How Slack broke through with a simple value proposition

Communication platform Slack is one of the biggest tech success stories of the past twenty years. The platform enables users to easily communicate by creating specific channels that are relevant to their business. Messages are organized within those topics around threads that make communication fast and easy. Since its founding in 2009 Slack has grown to become a global technology platform; you'll struggle to find a startup or technology company that doesn't run on it.

What's interesting is that Slack started by accident. Prior to building Slack, it's founders were working on a gaming platform called Glitch and they realized they needed a way to communicate in real time. Email was too slow and unwieldy, so they built an internal messaging tool. When their gaming platform folded, that tool went on to become Slack – a multi-billion dollar company.

Explaining all that Slack could do for its users, at a time when most were still used to communicating on email was potentially tough. But Slack focussed at the start on a value proposition that resonated with their target audience.

The danger when developing a value proposition can be to try and cram in everything your business can do for users, which can often lead to the messaging being muddled and unclear. In their early value propositions Slack dialed in on a clear use case that users could understand. 'Slack replaces email' makes total sense to anyone who reads it and is based in the product truth of the origin story. Despite being a new type of technology it also gives the audience a reference point of what to expect from the functionality that they immediately understand. Slack's audience knows email, uses email and is likely (just as they were ) frustrated by email – so they already have an understanding of the value it is going to provide them.

Slack's initial value proposition also makes clear the type of business they are for. 'Inside your company' is a key phrase which articulates to the user the size of the company they serve, this is about replacing a messaging system within a business. Whilst solopreneurs may use Slack, it's really a tool for bigger businesses and this is perfectly captured in the initial value proposition.

Just like any technology platform, Slack has continued to evolve its capabilities. This has had an impact on what the core platform can do, which in turn has impacted the value proposition. Slack now describes itself as 'Your productivity platform' and its homepage messaging directly calls out how it connects people to make them more productive. This evolution has been enabled by the way that slack integrates with the majority of other technology platforms, making it central to the way a business works. It's a reminder that your core product offering always connects to your value proposition, and an evolution in one will likely lead to an evolution in the other.

THE TAKEAWAY

Be selective in the type of value proposition you use, ensure it articulates what your product can deliver to your target audience.

As you evolve your business consider how your value proposition can evolve.

GO DEEPER

Listen to how Slack was founded and scaled on How I Built This here.