Ready in a Zap: Winning workflows from our crew’s Zapier Hackathon
Life at Zeplin
Abby Nitta
Feb 2021@abby
In case you missed it, we recently released our integration with Zapier. But, before we could roll out this new feature to our users, we wanted to test it for ourselves. That’s why we hosted an all-remote Zeplin + Zapier Hackathon!
In case you don’t know, Zapier is a wildly helpful no-code workflow and automation tool. It allows folks to connect thousands of tools to automate their work with “Zaps.”
To get your workflow muscles warmed up, we wanted to share the winning Zaps from our internal hackathon. Enjoy! ⚡
Most Creative and Fun
This particular Zap took the cake in two categories: Creative and Fun.
Sometimes, you need a little automated help to take a break from all your hard work. We get it, you love working in Zeplin. But sometimes you might want to mix it up a little in the comments — and a quick lo-fi game of tic tac toe can do wonders for your spirit.
Go ahead. Mark an ‘X’ in the middle spot.
Best in Usability
Fun and games aside, this next Zap could come in handy for teams who use Dropbox and Zeplin to work together.
When a Zeplin user exports or updates a screen on a Project, this screen will upload automatically on Dropbox as an image. Then, they can share this Dropbox folder with their PM, other teammates or clients.
Plus, with this workflow, you could keep your screens on Dropbox as a backup, archive or any other purpose your team might have.
Best Value Prop
The Zap that we named “Best Value Prop” is actually a series of four Zaps that allows users to keep their screens up to date with their product development process — all the way from starting the development for screens to releasing the finalized work for them.
The first Zap (for when new screens are in development) is triggered when a user creates a new branch in GitHub. The Zap creates a new note on the corresponding screen in Zeplin, noting that development has started.
When screens are ready for review, a new pull request in GitHub will trigger the second Zap and add a reply to the note in Zeplin with the update.
A new repo event in GitHub will trigger the third Zap, which updates the comment in Zeplin yet again, signaling that the screens are ready for testing.
Finally, once screens are released and their corresponding Jira Cloud issue is updated, the fourth Zap kicks in — adding a reply that notes the screen’s new status and a timestamp of when it was released.
Watch a quick demo of all four Zaps below!
Best Overall
This Zap (dubbed the “Zeptivity Board”) ran away with our “Best Overall” award by helping track Zeplin activity (adding screens, components, commenting) in a given date range — complete with leaderboards to show who is most active.
Every time a user adds a new screen, component or comment in Zeplin, a new row is added to a designated spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Then, those numbers can be displayed in a leaderboard using Google Data Studio.
We can definitely see how this automation could add some good-spirited competition to using the Zeplin workspace.
Only a Zap away
It’s hard to believe that the Zeplin crew has been working from home for almost a year. But, this fun pre-launch event was an encouraging reminder of all the creative and out-of-the-box thinkers that make up our crew.
Fin
