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Stewart Butterfield on pivots, channels and product design: interview summary

An Interview with Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield

Qualtrics · Oct 25, 2017 · about 28 min

Uploaded Oct 25, 2017 · 123.7K views (as of Oct 30, 2026)

Good value given

Both Flickr and Slack came from failed multiplayer games.
His team used IRC, a chat tool from 1992, to work together.
Channels let a conversation exist before you join and after you leave.
He says a designer should act like a good host and treat users as guests.
He says users aren't thinking about your product most of the time, so it must be simple.

Where did Slack come from?

Butterfield says both Flickr and Slack were pivots from failed online multiplayer games. While building the game Glitch, his team used IRC, an old chat system built around channels. Messages go to a channel instead of to people, so the conversation exists before you arrive and after you leave. That idea became Slack.

Worth watching?Good value given. A short, sharp talk on how Slack and Flickr came from failed games, and on treating users like guests. Good product thinking packed into under 30 minutes.

ActionableLessons

Actionable

List the internal tools your team built for itself and ask if one could be a product.
Rewrite one screen or page so the most needed information is first.
Treat your next user test like hosting a guest.
Remember your product is far from the top of your customer's mind, and simplify.

Lessons

Failed projects can hold great products.
Shared channels change how teams work.
Good design is hospitality.
Simplicity respects busy users.

Quick answer

Stewart Butterfield sat down with Qualtrics for this interview, published Oct 25, 2017. Here's our summary in our own words: a verdict, the answer to the big question, 5 takeaways, Actionable and Lessons tabs, then the stories, frameworks and how to use them.

What 125x is: 125x is a web app at 125x.app. You connect your YouTube subscriptions, and it gives you a feed of the latest videos from the channels you follow, each with a summary: a verdict, the 5 key takeaways, and the spoiler, plus Actionable and Lessons tabs with more tips. You read that and decide what's actually worth opening.

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Watch the interview

Watch on YouTube: An Interview with Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield

Channel: Qualtrics. Published Oct 25, 2017. About 28 minutes.

Who is Stewart Butterfield?

Stewart Butterfield co-founded Flickr and Slack. Salesforce later bought Slack.

This interview with Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith was recorded at a Qualtrics event in 2017.

Key stories from the interview

He explains how both companies pivoted from games.
He describes IRC and the idea of channels.
He uses restaurant websites as an example of bad design that ignores what people want.
He discusses how far to lead customers versus follow them.

Frameworks and ideas

Pivot from failure: keep the tool that works.
Channels: messages go to a place instead of a person.
Host and guest: serve the user.
Not top of mind: users have bigger worries.

In their words (paraphrased)

The role of designer is that of a good host.
We're not even in the top thousand of their concern.
If we can truly create value there'll be plenty of opportunities for us to capture some of that down the road.

How to apply this

Ask a new user what they need first, then put it first.
Look at a failed project and list what could be saved.
Move one team conversation from private messages to a shared channel.

A note on this summary

This page reports what was said in the interview, in our own words. Lines under 'In their words' are paraphrased from the transcript, so check the video for exact wording.

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FAQ: questions people ask

How did Slack start?

As an internal tool built while Butterfield's team worked on the game Glitch.

What does Butterfield say about design?

A designer should be like a good host, treating users as guests.

Is the Stewart Butterfield Qualtrics interview worth watching?

Good value given. Short and full of product insight.