💬 Organizing Workspace: 7 types of chats
Chats — as a work contexts — are transformable, LEGO-like building blocks for every workspace in Orchestra. This article will help you build an amazingly intuitive and fullfiled workspace for your remote team.
There are 7 types of chats:
1. Workspace
When creating a workspace, you create a main (like #general) chat. It always keeps the name of the workspace. This is the only chat that all workspace members join automatically.
2. Project
Did you use Slack or Discord before? If so, Projects can be like #channel you used before. Used Trello? Projects = Boards you've managed in Trello.
Surprise! Projects are chats too, but you can use them as folders for more detailed contexts, maybe tasks or deals. When creating new projects, you can take one or more ideas from this mental model:
a. Name of the client, if you run an agency, for example:
- Adidas
- McDonald's
- Tesla
b. The projects or epics you do with your team, like:
- Black Friday 2023 Campaign
- Team Building Festival 2021
- Pre-seed $600k
- Rebranding 2024
c. Work stream you handle:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Finances
- Fundraising
d. Departments you have, like:
- Content Marketing
- HR
- Software Development
e. CRMs, funnels, or Kanban-style boards you use:
- "Senior Developer" (for candidate funnel)
- "Sales CRM" (for b2b clients)
- "Blog" (for posts and editorial articles you produce)
No worries! If you are a little bit confused, just play with any of these points of view, and re-organize it later.
3. Task
It's a chat that has fields like Project, Assignee, Deadline, Description, and more. The main building block of the workflow at Orchestra. It's not always the task in the usual way; maybe just a thread of discussion you feel can be a feature, improvement, or task in the future.
Like,
- candidate card →
📇 John Smith, Nebraska(for any of your hiring positions) - deal opportunity →
💼 Nike, $50k(for your pre-sale process) - evergreen 1on1 chat with team members →
💬 1on1 Katie + Wilson - a part of a project, or zone of capability →
🛠 Landing page v.2 - an idea you need to discuss →
🔌 Zoom integration - a task to be assigned →
🔑 Google Sign-in Authorization - a process you handle →
🌟 Mary Linn onboarding - evergreen: a regular call you conduct →
📊 Weekly Sales Call - documentation, specs or job description →
📝 JD: Product Designer
4. Personal
1on1 massaging with any member of your workspace Non-visible to any of the workspace owners or admins. For things to discuss privately and silently.
5. Team
A circle of members, united by any principle/parameter (position, geo, specialization) and not related to the structure of tasks or epics. It's great to have for sharing news, knowledge, and useful URLs to articles, and podcasts.
Examples:
- Python developers
- Atlanta Office
- Marketers
A tip: When Teams is created, it's super easy to add a bunch of people in one click to a new chat instead of inviting them by their names.
6. Group
Random, private rooms for having fun, like sharing memes, playing games, deciding about someone's gift for a birthday, etc.
Like,
🍕 Friday Pizza🎮 Tuesday DOTA🌀 Random😂 Memes🎉 Billy's 34th Birthday Present
7. Channel
One-way radio for sharing and celebrating things:
- Customers Love (with testimonials and feedback)
- Revenue Stream (with income transactions)
- Kudos (for sharing respect for team members)
- Internal tech/personal blogs
You can choose: to make it private, accessible to any workspace member, or automatically subscribed to by any new members joining the workspace.
Not a big deal, huh? Let's go next!
Vadik One