Not sure why we didn't get reminders to provide an update

[Roland Siebelink]

Hello, we're in our first week of trying Atlas.

Introduced it to the team last week, had them play around with it, then told them they'd get an email or Slack message on Friday asking them to update before Sunday.

Come Friday, none of us receive an email or a Slack message. So nobody remembered to do an update.

I checked the documentation and it clearly says "Every Friday, you’ll be reminded to write an update"

Are update reminders supposed to come through Slack, through email or both? What are we doing wrong?

[Roland Siebelink · Accepted solution]

Just to confirm @Niraj Patil and @Amanda Barber we again did not receive reminder messages yesterday (Friday). 

This seems to confirm that it’s due to a brief update already having been provided on Tuesday, which means the system thinks an update on Friday is no longer necessary. 

I don’t think that’s the right spec. My use case is that we have our meeting on Tuesdays and when people say something that isn’t in their update yet, we encourage them to still add it to Atlas during the meeting. Essentially bringing Atlas up to speed with what the status was last Friday. Then by the next Friday I’d want people to put in their new status. But Atlas isn’t asking for it because it believes the update from Tuesday already counts for the whole week. This then perpetuates the doom loop of having to ask for updates in the meeting, which will block reminders going out, etc. 

I think the fix should be that reminders get sent out on Fridays regardless of whether the project has been updated earlier in the week. It’s up to the project owner to decide if the project needs a new update by Friday, not up to Atlas to just decide for them that it doesn’t.

[Niraj Patil]

Hi, @Roland Siebelink it's a bit strange that you're not receiving reminders via email or Slack.

Have you checked your notification preferences in Atlas to make sure you receive reminders? You can go to Settings > Personal settings > Notification preferences.

[Niraj Patil]

Hey @Roland Siebelink I just did some digging here and discovered that you won't receive reminders in email and/or Slack for pending projects. 

[Amanda Barber]

Ahh, that's really good information @Niraj Patil!

[Roland Siebelink]

I don’t think it’s an issue with projects being pending @Niraj Patil At least I don’t see our projects as pending.

@Amanda Barber I think the issue is that Atlas by default doesn’t ask for an update when some update has already been provided that week. 

I checked (manually) today and most projects say something like “last updated 4d ago, next update due in 7d”. 

this is different from the specs where it says “every Friday you’ll get a reminder to update”

I also don’t think it’s good business practice, because as management you typically want to see updates synced as per the end of the week, not skipped because someone already did an update 4d before and then didn’t capture further progress during the week.

does the Loop framework have any answer to this?

[Amanda Barber]

I believe only the owner receives a message to update. Also, only Projects get weekly updates (goals are monthly I believe.)

Did you add the Slack app? https://intercom.help/atlas-by-atlassian/en/articles/6153621-how-to-use-atlas-with-slack

This is a great resource if you haven't seen it already! https://intercom.help/atlas-by-atlassian/en/articles/5209762-the-ultimate-guide-for-getting-started-in-atlas

[Roland Siebelink]

Yes we had already installed that slack app. None of the project owners got reminders to send an update, as far as we can tell, neither via slack nor via email. That is why I am concerned.

[Amanda Barber]

Maybe @Daniella Latham can help you out!