Group setup

When to use groups

Groups help organize threads and chats for long-term collaboration. Use groups to:

• Align teams around departments, teams, or long-term topics.

• Send messages to specific audiences (think of an email listserv).

For short-term discussions, we recommend using threads instead of creating new groups.

Pro Tip: Start small. You can always add more groups as your team grows or your needs evolve. Threads are perfect for handling temporary or one-off discussions without cluttering your workspace.

Recommended Use Cases for Groups

Functional Teams

Create a group for each department, managed team and office location. Any team that needs to be messaged regularly should have a group. Examples include:

• Leadership

• Product

• Sales Operations

• San Francisco Office

Working groups, long term projects, or special interest groups

For larger companies, it might make sense to set up groups for significant, long-running projects or groups of people who will work together and want an easy way to message the entire group. Groups can always be removed later once the project has completed. Examples include:

• Cross functional project teams on multi-quarter projects

• Interest groups or ERGs

You can always edit the groups in your workspace, and you'll never lose important context because threads exist independently of a group.

Group organization for smaller companies

For smaller companies, here are some recommendations we have from our own use of Glue at our company and from working with lots of other small startups.

Create groups for each distinct department or work stream, even if the same people are in multiple groups. This helps compartmentalize work to reduce noise and keep threads organized.

Use threads to manage your projects, and include the relevant groups on that thread. This way everyone can have visibility into projects and can contribute when needed, and you're not creating silo'ed groups for every project. Keep communication streamlined and accessible.

Setting up Groups in your new Glue workspace

When setting up your Glue workspace, it’s helpful to plan your group structure before inviting your entire company—especially for larger teams.

Create core groups first:

• Set up key groups that align with your organization’s high level departments and teams.

• This ensures people have relevant groups to join as they learn to use Glue. This will also help avoid users spinning up too many new groups if they don't see the groups they need.

Give your team guidance on when to use groups:

• Establish a clear structure and provide guidelines for when and how new groups should be created.

• Team members can create their own groups for smaller sub teams or interest groups.

Add people to groups or let them join on their own:

Add teammates to relevant groups or let them explore and add themselves to groups as needed, but make sure to let them know where to go look in the Group Directory. They will be able to see all group names and can join or request to join depending on the group type.

• Open Groups: Users can join directly.

• Closed Groups: Users must request to join and get approval from a group admin or workspace admin.

For detailed instructions on creating groups, refer to the Creating Groups documentation.