When a failed game became a billion-dollar tool
Slack's Accidental Pivot
It started with a game
The
Origin
2011
Tiny Speck launches
Glitch
.
MMO
game.
[1]
A browser-based
Except, One problem
Except, One problem
Not
Not
enough
enough
users.
users.
When the game dies
The Failure
December
2012
Glitch
shuts down
Glitch
shuts down
Arrow
Scribbled Underline
Team scatters
Morale low
Future unclear
Arrow
Arrow
But something survives.
Not the game.
Arrow
An internal tool they built.
What they ignored. Almost.
The Tool
A
channel-based
application
application
chat
chat
The team built 'Linefeed'
✔ Searchable
✔ Searchable
✔ Highly Efficient
✔ Highly Efficient
✔ Fast
✔ Fast
The team built 'Linefeed'
Demand Arrives
Demand Arrives
Other teams catch up
From Linefeed to Slack
The Rebuild
They rebuild it for the world
They rebuild it for the world
S.L.A.C.K.
New Name
Scribbled Arrow
K
nowledge
and
C
onversation
A
ll
L
og of
S
earchable
Waitlist explodes.
Waitlist explodes.
The product sells itself.
The product sells itself.
Private beta launches.
August 2013.
Three accidental advantages
Why It Worked
They built for themselves first.
No guesswork.
Just hunger.
1) Built by Dogfooding
1) Built by Dogfooding
Glitch died.
But the workflow survived.
Smart. Fast. Practical.
2) Designed
for Delight
2) Designed
for Delight
From multiplayer mayhem
to team clarity.
Channels made sense.
3) Channel Structure
3) Channel Structure
What do we learn?
The Takeaway
discovering
We Learn That
what matters.
Not every success comes with
defining the vision.
Sometimes it comes with
- Keep upskilling.
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