Stewart Butterfield
Founder at Slack / Flickr
Stewart Butterfield is the founder of Slack (sold to Salesforce in one of tech's largest acquisitions) and Flickr, known for his obsession with product craft, taste, and creating value for customers.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Stewart Butterfield, founder of Slack and Flickr, shares product wisdom he rarely discusses publicly, including utility curves, the owner's delusion, and his concept of 'hyperrealistic work-like activities' that make teams feel productive while accomplishing nothing. He explains the backstory of his legendary 'we don't sell saddles here' memo and why you should always see limitless opportunities to improve your product.
Leadership Principles
- → If you can't see almost limitless opportunities to improve your product, you shouldn't be designing it
- → The long-run measure of success is the amount of value created for customers — there's no substitute
- → Friction in a product can sometimes be a good thing
Notable Quotes
"What we have right now is just a giant piece of shit. If you can't see almost limitless opportunities to improve, then you shouldn't be designing the product."
— On his famous MIT Technology Review quote about Slack in 2014, reflecting his craft standards
"In the long run, the measure of our success will be the amount of value that we create for customers. There's no substitute for actually having created it."
— On the mantra he made the entire company chant at all-hands meetings
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