Create a Vision for Slack
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Identify business objectives and goals for Slack.
- Recommend appropriate metrics to measure progress against goals.
- Use data to make informed decisions and recommendations that increase success with Slack.
Set Your Goals
The more your company uses Slack, the more valuable it becomes to understand how it’s working for you. That’s why Slack provides data about how your company’s usage evolves.
In this unit, you explore what success with Slack means for your organization. You learn how to set goals for your team and assess progress toward those goals based on the metrics available to you in the Slack analytics dashboards or via the Slack Analytics API.
Define Your Vision
It’s important to map your company goals to your Slack vision. This connection helps your members understand why using Slack helps achieve your company objectives.
As a team, develop a vision statement that conveys what Slack can help you achieve. Ideally, it should answer the following key questions.
- Why Slack?
- How do you expect Slack to benefit employees?
- Which business goals does Slack help achieve?
- What behaviors should be encouraged?
Identify Internal Teams
Your core team consists of individuals with various roles that govern Slack in your organization. These decision-makers might wear multiple hats, and their dedication to Slack can vary based on company size and needs. In Enterprise+, the core team is supported by workspace-level teams.
The table summarizes the core and supporting teams in Enterprise+.
Core Slack Operating Team | Workspace-Level Support | Supporting Teams |
|---|---|---|
Executive Sponsors This role sets the Slack vision and provides organizational support. It should be filled by a senior decision-maker, such as a chief information officer, vice president of digital transformation, or departmental leader. Product Owners This role oversees Slack resources, policies, and processes. The role is often filled by a senior product manager or senior technical product manager, who may also be an org or workspace owner. Slack Org Owners and Admins This role manages Slack at the org level, overseeing policies, settings, and approval processes. They also promote best practices and processes within the organization. Project Manager This role provides project management oversight for Slack initiatives, keeping the team organized and on track. Learning and Change Management Professionals This role develops and delivers change management and learning strategies for Slack adoption, including communications, training curricula, and Slack champions programs. | Slack Workspace Owners and Admins This role manages Slack at the workspace level, overseeing policies, settings, and approval processes, while promoting best practices. Slack Champions Champions are power users who lead their colleagues in adopting best practices. | Helpdesk or IT support This role handles Slack support tasks, such as troubleshooting, access issues, and monitoring support channels, with responsibilities varying by support model. Developers This role designs, builds, and implements custom apps and integrations. Legal This team provides guidance on Slack usage, including code of conduct and data retention policies, and offers input for decision-making without overseeing long-term implementation. Security This team provides guidance on internal security and compliance for Slack, including app approval processes and provisioning. They offer input for decision-making without overseeing long-term implementation. Business Unit Representatives This role staffed by departmental leaders set the Slack vision, support adoption, and allocate resources, leading by example. Slack champions might perform this role. |
Whatever the configuration, remember to work as a team to craft a vision.
Make Data-Driven Decisions
Use people analytics to gain data-driven insights into your team’s communication, engagement, and productivity. This helps you identify areas for improvement, measure progress against targets, and inform strategic decisions with evidence. By using analytics, you can shift from traditional practices to data-informed decision-making.
Align with Business Goals
Your business goals should derive from the Slack vision. Here are a few examples of goals you might set for Slack.
- Improve user productivity.
- Increase cross-functional collaboration.
- Improve organizational transparency.
- Reduce context switching.
Translate Goals into Objectives
Success is different for each organization. This unit helps you get an idea of which success metrics are relevant to your goals. Perhaps you’re focused on increasing productivity or breaking down cross-functional silos. Or maybe amplifying the investments you've made in existing software is the key to success for your company.
Whatever it is, outline how you expect Slack to deliver value for your team and company to help achieve your business goals.
Review how one admin articulated their company’s goals for Slack. You review potential ways to measure these goals later in this badge.
Business Goals | Examples in Slack | Ways to Measure in Slack |
|---|---|---|
Build a Strong Culture Engage and inspire employees to do their best work. | Make valuable work searchable across the organization by working “out loud” in public channels. |
|
Financial Discipline Use technology to deliver more effective outcomes at lower costs. | Deploy 10 Slack app integrations to reduce context switching, increase productivity, and deliver better business outcomes. |
|
Employee Satisfaction and Retention Modernize the toolset to attract and retain the best in class talent. | Encourage managers and employees to use Slack in their daily roles. Identify power users and role models for recognition. Build a champion network. |
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Identify one business goal and one employee benefit for using Slack in your organization. Reflect on your current metrics and brainstorm new ideas for measuring progress toward your goals.
In the next unit, you explore the Slack metrics that help you measure your organization’s Slack progress, report to key stakeholders, and make data-driven decisions.