Why is Slack so great?

I know, I know — everyone now is talking about Slack. Incredible user growth, a billion dollar valuation, über-accomplished but modest founder, and it all started as a side project … But I must admit — Slack has become my favourite piece of software (sorry, Dropbox). My work inbox is now suddenly manageable and I’m more productive. And, as a product manager, I have drawn a few conclusions on how to build great software.

Of course, the Slack team have found a great product/market fit, educated the users about a need they might not necessarily have been aware of, and nailed the marketing. I’d like to focus specifically on the software itself and my experience of using Slack.

So, what makes Slack so great?

1. Seamless onboarding process

Slack is actually quite a complex piece of software. It changes how team members communicate with each other. So it is important that every single team member understands how to use it and sees the benefits of using it from the get-go. Therefore, the onboarding process is critically important. And Slack has nailed it.
To say that Slack’s onboarding is good would be an understatement. See it for yourself — just follow this link.

Here’s what really stood out for me:

• As soon as you’re registered, the software displays a few hotspots. When you click on one of them, it displays information about what the chosen tool is doing and how it should be used.

• Slackbot — a new, interesting way of helping a new user to configure their account. Instead of following a standard, step-by-step process, Slackbot acts like a personal assistant helping to set up the account. Very cool!

2. Obsession about user feedback

I’ve said it before ­– users are a source of invaluable insight into what works and what doesn’t work on your platform. So, it’s important to communicate with them. But, in the words of Gary Vaynerchuk “It’s even better to actually give a shit about them”.

Apparently, the Slack team responds to over 10,000 ZenDesk tickets a month and has six people working full-time to look after their Twitter channel 24/7. That’s very impressive, and they clearly give a shit. In Stewart Butterfield’s (Slack founder’s) own words:

“When key users told us something wasn’t working, we fixed it — immediately.”

And Slack users respond. Just have a look at this Wall of Love:

How does Slack know about their users’ issues? They are active on Twitter and respond to all relevant Tweets. But, even more importantly, every single system email features a call to action to give them feedback or to get in touch in case of any problems:

I love it! So, following the advice from the excellent book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, I decided to be an artist and steal that line. From now on, all Yomp system emails feature a similar call to action:

3. Three critically important features developed really well

Paul Bucheit, an early employee at Google and one of the creators of Gmail, said:

“Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else.”

In the case of Gmail, it was fast, stored all of your email (back when 4MB quotas were the norm), and had an innovative interface based on conversations and search.

And Slack? Is it perfect software? No, it isn’t. It crashes from time to time and we sporadically get errors like this one:

But, they prioritised a few features and got them right. Very, very right.

Search: Google has set certain expectations and the Slack team recognised that the value of their product was in helping people find what they are looking for.

Synchronisation: Slack was built with so called “leave-state synchronisation”. It knows where every person in every conversation leaves off, and it syncs to their cursor position in real time. This is very important because, without this tool, users in organisations with high volumes of conversations, would need to pay close attention to the activities taking place on the system.

Simple file-sharing: From the ability to quickly paste images through to the ease of dragging-and-dropping files, Slack has made it very easy and intuitive.

And, as Butterfield notices:

“Suddenly you’re ahead of the game because you’re the best at the things that really impact your users.”

4. It’s fun

One of the reasons why so many people love CityMapper, a now super-popular app in London, is because there is some humour built into the app. For example, you can select a jetpack as a means of transport:

It makes people smile.

Slack is no different.

For example, when you first open up the app and you’re waiting for the screen to load, you’re greeted with a positive or funny message:

Build great products

I know, it’s easier said than done. Slack has set the bar for a great product really high. And every product manager or product team should strive to get their work as close to that level as is physically possible. In Slack’s founder’s own words:

“Life is too short to do mediocre work and it is definitely too short to build shitty things.”

“The answer to ’Why?’ is — because why the fuck else would you even want to be alive but to do things as well as you can?”

I couldn’t agree more.

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