Welcome to The People Behind the Programs, a blog series celebrating the voices, stories, and impact of the community professionals powering connection and belonging across the globe.

Today, we meet Jacob Gross, the Senior Manager, Community at Slack in the United States. Jacob’s journey into community leadership was serendipitous and rewarding, fueled by a deep passion for fostering connection and belonging among diverse groups. Let’s dive into his story in his own words.

‍

How It Started

My path into the community industry started when I was working in higher education, where I worked closely with students and learned how to support, guide, and engage groups with different needs. That experience taught me a lot about building trust and designing programs centered around connection and belonging. From there, I moved into an ed-tech startup, which was a natural bridge — it allowed me to pair my background in education with a more dynamic, product-focused environment. As the company, product, and community membership grew, I gravitated toward work that connected users, gathered feedback, and created spaces for collaboration, which ultimately led me into a few more community roles in the startup world, followed by where I am now, working on Slack at Salesforce.

‍

A Day in the Life

In my role on the Community team at Slack, I focus on strengthening relationships with our end users, admins, and developers, and amplifying the stories that showcase how Slack transforms the way people work. A typical day blends strategy, content, and community engagement. A highlight of my day is getting the privilege of working with our Slack Community leaders, our biggest superfans and advocates. These are the folks who are leading their local Slack chapters globally, hosting user-led Slack events, helping to spread that product message and brand awareness. From there, I often work on community-driven campaigns—building programs that highlight customer champions, coordinating with regional teams, or drafting content that celebrates real user impact. I also spend part of my day preparing for upcoming events, whether that’s supporting a user group, preparing Slack Community's presence for on-site Salesforce flagship events, or refining resources for our advocates. Throughout it all, I’m connecting dots across teams and ensuring the voice of our community is reflected in the work we ship.

The Tools that Power My Work

One of my go-to tools for community building is Bevy because its focus is on distributed control, a strategy that works well, especially when you’re looking to scale your efforts. Our programs rely on giving community leaders the freedom to create experiences that feel local, authentic, and tailored to their audiences—and Bevy makes that possible at scale. Its event management features give leaders everything they need to run high-quality meetups, workshops, and user groups, while still allowing us to maintain consistency, brand quality, and visibility across regions. I love that it centralizes logistics but doesn’t limit creativity: our Community leaders can design formats, choose topics, and collaborate with one another while we can track impact, share resources, and support them with ease. It also integrates smoothly with the rest of our Community program suite, which means less time chasing details and more time actually nurturing the community. Bevy helps us strike the balance between structure and autonomy that strong communities rely on.

‍

Advice for Newcomers

The most valuable skill you can build early in community work is the ability to listen and interpret what people truly need. Spend time learning how your audience communicates, and what they care most about. At the same time, don’t be afraid to start small. Some of the most impactful community programs begin as simple conversations, pilot events, or lightweight experiments. Test things, learn quickly, and iterate often.

And don't forget about your colleagues internally; that's where the success of the Community works starts; Community work is highly cross-functional and requires the support of many teams, at every level (and yes, that includes your CEO). Build those cross-functional relationships early. Community touches product, marketing, support, the C-suite, and beyond, and your impact grows when you can collaborate across teams.

Finally, stay curious. The community space evolves every day, and the best practitioners keep learning—about people, platforms, storytelling, and data. You don’t need to know everything at the start; you just need to stay committed to growth.

‍

Resources I Suggest

I highly recommend reading The Business of Belonging by David Spinks. It's an invaluable resource for understanding how to create meaningful community experiences. Additionally, check out the job board on community.inc for opportunities and inspiration.

‍

💬 Let’s connect on LinkedIn — I’d love to hear from fellow community builders.

💡 The People Behind the Programs is a blog series that shines a light on the community professionals powering impactful programs around the world. Want to share your story or nominate someone doing incredible community work? Submit your spotlight here.

‍

Are you passionate about building communities?

‍Join the movement, start a CMX Connect chapter in your city or virtually and become a local leader in the global community industry. 👉 Apply to become a chapter director