Salesforce Adds Lists Feature to Slack for Project and Task Management

Salesforce recently announced the launch of Slack Lists, adding project and task management directly into popular work platform Slack. The feature enables teams to manage projects, requests, and priorities without having to switch applications.

The company says the feature eliminates context switching between apps so teams can collaborate and stay aligned on cross-functional projects, requests, approvals, etc., right in "the flow of work."

Salesforce says that teams can manage and track projects completely in Slack as the Lists feature makes it easier to prioritize deliverables, advance work from one stage to the next, and drive accountability across teams. Lists can be used for marketing campaigns, product releases, employee onboarding, managing technology deployments, and more. The feature lets teams track everything they need to do.

Teams can collaborate on tasks in Slack that they are already working on together. The Lists feature lets people pull others into a conversation with message threads on list items. According to the company, the threads help organize siloed discussions that teams may be having about a specific deliverable, request, or issue. A team member assigned to a task or checking in on the project can then get all needed context.

The feature also allows for automation and triage of requests and to-dos across apps. Teams can use the automation tool, Workflow Builder, to automate routine work and Lists can be used to manage that work.

"Sales teams can use Slack lists to stay organized on their day-to-day work, coordinate and collaborate on tasks with the whole account team, and plan customer meetings and engagements," said Salesforce. "Service teams, meanwhile, can keep tabs on all outstanding issues in a list or empower new agents with a curated onboarding plan."

Slack CEO Denise Dresser added, “With lists, you can turn conversations in Slack into actionable tasks that drive work forward. Now those loose next steps shared in a project channel can be tracked across a team. With project management in Slack, teams across organizations will have everything they need to complete projects faster and increase productivity using the full power of Slack.”

The Lists feature has already begun rolling out. The company says it will reach all users in the coming months. It will also be included in all paid plans.

Earlier this year, Slack announced major artificial intelligence features including search answers that provide personalized, intelligent responses to questions, as well as Slack channel recaps that generate key insights from accessible channels, and thread summaries that allow users to catch up on long conversations with just a click.

Slack has a reported 65 million monthly active users, with the number expected to reach 79 million by next year.