How to Set Up a Round-Robin Workflow in Slack Using Google Sheets
If you’re looking for an easy and affordable way to manage tasks in your team, you’re in luck. This article will show you how to set up a round-robin workflow in Slack using Google Sheets. The best part? This simple, free solution can be set up in just a few minutes.
When it comes to task management, many teams struggle to track who’s responsible for what. This can lead to confusion, duplication of effort, and missed deadlines. One way to avoid these problems is by using a round-robin workflow, where tasks are assigned to team members in a rotating order. This ensures that tasks are distributed evenly and that no one gets overloaded.
But how do you set up a round-robin workflow in Slack? If you’ve looked online, you might have noticed that there aren’t many options. That’s where this article comes in. We’ll show you how to use Google Sheets and Slack integration to set up a round-robin workflow that’s simple, free, and effective.
1. Set up Google sheet
Now, let’s talk about how to set up a round-robin workflow in Slack using Google Sheets. First, ensure you enable the Slack integration to your Google Sheets and vice versa. This will allow you to send messages to Slack directly from the Sheet.
The first step is to create a new Google Sheet and add a row for each team member with an extra row with our bot. Now, put an incremented count for each member. The first one will have the lowest, and the last one will have the highest. That’s how you keep the order. For our beloved bot, the count should be a formula of the minimum value. Next, add a new column to show the Name of the lucky one in the round-robin. To do so, add the following formula.
=TRANSPOSE(FILTER(A3:A8, B3:B8=MIN(B3:B8)))
If you have issues finding a spreadsheet in the slack workflow builder. This Reddit post solve my issues
2. Set up the workflow
Once your Google Sheets are set up and integrated with Slack, you can start setting up the workflow. First, you will need to define how to trigger your workflow. I choose a shortcut in my team’s channel. Next, you will need three simple steps.
2.1 Select a spreadsheet row — find the minimum counter
In this step, you should connect your account to google sheets. Then, choose the spreadsheet and Sheet.
Choose a column to search: Name.
The value to search is ‘BOT’. It should be the first Name if you follow my picture.
2.2 Send the message to the channel
Once our bot’s row is chosen, we can use the row values to construct our message. Using the ‘Insert a variable’ button, you can select our column ‘Who is the lucky one?’ to create your message.
3.3 Update a spreadsheet row — update the minimum count
Here we will update the minimum count to become the maximum, and that’s how we will get a round-robin between our team members. First, we will need to find the row of who has the lowest counter. Luckily we can still reuse the variable from the first step. So, choose a column to search by Name and define the value as ‘Who is the lucky one?’. Next, increment the column Count with the number of members + 1. that will ensure it will become the maximum value. We have 6 team members, so we will increase by 7. Notice that you need the value to be a formula and not a raw string
In conclusion, a round-robin workflow can be a helpful way to manage tasks in a team. By setting up a round-robin workflow in Slack using Google Sheets, you can distribute tasks evenly among team members and keep everyone informed about what they need to do. This can help your team work more efficiently and effectively. In addition, of course, you can make this workflow more pretty by tagging the people in the message or adding it to other workflows. I give to the quick and straightforward way.
