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Slack integration

How to easily collect product feedback from Slack and close the loop with your team

Written by Marina Salmon

Are you using Slack to gather product feedback from teammates or customers?

With our Slack integration, you can push all that feedback and product discussion directly to your Harvestr inbox to fuel your roadmap with the voice of your customers.

How does the integration work?

Prerequisites

To set up the integration, you need:

  • a Slack account. Depending on your workspace setup, you might need permission from your workspace owner to install the Harvestr app. See Slack's documentation on managing app installation.

  • a Harvestr Editor account

How to connect Harvestr to your Slack workspace

Go to your integration settings in Harvestr, select Slack, and click Connect to Slack.

This opens the Slack OAuth window. Connect your Slack account and review the rights you're granting.

Sending feedback from Slack to Harvestr

Now that Harvestr is connected to your Slack workspace, you have two ways to push feedback.

Collect feedback using the Harvestr form

You and your team can collect structured product feedback from Slack using the Harvestr feedback form. Enter the /harvestr command in Slack and the form opens automatically.

The Slack user who opened the form can then enter:

  • a title

  • the requester — the customer or teammate who originally gave this feedback. Left empty, it defaults to the Slack user submitting it.

  • a label, selected from the labels available in your Harvestr inbox

  • a discovery — link the feedback to an existing discovery straight from Slack. It then goes directly to the Archived folder of your inbox, saving you the categorization step. This option is activated from the integration settings.

  • the content of the feedback itself, which can be pre-filled with a template

If it isn't linked to a Discovery from Slack, the feedback goes to your Harvestr inbox and can be linked from there.

In Slack, you get a confirmation that the feedback was sent, and your whole team can view it.

For these notifications to reach private channels, you must first manually add the Harvestr bot to the channel. Mention @Harvestr in the channel and follow the suggested steps.

Feedback templates

To structure the feedback you get from teammates in Slack, define a default feedback template that pre-loads when someone opens the form.

Templates are created and managed from their dedicated settings, and the default template for Slack is set in your integration settings.

Templates only apply to feedback sent with the /harvestr command — not to messages pushed via Slack message actions.

Push existing Slack messages as new feedback

If you spot valuable feedback in an existing Slack message, push it to Harvestr using Slack message actions.

Hover the message, click More actions on the right, then Send to Harvestr.

The feedback form opens with the content already filled from the Slack message. You can then add a title, the requester, a label, and a discovery — same fields as above.

Pushing threads

When you push a Slack message that belongs to a thread, the whole thread is sent to Harvestr so you keep the full conversation context.

The individual message you triggered the action from is highlighted in orange in Harvestr.

Processing Slack feedback in Harvestr

All this feedback arrives in your inbox alongside everything from the other tools you've connected.

At the top of each item, a button with the Slack logo links back to the original message, so you can jump to Slack for more context.

From there, use our selector to capture product insights and link them to your discoveries.

Close the loop with people who sent feedback from Slack

Configure feedback loop notifications

Harvestr can post notifications back to the Slack threads where feedback originated, so teammates know what happened to what they sent.

Configure them from your Slack integration settings. Four types of notification can be sent:

  1. When the feedback sent through Slack is received in Harvestr

  2. When it's read in Harvestr

  3. When it's linked to a Discovery

  4. When the linked Discovery is set to specific states

With these, you can close the loop with your teammates when a feature they cared about ships.

Where notifications can be sent

For notifications to reach a Slack channel, the Harvestr bot must be in that channel. How it gets there depends on the channel type.

Public channels

The bot joins automatically the first time you send feedback from the channel.

Private channels

The bot won't join automatically. Invite it yourself:

  1. Type the /add command in the channel

  2. Click Add apps to this channel

  3. Search for Harvestr and add it

Direct messages

Bots cannot be invited to DMs, so feedback loop notifications can't be sent for feedback submitted from a direct message. The feedback itself still reaches Harvestr — only the notification back is unavailable.

FAQ

The /harvestr command isn't working

1. Check that the Harvestr app is installed in Slack

  • Open Slack

  • Go to Apps in the sidebar

  • Search for Harvestr

  • Make sure the app appears and isn't marked as inactive

If the app isn't listed, the integration wasn't fully installed. Reinstall it from Harvestr.

2. Confirm the app is added to the right channels

In each channel you want to use with Harvestr:

  1. Type /add apps to this channel

  2. Add Harvestr

  3. Run the /harvestr command to verify the app joined successfully

If the app isn't in the channel, it can't capture messages or respond to commands.

I'm not getting feedback loop notifications in Slack

First, check that notifications are activated in the integration settings in Harvestr.

If they are, check whether the Harvestr bot is present in the channel you're sending feedback from. Type /add in the channel, click Add apps to this channel, then search for Harvestr and add it if it isn't there.

Keep in mind:

  • the bot joins public channels automatically when you send feedback

  • for private channels, you have to invite the bot yourself

  • the bot cannot join direct messages, so no notifications can be sent there

If notifications are on, the bot is in the channel, and nothing is still coming through, reach out and we'll help.

If you have requests or ideas about how we could improve our Slack integration to better fit your workflow, send us a message!

To centralize all your product feedback, have a look at our other integrations: Email, Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier.

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