Transparent Collaboration: The Key to Slack's Success

Slack is a software company based in San Francisco, California. It has grown from a startup to a company valued at over 5 billion dollars. The company's product is a communication platform that is used by businesses of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. Slack's focus on designing an amazing user experience has been a key factor in its rapid growth. The company invests heavily in its design teams and uses its own product as a critical part of the design process. Slack's design process is transparent and collaborative, involving all stakeholders from the early stages.

Slack, a software company based in San Francisco, faced the challenge of maintaining a transparent and collaborative design process as it grew from a startup to a company valued at over 5 billion dollars. The company's product, a communication platform, necessitated an open and inclusive design process. The challenge was to ensure that all stakeholders, including the executive team, product managers, engineers, and designers, were involved in the design process from the early stages. This was crucial to ensure that the product remained user-friendly and continued to delight customers, a key factor in Slack's rapid growth.

Slack implemented a transparent design process that involved all stakeholders from the early stages. The process began with yearly and quarterly planning, where the executive team and product managers collaborated on a broad product roadmap. This was followed by a formal project kickoff, which involved setting up a project channel in Slack and a preliminary design brief. The discovery phase involved exploring the tech involved and working through early concepts. The design work was then reviewed within the product pillar group during design critiques and shared with the project team, greater design team, and 'product board'. In situations where a big product change could be complicated or controversial, Slack ran a product workshop with the head of the pillar group, and other leadership, to ensure everyone understood the scope of the problem and potential repercussions. The team then prototyped new feature flows iteratively, using InVision and other products. Towards the end of the product development process, a comms/marketing/messaging channel was set up, and there were Platform Demo Days every 2 weeks to present progress on specific projects company-wide.

• The transparent and collaborative design process implemented by Slack has resulted in a product that delights its users and has contributed to the company's rapid growth. The process ensures that all stakeholders are involved from the early stages, which helps to ensure that the product remains user-friendly and meets the needs of its users. The use of Slack as a critical part of the design process also helps to foster a culture of openness and collaboration within the company. The regular reviews and critiques of the design work help to ensure that the product is continually improved and refined. The use of tools like InVision for prototyping and testing new concepts allows for rapid feedback and helps to ensure that the final product meets the high standards set by the company.