Learning Center
Table of Contents
What is Pact?
Pact is:
- A collaboration tool.
- A platform that integrates with:
- Slack.
- Google Calendar.
What does Pact do?
Pact records commitments between two people whenever they agree to complete simple tasks.
Afterward, Pact automatically:
- Tracks the commitments and their updates.
- Follows up with everyone involved in the commitments by:
- Communicating to them any updates regarding the commitments as soon as they occur.
- Reminding them to meet the commitments as the date they agreed to do so approaches.
- Recurrently sharing with them their most urgent commitments.
What can I achieve with Pact?
Leverage Pact to:
- Ensure critical tasks get done every time.
- Foster accountability.
- Spend less time:
- Tracking the status of tasks.
- Following up with anyone responsible for pending tasks.
How does Pact work?
What are pacts?
In Pact, you or your teammates can create pacts to record your commitments.
When should I create a pact?
You should create a pact whenever:
- Someone in your team asks you to complete a task.
- You want to get a task done for others.
- You want to set automatic reminders to prevent anyone from forgetting about working on a task.
What details must I provide when I create a pact?
To accurately set expectations for a pact, you must provide four essential details:
- Summary: A one-sentence definition of the task for which you create the pact.
- Assignee: The accountable party of the pact. The teammate who works on the corresponding task and who is responsible for the outcome and presenting evidence.
- Approver: The interested party of the pact. The teammate who is interested in the corresponding task’s completion and who reviews the assignee's evidence.
- Expected date: A feasible date by which an approver would expect the assignee to complete the task and mark its pact as done.
Important: The expected date is resilient and should be the best estimate up to date. In other words, you can always reschedule a pact.
Note: Besides the previous details, the pact can also include a description to further explain the task for which you created it.
What happens after I create pacts?
After you create pacts, Pact automatically:
- Tracks the pacts and the updates that anyone involved in them provides.
- Follows up with everyone involved in the pacts by sending the following:
- Notifications about updates regarding the pacts as soon as they occur.
- Notifications right before the pacts’ expected dates pass.
- Daily digests at different times with a list of only the most urgent pacts.
You can then decide if you take any particular action to ensure you meet your commitments and mark your pacts as done.
What is the lifecycle of a pact?
A pact can be in one of the following states:
- Done because you or a teammate involved in it marked it so on the agreed expected date and added evidence for review.
Important: You cannot undo marking a pact as done. - In progress.
- Late because its expected date has already passed, and you or a teammate involved in it have not marked it done yet nor rescheduled it by changing its expected date.
- Inactive because you or a teammate involved in it have decided to deprioritize the task given that it has been left unattended, rescheduled several times, or is simply no longer relevant.
Important: You can always reactivate a pact if the corresponding task is reprioritized.
Important: Only the previous conditions and course of events determine the state of each pact. In other words, you cannot manually set a particular state for each pact.
Which information regarding a pact is always available?
The following information regarding a pact is always available.
- Details
- Expected date
- Created at. The date on which you or one of your teammates created the pact.
- Last user interaction. The date and time on which either of the parties involved in the pact:
- Added comments to it.
- Marked it as done.
- Added details to it or edited existing ones.
- Rescheduled it.
- Deactivated it.
- Assignee
- Approver
- Description
- Counts
- Times rescheduled
- Days late
- Notifications sent
- User interactions
- Comment thread
- Pact history, which includes the date and time, whether a single one or many, on which the pact was:
- Created
- Confirmed
- Marked as important
- Added to on-demand lists
- Commented on
- Updated
- Rescheduled
- Completed
- Deactivated
In what ways can I manage a pact?
At any time, you can:
- Mark a pact as important.
- Edit the details about a pact to keep expectations up to date.
- Add comments to a thread within a pact to provide additional context if necessary.
- Mark a pact as done.
- Reschedule a pact.
- Deactivate a pact.
Pact reminds you to carry out each of the previous actions as circumstances change.
You can also create more pacts for new tasks at any time.
How does Pact keep me updated on a pact’s progress?
What events trigger Pact notifications?
Pact automatically sends notifications to everyone involved in a pact so you can stay informed about updates regarding such pact.
Pact sends notifications at the following moments:
- When you create a pact because you aim to complete some task.
- When either of the parties involved in an existing pact:
- Adds comments to the pact.
- Adds details to the pact or edits existing ones.
- Marks the pact as done.
- Reschedules the pact.
- Deactivates the pact.
- As the expected date of an existing pact gets closer.
- When either of the parties involved in an existing pact marks it as done.
How do Pact digests work?
Pact sends daily digests at different times with a list of only the most urgent pacts.
Pact adds pacts to such list weekly and as the pacts’ expected dates approach to avoid overwhelming everyone’s agenda with every pact you or your teammates create.
Which are my pacts?
