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10 Comments

How did you validate demand for Slack apps?

Hi all,

I am seeking advice from people who have created Slack apps and submitted them to the Slack App Directory. @mirv , @tobyc, @noahwbragg, @evaneykelen, @MarcelHagedoorn, @karmabot - would love your input.

I am working on a Slack app. The app, Interruption Buster, allows you to flag messages to follow up on them later. See here: https://www.interruptionbuster.com/

Since it will take time to polish the app to the standard required by the Slack App Directory, and since there is no guarantee of being admitted once I submit, I am looking for ways to validate the need/product prior to submitting to the Slack App Directory?

  1. How did you validate demand prior to submitting?

  2. Are there other online communities where people who tend to install Slack apps tend to hang out? Perhaps that would be a good way to connect with the right audience.

  3. What are some of the people who installed your Slack apps? Do they tend to be system admins / IT people, developers, just anybody, etc.? Are there ways to identify the people who install lots of Slack apps at particular companies?

Thank you all very much for your input.

  1. 1

    Also, I believe you can have other people install your slack app without it being approved and added to the slack app directory. So if you can get some people to try it out early you could go that route. I think you just have to share it with them.

    1. 1

      Yes, great point. Thanks @noahwbragg

  2. 1
    1. I talked to about 30 potential users to see if there was an actual problem there.
    2. Hmm, I'm not sure if there is for Slack particulary. All kind of people are installing Slack apps.
    3. They aren't system admins. They are people that actually have the problem you are having. If they are a bigger company that needs to have a system admin install it for them, they will ask them to install it for them if they are having the problem. I would say it is most likely their IT department that is installing apps for big companies. So you could try to find those managers at companies on LInkedIN and ask them to take a look but they probably need to have the problem or see the value in it for their company for them to be interested.
    1. 1

      Very helpful. Thanks for the feedback @noahwbragg

  3. 1
    1. We haven't submitted to the app store, but since my co-founders and I are still working full time jobs, we pitched our product to our target audience within our company (i.e. HR leaders , and managers). They liked the product and we are using our side project product within our full time jobs. This has been an incredible learning experience for us as we see the product being used LIVE and up front. We also reached out to warm contacts in our network, and got a few more companies there to try us out on beta. I would recommend reaching out to your network as well as your day job, if you can.

    2. You can try https://slofile.com/ . Its a directory of slack communities. For interruptionbuster, have you identified your target audience ? I would think product managers would be a good fit as they tend to sit in the middle between a lot of stakeholders and usually have to juggle a lot of different projects and priorities , and are bombarded with messages.

    3. I don't have a good answer for this one. In my experience, every department can identify a slack app for their problem but usually they have to get approval from their slack admin before it can be officially installed. Also slack apps are workspace or team based. I know interruption buster is $4.99 per user per month, so does that mean one person installs it, puts in their credit card and pays for the entire org or a team ??

    All the best ! :D

    1. 1

      Hey @Mirv - this is super helpful feedback. Thank you very much!

  4. 1
    1. https://karmabot.chat is a team tool, we got in early and validated it on my sub-team of contractors.
    2. Never heard of them.
    3. Slack admins / IT people, developers.

    Thanks for asking!

  5. 1
    1. I didn't validate. It's an experiment and part of a cross-platform strategy.
    2. 🤷‍♂️
    3. Individuals, but very low numbers at this moment.
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