1 00:00:01,360 --> 00:00:04,480 Speaker 1: The ability to use your smartphone, use your laptop from 2 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: anywhere is huge and just cuts down one of those 3 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 1: otherwise hard constraints on how people work. Increasing requirements for 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: bandwidth and latency and a video and studies that show 5 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:18,760 Speaker 1: that video latency has a huge effect on kind of 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: your interaction with co workers, That milliseconds make a difference 7 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: in being able to read people's body language in a 8 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: nonverbal communication. And you know, increasingly the Internet feels like 9 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: a true utility in the sense of peril water and 10 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: that just like nothing works when it's not there. Welcome 11 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,239 Speaker 1: to the restless ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more 12 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,600 Speaker 1: than a decade really learning about technology, what makes it tick, 13 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: and then describing and explaining that to my audience. But 14 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: it's the conversations with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the 15 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: leaders at the intersection of technology and business that fascinate 16 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: me the most. In partnership with T Mobile for Business, 17 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: I explore the unique set of challenges that c t 18 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 1: o s and c I o s and other tech 19 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: executives face from advancements in cloud and edge computing, software 20 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: as a service, Internet of things, and of course five 21 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: g we are often left wondering how the leading minds 22 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:29,039 Speaker 1: in business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Our guest 23 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: today is Cal Henderson, chief Technology officer of Slack. Chances 24 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:39,119 Speaker 1: are you're familiar with Slack. The collaborative platform has proven 25 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: to be a popular tool even before the days of 26 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: the pandemic. Once the business world was forced to pivot 27 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 1: in the wake of COVID nineteen, Slack's role in how 28 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: many of us do our work became undeniable. I sat 29 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: down with Cal to talk about his background in software development, 30 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: how he navigated the transition from pro grammar to a 31 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: leadership role, and how he sees technology playing a part 32 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: in how we do our work in the future. Cal, 33 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 1: just to start off with, I want to thank you 34 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,640 Speaker 1: for joining us on the Restless Ones and welcome to 35 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: the program. Thank you for having me excited to be here. 36 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:20,639 Speaker 1: I'm very excited to have a chance to speak with you. 37 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: So can you tell us when and how you first 38 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:28,680 Speaker 1: started to get interested in the world of technology. Yeah, 39 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: it was from a really young age. I grew up 40 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: in the UK um kind of in the countryside as well, 41 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: and when I was really young. I have a slightly 42 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: older cousin who got one of the first kind of 43 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: home computers, one of those things you plugged into your TV, 44 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:44,920 Speaker 1: and it came with a basic interpret city, right, little 45 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: programs in basic and I saw this and I was like, 46 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: this is so cool. This is now my obsession. And 47 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: then a few years later I was like, in fact, 48 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna do for the rest of 49 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 1: my life. I don't know that there are jobs doing this, 50 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: but this would be cool if there was a job. 51 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 1: And so from like a really young age, like when 52 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: a seven or something like that, I was obsessed with programming. 53 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: And at the time, obviously technology computers were very different 54 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: because it's the pre Internet era, UM, and so it 55 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: was about like making local applications, and in the like 56 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: nineties graduated to making like Windows apps. But then when 57 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: the Internet and when the Web came around, UM, that 58 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: was like opened up a whole kind of set of 59 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: possibilities because I could make something and I love just 60 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 1: like making software for for people, and so it was 61 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:28,079 Speaker 1: it was like a hobby and a passion. I guess 62 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 1: it still is. And I just knew I wanted to 63 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: make software, and it's just like the making of stuff. 