First things first. We’re not getting into the music business. We develop software and are pretty good at it.
But even at the risk of dating ourselves, for those of you old enough to remember the hip-hop girl band from the 80s, Salt ’N’ Pepa, you probably remember their famous tune with some #NSFW lyrics. Yeah, I’m referring to “Let’s talk about s**, baby”.
So, while I was sitting around with my writer’s block trying to figure the best way to explain the key differentiator in our app Clariti — yes, I’m talking about THREADS — the Salt ’N’ Pepa tune suddenly started looping in my head and bam(!), I have clarity (pun totally intended!) in my thoughts and tune.
“I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.”
Maybe we should be in the music business.
But I digress. Back to Threads.
Thanks to my sudden epiphany (and Salt ’N’ Pepa!), I think I just figured a way to explain Threads in a way that will convince you why Threads, the way we have implemented in Clariti, is revolutionary, and how it will make you a total rock star at work!
So, what is a Thread anyway?
A jargon-free definition of a thread is simply this: A thread is a connected set of work activities.
The operative word here is “connected”. A natural question to ask is — what does a thread connect and how? Let’s deal with the “what” — “how” is simple mechanics.
For most chat apps that people use in their workplace or even in their personal lives, we are familiar with the concept of “threading”. It’s where you are able to select a specific chat message and reply to that. What it does is make the chat more meaningful and easy to follow, especially when it’s a part of a long conversation and responses can get confusing. For example, was the “no” in response to the first message or second? Most chat apps now allow users to pick a specific message and respond to it directly. That’s what “threading” means in a chat-only world. Nothing complicated. There are different mechanisms to implement threaded messaging in chat apps, but you get the point.
Emails have threads too. In fact, email threads have existed far longer than chat. Put very simply, when people go back and forth on email with “Re: re: re: re: re:…” it creates a “thread” of email conversations. We have all seen this in action, albeit grudgingly, wondering (more hoping, than wondering) when some enlightened soul would take the trouble of editing the email subject!
Okay, so I get Threads. But how’s the Clariti Thread any different?
Fair question. But something that has deep implications for us…and you. For us, the response to this is our raison d’être. For you, understanding how threads work in Clariti could mean embracing it and being more productive, organized and smarter at work. That’s a lot of words for simply saying that you could be a “rockstar” at your workplace.
So, back to answering your question.
A thread in Clariti still connects — but “what” it connects is the real difference. Unlike the plain vanilla threading you are used to, Clariti creates topic-based threads from everything you do at work — emails, chats, to-do, documents, and more!
Take some time and go back and read that last sentence one more time, and let it sink in. This wasn’t a typo. I did say Clariti creates topic-based threads from everything you do at work — emails, chats, to-do, documents, and more!
A thread in Clariti is not simply a thread of just emails or a thread of chat messages. It’s where the twain does meet!
Threading in Clariti is driven by the topic being discussed. And ANY means you use to discuss that topic — an email, a chat, another few emails, a few more chats, some to-dos in between — are ALL connected in a thread. No other app does that today! It wasn’t without reason I used the word “revolutionary” earlier in the blog.
That’s cool, but why should anyone care about the way Clariti does threads?
“Just because no other app does it today, doesn’t automatically make it worth doing.”
If that’s what you’re thinking, you’d be absolutely right.
So, you want a reason why you need topic-based threads of emails, chats, to-do…? I’ll give you 3 instead:
1. Productivity
Clariti dramatically increases your workplace productivity with its unique topic-based threads of emails, chats, to-do and more, in one single app. There is no need to waste valuable time switching between different apps for email, chat or to-do. You can do everything from one app and have them connected intelligently in topic-based threads, ensuring there are no information silos.
2. Order
Clariti’s topic-based threads restore order to your work. All your work — emails, chats, to-do, documents… — is neatly organized, by topic, so there is no need to get stressed searching for information across disparate and disconnected apps. No searching. No stress!
3. Speed
Threads in Clariti are displayed in an easy-to-navigate visual form so that users can quickly see the complete history behind their work without having to rely on memory. This unique representation of the thread allows you to see the big picture and make informed decisions, faster!
It all sounds good. But how do I know this really works as advertised?
That’s the beauty of freemium products, isn’t it? I simply explained some of the thinking behind why we did what we did, and how it might help you. But you don’t have to believe a word of it. As they say “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. Clariti is available for FREE! All you need is to sign up for free and check it out for yourself. We have done a bang-up job with the onboarding…or so we hear from our legion of fans and customers worldwide! You should be up and running very easily. Once you’re in and have used it for a while, let us know what you think. Good, bad, ugly — we’d like to hear them all. Its early days for us here at Clariti — and no feedback is too small or criticism too big. We’re soaking it all in. And it goes right back into making the product better.
Okay, almost a thousand words in, I hope you got some clarity Clariti (sorry, I had to go there) about Threads. Perhaps you can go about your day humming…
“I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.”
