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Kleiner Perkins Design Challenge
Slack
Role
User Experience, Product Extension Strategy
Duration
1 Week
Context
Slack is a platform that has reimagined remote team communication. With our current work from home situation, due to COVID-19, remote communication and collaboration has become especially prevelant. As someone who did a remote internship this summer, Slack was my holy grail in getting instant feedback from colleagues. However, as a creative, I often time develop ideas through spontaneous conversations with individuals. Even engaging in a conversation has changed because the fluid initiation that was possible from being in person has now been mitigated. Thus, I wanted to challenge myself to expand Slack as a platform to prompt the spontaneous “office chit chat”.
Challenge
How can we promote more spontaneous conversation amongst Slack users?
Solution
Integrating Slack with a voice assistant, such as Google Nest, to bring the feeling of fluid, in-person conversations in a remote setting.
How does it work?
All you have to do is start speaking to initiate a conversation with a fellow colleague.
Research Process
I began the process by exploring how people are currently collaborating and what they miss about working remotely as a team. The following insights have been gathered from a combination of online research as well as responses from interviews conducted with students and professionals from a variety of disciplines.
Analysing current methods to prompt a conversation in Slack
All methods require users to open Slack and initiate a conversation. If we take a step back, the reason to initiate a conversation is when there is a reason to discuss something. However, there currently aren’t any features that prompt spontaneous discussions.
Let's Ideate!
I began brainstorming different methods of communication and ways to prompt a natural conversation. After multiple considerations, I got drawn to the idea of expanding on the voice, which led me to think about the integration of a voice assistant.
Brainstorming different methods to prompt verbal conversations.
One of the key features in Slack is its integration with a variety of tools like Google Drive, Dropbox etc. Thus, my idea is to implement Google Nest as a tool to prompt more fluid, impromptu conversations.
Voice Input UX
Dialogue Flow
Slack and Google Nest Integration Features
Features in Context
Takeaways
Designing for an existing brand
A lot of my previous work has been developing a brand and product from scratch. However, this challenge was unique because it allowed me to assess the current strengths of a company and what opportunities could be identified to improve the product experience and ultimately result in a more competitive product in the market.
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