64 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: It's such a you know, kind of interesting medium. I 65 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: just love making software that other people use, especially things 66 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: that a lot of people use every day and you know, 67 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: makes their lives a bit better. Software is just software, 68 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: but it's a tool and has become increasingly important in 69 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: everybody's lives and everything everybody does, and that's just such 70 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:54,160 Speaker 1: a cool thing to be part of it. I mean, 71 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 1: you're extremely humble, but I would argue that obviously software 72 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 1: is such an intrinsic part of almost every aspect of 73 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: our lives today, whether you are conscious of it or not, 74 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,800 Speaker 1: it's present in some regard. Uh, And of course the 75 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: hardware that underlies it is equally as important. That you 76 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 1: really got into a field that was just starting to explode, 77 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: as I would imagine that by the time you were 78 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:26,800 Speaker 1: first programming in basic, that was probably around the same 79 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:30,040 Speaker 1: time that a lot of people weren't really familiar with 80 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:32,719 Speaker 1: computers on a personal level at all. They had heard 81 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 1: of them and they thought that's a thing that does math. 82 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 1: So you kind of got in right at that perfect moment, 83 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: I guess so. I think if I were older, I 84 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: think that would have been more of a struggle because 85 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: I was there or that threshold of kind of the 86 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: explosion of the web, the explosion of personal computers, and 87 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: then quite a bit later, you know, the the kind 88 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: of mobile shift, which I think has been the really 89 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: big shift there and how people think about technology. M 90 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: But yeah, it was just well time, you know, I 91 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:04,280 Speaker 1: started my career, like, you know, a decade before Facebook 92 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 1: existed and kind of you know, before the dot com 93 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: boom of the of two thousand, which was just such 94 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: an exciting time for this thing that was a passion 95 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:17,039 Speaker 1: of mine to turn into something you could make money from. 96 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: Like that wasn't my intention. Did it as a passion 97 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,520 Speaker 1: because I love making stuff and it's kind of incredible 98 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,080 Speaker 1: now the influence that it has on society and how 99 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: important it is in everything. But that wasn't the case 100 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: twenty five years ago. M M. Well, what what was 101 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: your first you know, professional gig in the world of 102 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: programming and software development. There was an advertising agency in 103 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:43,239 Speaker 1: the UK and I made some websites for for brands 104 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: at that company, and it's like, this is really cool. 105 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: I got into static websites. But then it was what 106 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 1: if we had a community around a brand and had 107 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,800 Speaker 1: of for like a forum where people could post messages 108 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 1: and that idea of the web as a medium where 109 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: people could talk to each other on it as well. 110 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: You know, it's had like email and Usenet and I 111 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: and things before that, but the web as a platform 112 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:05,159 Speaker 1: for interacting with other people was really exciting to me, 113 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: and I think that's what got me on the path 114 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,560 Speaker 1: kind of to wearing them today, of building things that 115 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 1: allowed people to interact. And I think you know that 116 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: ultimately the changes that you know have been bought about 117 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,400 Speaker 1: in society by the Internet, by the advancement of technology. 118 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,719 Speaker 1: There's a lot of like information like available to you 119 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 1: now that's hugely different. And I think the really big 120 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: impact has been in and still is with the Internet 121 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: in connecting people in ways that you weren't able to before. 122 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:34,279 Speaker 1: You know, the collapsing of geographic borders and geographic distance 123 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: and the you know, the world. The world is a 124 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: lot more accessible and people are a lot more connected 125 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: to each other than ever before. Well, and I also 126 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: love that with your story we see the transition from 127 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 1: what we used to call the web one point oh 128 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,000 Speaker 1: model to the web two point oh. I'm curious, what 129 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: would you say was your first sort of leadership role 130 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: in in tech. Yeah, I definitely, you know, I got 131 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: into technology as I like creating stuff, not because I 132 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: wanted to be like a manager of people or a 133 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 1: leader or anything like that. That kind of fell into that. 134 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:10,640 Speaker 1: So with the previous company, we've made website called earth 135 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:13,320 Speaker 1: Flicker that was kind of at the very beginning of 136 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: web two