Giving thanks to the two OG Workflow Builder steps

With the next generation of Slack Workflows projected to be available some time in 2023, I wanted to spend a minute showing two classic steps thanks and thinking about what the future holds. Hey, it's Thanksgiving right? 🦃

For those who have not yet experienced Workflow Builder - start here - as Slack does a great job at providing self service documentation. And for the history or trivia buffs out there, it was originally called "Missions" and acquired from Robots & Pencils in 2018 (Source).

In short, any paid Slack plan gives users access to Workflow Builder. And within that, there have been two all-star default steps Built by Slack that have been helping companies since ~2019 at automating workflows: (1) Send a message and (2) Send a form. These two very basic, simple, extraordinarily straight forward steps have helped business streamline all sorts of operations (HR, Ops, Engineering, Sales, Service, Marketing) -- thereby increasing productivity, saving time, and making everyone's days easier.

With just these two steps (just two, think about that!) Slack provided five templates that can easily automate different processes for your team. These work almost immediately out of the box and can be customized quickly for your team, company, culture -- making them highly adaptable. It's clear they've caught on with over 400,000 users creating them historically and nearly 80% of those users being non-developers.

The OG Templates

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE -- you can extend the power here by using workflow steps from other apps, chaining them to the default steps which exponentially increases what you can do. Take for example our friends over at Centro. You can integrate your Slack and Salesforce, then use the Slack steps with the Centro steps and run whole business processes through Slack. Things like needing your reps to be able to do one-click Lead Conversion directly in Slack.

Centro Workflow Steps

Whew -- That was a lot right? So, shout out to the two originals! You've been amazing and already helped change how work is done. Thank you!

Now... think about this -- If this is what we've seen done with just a handful of steps, imagine what we can do once the new platform is here! Imagine the ways in which we can fundamentally change how work is completed. How we can automate the everyday to focus on the strategic, creative and fulfilling. How we can leverage async communication and collaboration even more, reducing meeting overload and burnout and continue to increase employee satisfaction. Improving and optimizing work/life balance to lean heavily towards life. More life.

This is the future of work, brought to you by Slack. Just think about it.