to the updated files.
If you'd like to use the Specialized Hours (formerly byDesign Hours) that are bundled with your plan, you're now able to submit requests to use them inside of Slack. Head over to the actions menu and select byDesign Hours Request. This will give you a text box to explain in detail what you're looking for. This will be sent directly to your creative director who will take a look and get back with you to coordinate more details, set up calls, etc. If a deliverable is required for this, you'll also get a notification inside your Slack when it is complete. Hours from projects will automatically be added / deducted on the backend so you can see how many hours you have left in real-time.
This was one of the most highly requested features. You'll now be able to see your three latest projects, their statuses, and their due dates, all by clicking Status Overview in the actions menu. This message will also give you your plan information, such as how many hours you have left this month, when your plan renews, and more. Need to make changes? Simply message us in Slack like always and we'll shift things around.
Each renewal date, you'll receive a monthly update welcoming you to your new month. We'll let you know how many hours you have (including rollover), and give you a link to book your strategy calls for that month. This will ensure you're staying on top of your plan and getting the most value you can out of what we provide.
Overall, these features are meant to improve the experience for our clients and enable us to be more organized and quicker on our feet when it comes to project work. We'll continue to be around in Slack to answer any and all questions, but we hope you find value in these new features being added. Thanks for being a part of byDesign Monthly.
