Stewart Butterfield

Don't obsess over removing friction. Obsess over reducing the amount your users have to think. Friction and comprehension are different problems. If someone doesn't understand what a button does, fewer clicks won't help them. Clarity is the real goal.

The "hyper-realistic work-like activities" trap is real. Reviewing the deck that previews the deck before the big meeting is work. Scheduling a meeting to decide when to have the meeting is work. None of it is known valuable work. That's on leadership to fix.

We were in year one of Slack and I told MIT Technology Review: "What we have right now is just a giant piece of sh*t. We should be humiliated that we offer this to the public." People printed it out and put it on the wall. That's the right attitude.

Your margin is my opportunity. But here's the version people miss: your failure to tilt your umbrella is my opportunity. The tiny acts of courtesy — the things everyone else is too distracted or oblivious to do — that's where product differentiation lives.

In the long run, the measure of your success will be the amount of value you create for customers. Say this at every all-hands. Put it on the wall. Make it the filter for every decision. There's no substitute for actually having created it.