Taskbot

Overview

O3 employees use a variety of tools to do their jobs. We found a way to simplify tasks and lessen their cognitive workload.

The environment

So many tools, so little time

Like many companies, we use a variety of complex business tools at O3. G Suite, Confluence, Harvest, Target Process, Slack, and other platforms are essential for each employee. Switching back and forth between platforms to complete simple and essential tasks can take a lot of time and mental energy. We wanted to lessen the cognitive load on our employees and find a way to make it easier to perform daily tasks.

The foundation

Teaching an old bot new tricks

Target Process is the main application lifestyle management tool we use at O₃ World. It’s absolutely central to our business, and employees across all teams rely on it for managing projects, writing tickets, and handing design tasks. We had previously built a “SlackBot” to send alerts to people that were tagged in Target Process tasks. We decided to transform our original bot into something that could be used with the array of tools we rely on at work.

Robotic process automation (RPA) has been used by businesses to automate mundane rules-based tasks and make processes more efficient. We decided to use RPA principles to build our bot to make it as efficient and simple as possible. From there it was a matter of learning about which features would benefit our teams the most and figuring out the best way to streamline processes.

The results

A central hub for several tasks

By utilizing RPA and a conversational user interface, we were able to simplify several complex productivity applications into one Slack application. Instead of needing several programs to check on the progress of a project or the whereabouts of an employee, we made it as simple as starting a Slack conversation with Taskbot.

Question examples:

• What conference rooms are available?
• Can I get all the releases for [project name]?
• What is [employee]’s schedule like for tomorrow?
• Can I get the sprint’s tasks for [project name]?

The future

What’s next for taskbot

Taskbot is a constantly evolving project that will grow along with our employee’s needs. We’re currently working on making the bot capable of helping employees request and approve time off, schedule meetings, and even make Target Process requests. After that, we plan on constantly looking for new ways to utilize Taskbot in our everyday lives and potentially tie it to other Labs work.