Read the full script of Module 8, Episode 7 of the Global Growth Master Class below. Want to get certified on global expansion? Simply click here to access the complete course today.

Slack is a true global success story in every sense of the word. Improving business communication in more than 150 countries through more than ten million users, the company has been effective at creating processes and structures that assist at every stop along the way, from initial planning and market entry to support of rapid global scaling.

Here are some great examples of how Slack utilized processes and structures to facilitate and support its global growth

Slack asked key questions and did research to find answers utilizing the Global Agile Methodology

When entering new markets, the Slack team asked themselves key questions to direct localization discovery, such as: What does knowledge work look like in X country? What pivots are needed? Deeper questions, like “What is communication in the local market?” (customized for your industry/company model) can provide a lens through which localization can be identified.

Then the team focused on localization discovery, conducting research in partnership with local new hires and outside consultants, going in-country to interview current users and potential customers, and observing them using Slack. When entering the Japanese market, insights included both the pervasiveness and importance of work-life to someone’s identity, but also how Slack was a liberating and transparent tool amidst the hierarchy and formality of Japanese business culture.

Slack gathers the right volume of feedback and gets your product into the right hands

The Slack team established mechanisms to gather product feedback and understand customer requests. At the same time, they ensured that this feedback was measured and analyzed differently than feedback from established markets so that customer feedback from each region was given the right volume for the size of the issue and size of the opportunity.  Since the number of requests for a specific product localization will always be smaller in new markets than in markets with large customer bases, some amplification is needed, along with foresight to estimate the impact a product change would have as a new market scales. The next important step is to get this information from localization discovery and customer feedback to the people who can act on it.

Slack built cross-functional teams to support Internationalization

Next, Slack created two-tiered, cross-functional, internationally-focused teams. The more strategic “International Council” of function leaders and the more execution-focused working group each play an important role, from ensuring executive alignment and resources all the way through implementation.

Slack built process even when the team wasn’t built

Early in Slack’s launch in Japan, they only had one employee in-market, a member of the enterprise sales team. Besides having the necessary agile (customer discovery) mentality, this team member would participate in customer research efforts and even participated in established structures like quarterly business reviews with HQ despite not having P&L responsibility for the market, so that implementation of these processes wouldn’t be delayed before a local market general manager was hired.

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One of the biggest benefits Slack had was its own platform. In drinking their own champagne (or eating your own dog food, whichever metaphor you prefer), the Slack team benefited from the visibility and transparency the Slack platform provided, especially relevant when communicating amongst a distributed and virtual workforce.

Slack fostered internal relationship-building

A combination of knowledge of how to get things done internally and relationships across the business is a recipe for success in scaling globally. While relationship building should be organic, structure can be put in place to facilitate it. The primary drivers are establishing consistent rituals (like regional monthly customer feedback sessions) and inviting people to participate in these rituals (providing visibility and creating team dynamics).
To facilitate this, Slack uses the mantra “create processes to make the world smaller.” In pursuit of this, the Slack local teams created what they called Small Hands meetings, as discussed earlier in this module. While All Hands meetings were effectively used to get everyone together, Small Hands meetings were regionally focused. These meetings allowed for more dialogue instead of top-down information sharing from HQ. The by-products were closer cross-regional connections and best practice sharing; the meetings also fostered a level of regional ownership and identity.

Slack created, maintained, and adapted playbooks

Playbooks were an important resource for the Slack team. In fact, the team maintained a playbook on how to launch a new market and a playbook to maintain a market in light of the relative investments made in a specific market. While it is tempting to think you can calculate answers to all the questions you have, at Slack the playbooks made an effort to estimate the necessary investments needed for a market and ROI relative to the investments.

Slack made a specific effort not to “Don’t Launch and Leave”

Finally, there is a natural tendency to put a great deal of effort into the launch of a market and then taper off the focus on the market in favor of other market launches in the pipeline. To get to scale in new markets, teams have to continue to focus on finding company-market fit and provide support to build the team and operations for sustainable growth. As we quoted Kathryn saying, don’t “Launch and Leave.” The LPA helps build a path toward sustainable growth by giving the leadership team visibility into what’s needed to be successful in the local market and an understanding of the resources required to get there.

NOTE: Don't miss out on the next episode! If you want to continue learning about global expansion strategies and dive deeper into the course material, simply click here to access Module 8, Episode 8 of the Global Growth Master Class.