Slack Growth Playbook
Where work happens.
Pivot
Game
Strategy
Fun
The Spark
Stewart Butterfield and his team at Tiny Speck were building a game (Glitch) that ultimately failed, but they realized the internal tool they built to talk to each other was the 'Real' product.
The Growth Engine
The 'Bottom-Up' Workplace Infiltration & The 'Fun-as-a-Feature' UX: Slack tacticaly won by making work feel like 'Not Work'. Their growth engine is 'The Viral Channel'—employees start using it for social chat before moving their core work there. By including custom emojis, Giphy integrations, and a 'Friendly' voice and tone, they replaced the 'Cold' corporate vibe of Microsoft Lync. Their growth relies on 'The App Directory'—integrating with 2,000+ other tools, ensuring that if you want to know what's happening in your company, you have to look at Slack.