Building New Worlds: Lessons from Gaming and Enterprise Software - Cal Henderson + Je Bercovici

TL;DR

Slack co-founder talks about the connection between video games and the creation of their collaborative communication tool.

Transcript

[Applause] all right hi everybody hi Kel all right Jeff so for those in the audience who don't know as much about your background as they do about slack you you came you and your co-founders came to slack after building a video game called called glitch that hit hit some didn't work out exactly yeah didn't fully work out but but it did spawn it did... Read More

Key Insights

• 🎮 The co-founders' background in video games heavily influenced the development of Slack, as both involved creating shared spaces and collaborative environments.
• 🤩 Transparency and openness are key principles in Slack's design philosophy, allowing for collaboration across different organizations with their unique ways of working.
• 💌 Slack aims to disrupt traditional communication mediums like email by providing a more efficient and transparent platform for collaboration.
• 👤 Playfulness and fun are part of Slack's DNA, creating a unique and engaging user experience.
• 👾 Building games and building business software have different challenges, with game development requiring a whole experience to be fun, while business software can iterate and improve over time.
• 🪡 Slack's success can be attributed to its initial development for the co-founders' own needs, allowing for quick iterations and a deep understanding of user needs.
• 👾 The concept of shared spaces and communities on the internet has evolved over time, with smaller, interest-based communities being more successful than vast, all-encompassing platforms.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the co-founders' background in video games influence the creation of Slack?

The co-founders saw a connection between the concept of shared spaces in video games and the idea of creating a collaborative space for communication in the online world. They wanted to build a platform where people could collaborate in small communities and find shared interest groups.

Q: What is the main philosophy behind Slack's design?

Slack aims to remove the opinion of how people should work together as a group from using the platform. The software promotes transparency and openness, allowing different organizations to organize and communicate in their own unique ways.

Q: How does Slack's communication model differ from traditional platforms like email?

Slack encourages the use of channels as the primary mode of communication, where conversations are visible to other members of the channel. This promotes transparency and allows others to follow along or refer back to conversations later. In contrast, email is a one-to-one medium by default and lacks the same level of transparency.

Q: Is Slack similar to social media in terms of openness and privacy?

Slack's focus on transparency and public information is limited to the organization or workplace. While social media platforms may experience pendulum swings in openness and privacy, Slack's use case is specific to the workplace and does not have to deal with the complexities of the broader social media landscape.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Slack co-founders came from a background of building video games before creating the communication tool.

• They saw a connection between the idea of building shared spaces in video games and creating a space for collaboration in the online world.

• The concept of small communication spaces and collaboration carried over from their gaming background to the development of Slack.