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Slack founder: Mental models for building products people love ft. Stewart Butterfield

Overview

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Slack founder: Mental models for building products people love ft. Stewart Butterfield

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Nov 20
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Nov 20
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Stewart Butterfield is the co-founder of Slack and Flickr, two of the most influential products in internet history. After selling Slack to Salesforce in one of tech’s biggest acquisitions, he’s been focused on family, philanthropy, and creative projects. ...

Highlights

In this insightful conversation, Stewart Butterfield, the visionary behind Slack and Flickr, shares hard-earned wisdom from his journey building transformative products. Moving beyond the usual startup narratives, he dives into the subtle yet powerful mental models that shape effective leadership and product innovation.
06:44
The first effort may yield little value, then there's a threshold for high value, and further investment has diminishing returns.
10:13
Users' rising standards require ongoing product refinement to maintain satisfaction.
18:13
At Slack, 'tilting your umbrella' is seen as an opportunity.
22:15
The 'Shouty Rooster' pop-up effectively reduced misuse of @everyone in Slack.
40:15
Simplifying menus improves experience more than reducing clicks
45:11
Successful product leaders are constantly unsatisfied with how products work
47:14
Direct criticism can be motivational when aimed at improvement
50:10
Almost nothing works because there are too many vetoes in modern systems.
1:00:25
The cost of implementing a feature exceeded its possible benefit, making it a guaranteed loss.
1:12:06
We don't sell saddles here — we sell the experience of riding.
1:13:23
Admitting a pivot is often humiliating because you have to convince people you were wrong.
1:18:36
Generosity in business is both a personal value and a strategic advantage.

Chapters

Introduction to Stewart Butterfield
00:00
Stewart’s current life and reflections
04:58
Understanding utility curves
06:44
The concept of divine discontent
10:13
The importance of taste in product design
15:11
Tilting your umbrella
19:03
Balancing friction and comprehension
28:32
The value of constant dissatisfaction
45:07
Embracing continuous improvement
47:06
The complexity of making things work
50:03
Parkinson’s law and organizational growth
54:27
Hyper-realistic work-like activities
1:03:17
Advice on when to pivot
1:13:23
The importance of generosity in leadership
1:18:36
The owner’s delusion
1:26:34

Transcript

Stewart Butterfield: This is 2014, That was the year that Slack actually launched. I was interviewed by MIT Technology Review and asked if we were working to improve Slack. I said, I feel like what we have right now is just a giant piece of shit. It's just...