Turn private customer conversations into usable research
A customer insight shared privately can still become part of your team's learning with a lightweight Dovetail capture.
Trigger
Direct Message Received
Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.
Action
Create Data Point
Tool to create a data point within a channel. use after capturing new content to record and classify it in dovetail.
Why this helps
Founder conversations happen in private channels, making their learnings difficult to share or revisit during team decisions.
- Reduces the gap between customer conversations and team learning
- Preserves context from private Slack exchanges
- Makes important feedback easier to revisit
Setup
Build it in a few focused steps.
- 1Connect Slack and Dovetail to Notis once through the portal.
- 2Create an automation in the portal or ask Notis to capture meaningful customer learnings from Slack DMs in Dovetail.
- 3Write one plain-language instruction that distinguishes customer evidence from internal discussion and asks for a contextual data point.
- 4Select the Slack Direct Message Received trigger and choose where run reports should appear.
- 5Test with one real DM containing a customer learning and verify that the data point reflects the available context.
Questions about this workflow
Does every personal DM need to become research?
No. The instruction can limit capture to messages that contain clear customer learning relevant to your research.
Can it preserve a customer's exact wording?
The prompt can ask Notis to preserve a short relevant quote when the message provides one.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
Supported Triggers and Actions
Notis builds workflows that link Slack to Dovetail. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.
Slack triggers
Dovetail actions
Recurring trigger
Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.
Create Channel
Tool to create a new channel in dovetail. use after confirming channel details.
Webhook trigger
Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.
Create Contact
Tool to create a new contact in dovetail. use when you need to register a contact before logging interactions.
New Channel Created Trigger
Triggered when a new channel is created in Slack.
Create Data Point
Tool to create a data point within a channel. use after capturing new content to record and classify it in dovetail.
Channel Message Received
Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.
Create Insight
Tool to create a new insight in dovetail. use after synthesizing findings when ready to store them. example: "create insight 'q1 user trends' with body '...' for project 'proj 123'."
Direct Message Received
Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.
Create Topic
Tool to create a new topic in a channel. use after confirming channel id, title, and optional description.
Message Reaction Added
Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Delete Channel
Tool to delete an existing channel. use when you need to remove a channel and move it to the project's trash (restorable for 30 days). confirm the channel id before calling.
Message Reaction Removed
Triggered when a reaction is removed from a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Delete Topic
Tool to delete an existing topic. use when you have confirmed the topic id and want to move it to trash (restorable for 30 days). example: "delete topic with id 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000."
Reaction Added Trigger
DEPRECATED: use `SLACK_MESSAGE_REACTION_ADDED` instead. Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack.
Get Note
Tool to retrieve details of a specific note. use when you have confirmed the note id and need full note metadata from dovetail.
Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.
Slack and Dovetail, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
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