Shoutouts are a fantastic way to publicly recognize and celebrate the positive contributions of your team members within Windmill. They are designed to:
Give Recognition: Ensure your team members get the appreciation and visibility they deserve for their great work.
Spread Good Vibes: Foster a positive and encouraging atmosphere by highlighting successes and positive interactions.
Amplify Positivity: Automatically share specific types of feedback collected by Windy in a public forum (like Slack).
Key Characteristics of Shoutout Feedback:
Shoutouts are generated from feedback you provide to Windy that meets the following criteria:
All Positive: Shoutouts are exclusively for praise, appreciation, and positive reinforcement.
Not Constructive: They do not include suggestions for improvement or critical analysis.
Not Sensitive: The content must be appropriate for public broadcast within your organization.
How it Works with Slack:
Once enabled by an admin, approved Shoutouts can be automatically sent to a designated public Slack channel of your choosing. They'll arrive with a fun, celebratory message, ensuring that positive recognition is broadcast effectively and contributes to team morale.
How Do I Enable the Shoutouts Feature? (For Windmill Admins)
If you are an administrator for your company's Windmill account, enabling Shoutouts is straightforward:
Navigate: Go to the Shoutouts configuration page within your Windmill admin settings.
Enable: Locate the toggle or option to enable the Shoutouts feature and switch it on.
Select Channel: Choose the public Slack channel where you want Shoutouts to be automatically posted. Ensure the selected channel is appropriate for company-wide visibility.
Optional: Attach Company Values
If you’d like each shoutout to automatically have some of your company’s values tied to it, enter a quick list of your company values, optionally adding a short description to each one. When shoutouts get sent, we will identify relevant company values for that shoutout and attach them.
For example, the company values you input could be something like:
Value: Customer Focus Description: Always puts the customer first, considering impact on end users and looking out for their experience.
Value: Engineering Excellence Description: Demonstrates a commitment to high standards in crafting robust, scalable, and maintainable technical solutions through quality code, thoughtful design, and effective testing.
Save: Make sure to save your changes.
Once saved, the Shoutouts feature will be active for your organization.
How Do I Make a Shoutout? (For All Users)
Giving a Shoutout is easy and integrated into your regular interactions with Windy:
Provide Feedback: When giving feedback about a colleague to Windy, focus on their positive contributions or actions.
Keep it Positive: Ensure your feedback is purely positive, appreciative, and suitable for a public audience (not constructive criticism or sensitive information).
Give Consent: Windy will analyze your feedback. If it meets the criteria for a Shoutout (positive, not constructive, not sensitive), Windy will ask for your consent: "Would you be okay with making this feedback public as a Shoutout?"
Say Yes: Simply reply "Yes" (or similar affirmative confirmation) when prompted.
That's it! By consenting, you've initiated the Shoutout process for your positive feedback.
When Do Shoutouts Get Sent?
The process for sending Shoutouts to Slack is asynchronous. This means it doesn't happen instantly after you give consent.
Expect a Delay: You can typically expect the Shoutout to appear in the designated Slack channel within a few hours of providing your feedback and consent to Windy.
This allows the system time to process and queue the messages appropriately. Enjoy spreading the good vibes!