How does Mattermost handle this specific case?

Troubleshooting
1

Let’s say I have a very big company (10.000+ employees).
Let’s say I use a public channel to collect suggestions on how to improve the company or any other very wide subject that involves every employee.

I’m expecting possibly thousands of messages, some being very simple proposals, some describing ways to implement these proposals, some trying to address the need of compromises between directions that the company could take hypothetically, and so on…

I’m expecting also that with the number of messages increasing, it is more and more likely that many are saying the same thing given that nobody would read the thousands of messages that have already been posted, and given that even with a search engine the number of messages presented to you might still be too overwhelming…

Is there something in Mattermost designed to tackle this use case? Or is it aimed at smaller teams where anyone is expected to be able to read all the messages of a given topic and follow along the discussion as it goes?

2

Hello @bahleille! Have you taken a look at the Mattermost Matterpoll Plugin?
(also available on GitHub here)
It is a Mattermost plugin for creating polls and surveys directly in a channel, with full customization available.

Does this help you? If possible, could you provide further elaboration on what you would like to be able to do with a feature to manage these messages, so I can better help you find a solution that works?

1 Like
3

hello @XxLilBoPeepsxX !

yes it is helpful. Especially the opportunity for anyone to add options.

The idea behind my question goes a bit further actually.
If the answer to survey was “to change the style of our products”, I would like then to be able to ask the question “which style?”, and I want people to propose options, explain why, and eventually challenge each other like in a discussion where ideas and solutions are evolving along with the exchanges that happen between people.

If there were 10 people only, a discussion in a channel would be suitable. The problem is that there is maybe someone in a workshop far away from the design office, who would say that there is a really big problem with the proposal that came up, but is not asked…

So what I would like, in order to avoid expensive mistakes, and even loss of time through the validation steps of a concept, is a tool where the discussion around a concept can happen, while the concept takes shape, started by a small number of people, but where a big number of people can participate, and not missing that only person who would say something really smart that nobody else has seen, so that it completely redirects the discussion…

A sort of live discussion that would at the same time show where everybody agrees, and where people start to disagree (so that other options can be found there), and also allows that one really good remark that must not be missed at any cost, to actually not be missed… And that with possibly a huge number of remarks anywhere along the discussion, with possibly some people exploring one implementation of a solution maybe to finally end up realising it is a dead end, while other explore another solution, and so on…

Kind of like a growing tree that starts from a seed, allows anyone that has something to say to speak, gathers energy where it is needed in real time to become something better or avoid costly mistakes…

I don’t seem to find anything anywhere that can address that matter…

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Would something like https://www.openproject.org/ be along the lines of what you are looking for? I do believe that it is possible to do with Mattermost, I’m just making sure I grasp the concept of what you’re looking for before I make any suggestions on how to implement a potential solution.

5

not really, in the case of openproject, the first stone from which we start( if I get it right ) is: we know what we want and how we want it.

I would like something that comes at an earlier stage. Just before someone says “Ok, that is how we are going to do it, let’s make a planning a split the work…”

I would like a tool that would lead the whole company to that exact remark just above. A collective decision making tool in a sense. That puts forwards what is smart (until it is not considered so relevant anymore), as well as where things are mostly unanimously accepted.

Something that gives the feeling to everybody in the company that their voice matters in a given decision process, so that if things cannot get organized by themselves with this tool, it become very apparent why someone has to make a decision for everybody, or so that a solution can emerge that would be better than what a smaller group or individual could have come up with, and be a collective decision.

6

I think I understand what you are saying, that seems like a very good idea, in fact I like that approach so much I think I may end up implementing it myself into my company!

I’m just tossing some ideas around, I’d like to work with you on this, so that we can design a Mattermost setup that best fits your needs.

I had some thoughts that ran across my mind, and several ideas on how one could (maybe?) implement something to suit the needs you are looking for. I’ve had several different ideas on how this could be done, here is an outline in a “workflow” type-format. The thought in this, to me, is that starting from the top, and going down, the user responses are getting fewer, while at the same time getting longer, in a sense.

  1. Mattermost Public Team 1 - General feedback/brainstorming channel, individuals who post in the main channel are asked to provide a two to three sentence, broad overview of the topic of change, and what they would do differently/how they would like to see things change.
    Other users have the ability to read through these messages, and utilize reactions (such as potentially a simple up arrow and down arrow, to indicate if they support/agree with the subject matter, and maybe a third reaction to indicate interest in exploring this topic further)

  2. For proposals in the above channels/teams, a set number of reactions in favor of additional discussion and or development is set. When a proposal reaches this number of reactions, it gets its own channel, to grow the topic through conversation, and ideas. This would be a great time to integrate with GitHub, which allows you to create and manage issues directly from the Mattermost chat, which will allow you to note important development or topic matter issues to another location where it can be triaged and tracked, as well as monitored in the server. In addition to the aforementioned, to be inclusive of the possibility that a venture is a dead-end, creating an additional channel for the topic that contains a message, with reactions, simply asking if the involved members still are persuing development and if it is still possible (or something along those lines) could allow you to quickly manage with simple visualizations the status and activity of a potentially large amount of topics.

  3. As the topic/project nears solution, a private channel/group for the administration and or logistical/fine technical details could be added in addition, to enable the core group of developers to communicate effectively without their messages being rapidly lost in a channel with a large number of people communicating very rapidly, etc. Once the project has been completed, or the decision has been made to make the area public, you can always change the channel to be publicly viewable, of course.

My thought with this is that this method could be duplicated across several teams, as well as in a company-wide team. I say this in the sense that, as far as organization goes, it may be helpful to have a section for IT, a section for logistics, a section for the machinists or software designers, etc, as well as at least one “general” company-wide discussion group.

I personally developed this idea in the mindset that even if an employee is not particularly vocal with their thoughts, they are still enabled to provide feedback and make a direct impact to the movement of a project or idea simply based on the reaction indication that they select on a specific topic. This, to me, seems like it would help promote company-wide inclusivity, as well as the ability for all to provide feedback on all topics.

Getting staff to the correct channels can additionally be further automated with the Mattermost Welcome Bot which is free to use.

What do you think of this idea, does this sound at all along the lines of what you are envisioning? If you see things you would change, please don’t hesitate to let me know, I value your feedback and am excited to find a solution!

1 Like
7

Yes that is exactly my point !

I like your workflow. I’m not familiar with GitHub as you describe using it though

Or the ability to explore this topic further right away if there is something to say? We would end up with something that looks like a tree. Then we just need to find a way to make this tree easily readable at first glance.

sounds good :+1:

Sure, how do you want to do?

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I’d be more than happy to invite you to my own Mattermost instance, which does have GitHub integration set up, and create a private team for us to play around with if you’d like, as well as our GitHub organization so that I can provide a perse “overview” of the way I envision how it might look, and how the integration would be useful, etc.

If that sounds agreeable, I’ll try and fill the team I create with fake discussions and stuff before you join so you can see what it could end up as functionally in-production instead of a bunch of empty channels, etc.

9

sure. I don’t find how to send you a personal message…
I did have an idea myself about how to solve that problem, I tried to code something to see if it was practical, and although I don’t have much experience in web design I ended up with this: https://arborium-forum.web.app/fr
that is really a draft that has the purpose of being just a bit better than a powerpoint to explain the idea

there is a mail address at the bottom of the page if you want to contact me directly

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It looks really good, and actually somewhat like what I was envisioning myself! I did email you directly, my email domain is @cybersecdefense.org :slight_smile: