Audio-Only Calls – Focusing on our Core Product and Customer

The working world has changed dramatically in the last few years, and many of those changes are unlikely to reverse in a meaningful way. People are working from home, or other remote locations, far more often. Even with companies returning to their offices in some capacity, the fact of the matter is that remote, digital connection is going to remain critically important. This flexibility, for many, has been life-changing: no commutes, more time with family, and the ability to work when they would be at their best. Even still, challenges remain, and Slack is uniquely positioned to tackle many of those challenges. Slack is, however, probably not the best solution to every remote work problem, and we need to focus on features that are truly additive to our core experience.

While remote-working has afforded tremendous flexibility, there are still components of the office environment that have been challenging to recreate or replace. We want to build an audio-only calls product, one that we’re pitching with a working name of StandUp. This feature will help our customers build stronger personal connections and, true to our mission, make working simpler, more pleasant, and more productive. StandUp will help shape the next phase of working, and it’ll do so without adding more video-calls to customers’ days. There are a few core drivers to our decision to lead with this idea, highlighted as follows.

We’re competitor aware, but customer obsessed.

We need to be aware as competitors release features that encroach, but if we let competitive activity be the primary driver of our release strategy, our CX will suffer. Our customers use Slack as their Digital HQ, and depend on us to bring together the right people, information, and tools - at the right time - to get work done. And, that’s what we should focus on. Our customers depend on us to offer an unparalleled experience when it comes to communications, and we’ve built a brand on that. “I’ll Slack you” is ubiquitous terminology in our customer’s workplaces (just as “Let’s Zoom” has become synonymous with video-conferencing). Easy, fast team communications are our competitive advantage, and we should continue to build on that - and allocate our resources towards feature builds that support our core.

The level of resources needed to build our own enterprise-level video conferencing platform would be substantial. Beyond that, we would need additional sales and support resources to drive conversion and adoption for our customers that are currently using Zoom. If we start to focus on building a heavy-duty enterprise video comms platform, we will likely start to detract, and become distracted from, our core product. We would be doing it for the sake of competing with Zoom - not necessarily solving our customer’s actual needs. We owe it to our customers to continue offering the best Slack product we can.

Audio-only calls are in line with what we are known for, and they are solving a problem that our customer is facing every day in the new working world. They are yearning for the informal and many times impromptu conversations they used to have with co-workers in the hallway or on the way to a meeting. An audio-only call feature is the voice version of “I’ll Slack you”, and we have the opportunity to bring even more personal connection to our customers Digital HQ.

We don’t think our customer needs, or wants, more video options.

The move to digital & remote-first working has been life-changing for many, but it has also brought new challenges to working. Without the physical separation that comes with an office, it’s easier than ever to never ‘turn-off.’ And, without the interaction and personal connections that happen in the workplace, we seem to have begun to over-index on video calls in an effort to close that interaction gap. Yet, these video calls often feel cold, forced, and sometimes even awkward. Beyond the lack of connection that comes with video calls, they are exhausting. Just as ‘Zooming’ has become a commonplace language, so has ‘Zoom fatigue.’ Academic institutions, including Stanford and UC Berkeley, have conducted research on video conferencing and its relation to fatigue. Video calling is cognitively intense, and looking at yourself on calls constantly is fatiguing too. New options, or deeper integrations, re-enforces these issues.

Being tied to video-calls also means tying people to their physical desk - or somewhere where they can appropriately take a video call from. You know the BBC interview where the guy’s kids wander into the background? That’s an extreme example, but people do have to think about where they’ll be, and what’s in their background, every time they have a video call. Let’s get rid of that. With an audio-only call feature, customers can connect with co-workers anywhere - even while they’re taking a walk around the block. You can stay connected, and build personal connections, without the formalities of calendars and video-calls.

Audio-only calls are natural, and in many cases, more productive.

There’s enough video calling in our days, and certainly plenty of great enterprise products that solve that customer need. But we think there should be less video calling, and more unscheduled or unstructured audio chats. And audio-only doesn’t mean lack of features. Screen-sharing, multiple guests, and more - without needing to focus on fixing your gaze.

Let’s illustrate this with an example. You’re getting close to launch day, and you’ve got a question for your lead engineer. In today’s remote world, most of us would probably default to scheduling a 30-minute meeting or writing a long, likely unclear message. What if instead you could click a button and jump into an audio call with your engineer instead? You ask your questions - clearly and concisely, providing context that would be impossible in written form. But your engineer actually needs to ask their data person something, so the data engineer joins your impromptu audio chat too. In 10 minutes, you’re done, and all of you can get back to work. No pressure to fill timeboxed meetings, no awkward small talk while people try to figure out video settings or while you wait for others to join, and there’s more productivity. It’s a really natural interaction - like you just walked over to your engineering team’s pod.

There are some concerns and open questions we will need to address as next steps.

• Will it be harder for people to decline, or focus, if they are getting more impromptu calls?
• How will feature engagement change if people do start to shift more to in-office culture?
• How will we differentiate this from the existing Slack Calls feature?  
• Will Zoom actually be able to create a decent messaging platform?

There are a lot of avenues that Slack can pursue right now, but audio-only calls keeps our customer at the center and builds on our core product offering to make Slack even better for our users. This does not directly address Zoom’s push into our space, but it does solidify Slack as a critical component of our customer’s communication stacks. It’s the right call for our customers, and that’s what matters.

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