Any pacts you create or get involved in, either as an assignee or an approver, would be your pacts.
What tools can I leverage to manage my pacts?
You can leverage the following tools to manage your pacts:
- Pact Platform via a web browser
- Pact in Email
- Pact’s Slack Integration
- Pact’s Google Calendar Integration
Pact Platform
Pact is always accessible through any web browser.
You can always view your pacts in the Pact Platform, regardless if you use Pact in any other app or tool. In other words, you can always view and manage your pacts leveraging the features available in the Pact Platform, along with the features available in a third-party tool that works with Pact.
How do I see my pacts in the Pact Platform?
Go to the Pact dashboard at app.withpact.com to get at-a-glance views of the pacts you are involved in.
You should immediately be able to:
- View your pacts for the current week
- Edit the details of your pacts, such as changing their expected dates
- Deactivate your pacts when they stop being relevant
Additionally, you should be able to:
- Use filters to visualize different timeframes and settings
- Create new pacts
How do I create a pact in the Pact Platform?
Click on the "Create pact" button in the top right corner.
What do Pact messages look like?
What do Pact notifications look like?
What do Pact digests look like?
Pact’s Slack Integration
What can I do with Pact’s Slack Integration?
In Slack, you can:
- View the details of your pacts.
- Add comments to your pacts to provide context or feedback to collaborators.
- Deactivate your pacts when they stop being relevant.
How do I set up Pact’s Slack Integration?
Follow the next steps to set up Pact in Slack.
- Click on the Get Pact for free on Slack button.
- Sign up using your Slack account.
Note: Pact’s signup process may ask you to select a specific workspace in Slack if you belong to multiple ones. - Give Pact permission to access your Slack account information.
Important: Pact does not send messages to anyone from your team without your authorization.
You would then get a message from Slack to start using Pact.
How do I see my pacts in Slack?
In any Slack conversation, type /list-pacts to show a list of the pacts you are involved in.
A list of the pacts expected from you on a particular week would show up on Pact’s Slack channel.
Note: Your pacts’ list is only visible to you.
- /list-pacts actions would show you the list with buttons to mark your pacts as done, add comments, or change their expected date.
- /list-pacts done would show you a list of your pacts completed in the current week.
- /list-pacts next week would show you your upcoming pacts for next week.
- /list-pacts approver would show you your pending pacts as approver for the current week.
How do I create a pact in Slack?
Follow the next steps to create a pact in Slack.
- Create a pact from scratch by:
- Typing /create-pact in any Slack conversation.
- Providing details about your pact in the modal window that shows up right after.
Or turn any Slack message into a pact by:
- Clicking on the three dots button within the message to open Slack’s additional options menu.
- Clicking on Create pact.
- Providing more details about your pact in the modal window that shows up right after.
Note: You can set a Slack channel as a pact approver. Everyone in such channel would be able to see the pact’s details.
What do Pact messages look like in Slack?
What do Pact notifications look like in Slack?
What do Pact digests look like in Slack?
Pact automatically sends you morning and afternoon digests in Slack with a list of all the pacts expected of you on any given day.
You should receive those digests at 10 AM and 5 PM, respectively.
Note: To change the default date of these digests, contact us at coach@withpact.com.
To keep accountability and expectations up to date with your team:
- Update your pacts.
- Mark the pacts you have completed as done.
- Update the expected date of the pacts you could not complete on the initially set date.
Carry out the previous actions after reviewing digests and before ending your workday.
Pact’s Google Calendar Integration
What can I do with Pact’s Google Calendar Integration?
Using Pact with your calendar helps you stay on top of your pacts and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Pact’s Google Calendar extension allows you to visualize your pacts expected for each day and add comments, mark them as done, or change their expected dates as needed directly from there.
How do I set up Pact’s Google Calendar Integration?
To set it up, go to Google Chrome’s extensions list and follow these simple steps:
- Install the extension by clicking Add to Chrome and then Add extension.
- Go to your Google Calendar and log in with your Google credentials.
- Return to your Google Calendar and refresh the webpage.
- See your pacts in the calendar, click to update them, or create more.
What are Pact workflows?
Pact workflows are sets of pacts that help you automate common and repetitive processes within your company. Such pacts are sequential and are sent to whomever you need to complete a procedure.
Pact workflows are tailored to various use cases in different areas, such as:
- Human Resources.
- Information Technology.
- Sales.
How do I sign up to start using Pact?
You can create and work on assigned pacts immediately after logging in with a valid email account.
About our team
Why was Pact built?
Our founders have been working with hundreds of teams for over a decade. They identified that the most effective teams (the ones that get the most impactful business results, build trusting relationships, and grow their careers) are the ones who can communicate effectively about their priorities and keep others informed as expectations change.
Our founders built Pact to help individuals and teams establish good practices around prioritization, communication, and expectations management without requiring heroic efforts from team members.