dotto, which was photo sharing website and the 137 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 1: you know, we were very we started as a very 138 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 1: small company. We saw this as an a niche incredibly 139 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 1: at the time because Flicker launched in two thousand four. 140 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 1: It was novel the idea of putting allowing people to 141 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:32,280 Speaker 1: put photos on a web page so other people could 142 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 1: see them, which sounds crazy because that wasn't even twenty 143 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: years ago, but we were just the first people that 144 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: really allowed you to do that. You know, prior to that, 145 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: there had been the introduction of a digital cameras, the 146 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: very first cell phones with cameras in them. But people 147 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 1: are starting to carry cameras around with them and take 148 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,120 Speaker 1: a lot of photos. But really the only thing you 149 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 1: could do was upload them to have them printed at 150 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: a Walgreens or like have them put on a mouse 151 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: pad or on a mug. And so it's like there's 152 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: that shift of people were starting to take a lot 153 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 1: more photos, but there's nothing to do with them, and 154 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:03,680 Speaker 1: we just thought, let's put them on a web page. 155 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:06,480 Speaker 1: And we've got really lucky with the timing. I think 156 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: it was more and more people were starting to get 157 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: on the internet. More and more people were starting to 158 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 1: take photos and not have anything to do with them, 159 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:16,280 Speaker 1: and suddenly it started blowing up and it was, you know, 160 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: at the time, a big phenomenon. And we sold that 161 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: in two thousand five to Yahoo, and as the company grew, 162 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:26,960 Speaker 1: I was the head of engineering and so it became 163 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: the leader there on the engineering side, kind of by accident. Well, 164 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 1: what were some of the lessons you learned? I mean, 165 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:37,359 Speaker 1: to make that transition from like purely a creative standpoint 166 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:41,200 Speaker 1: to a leadership one, it was incredibly difficult, and I 167 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: think the reason being that all of my career and 168 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: kind of pre career up to that point, I identified 169 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 1: as a programmer, as a software engineer, and that's how like, 170 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: that's what I loved doing, and also how I was 171 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,760 Speaker 1: kind of deriving my sense of self worth and the 172 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,400 Speaker 1: transition to being in a leadership role certainly as today 173 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: where I'm not writing code anymore, not professionally, and I'm 174 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:07,079 Speaker 1: further and further away from you know that the thing 175 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,720 Speaker 1: which I enjoyed doing is really difficult to make that 176 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 1: shift away from how you see yourself providing value and 177 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: what it is you do and what valuable use of 178 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,360 Speaker 1: time is. But the realization that is just much higher 179 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:25,040 Speaker 1: leverage to not do that that, however good a programmer 180 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:26,360 Speaker 1: I was, and I'm not saying I was a great 181 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,400 Speaker 1: programmer by any stretch of the imagination, Like five people 182 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 1: are always going to be better, and ten people and 183 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:32,960 Speaker 1: a hundred people and a thousand people are always going 184 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: to have better leverage. So you know that switch in 185 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,480 Speaker 1: mindset to you know, I make things too, I'm a 186 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: multiplier on other people making things. I think is the 187 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:45,440 Speaker 1: is the big shift, And as the team evolved over years, 188 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,200 Speaker 1: that was kind of a gradual process. I'm pretty happy 189 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:50,120 Speaker 1: with it today. I'm pretty at peace with me you 190 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:52,040 Speaker 1: place in the world. But I think that was a 191 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 1: big shift, and that was the difficult for me. Yeah, 192 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 1: I imagine that's the sort of thing that you realize 193 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: more upon reflection than you do while you're actually going 194 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: through it. I think that's both true and there's an 195 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,520 Speaker 1: aspect of like like having to come to terms with 196 00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: it at the time, as well of like, I shouldn't 197 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: be spending my time this way because it's not actually valuable. 198 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 1: And I think that's still a lesson at any scale 199 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,680 Speaker 1: that you need to keep reminding yourself is what is 200 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:21,440 Speaker 1: a valuable use of time versus what feels like you 201 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:23,720 Speaker 1: could be doing right now. And I think that's often 202 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,520 Speaker 1: a challenge for leaders at any scale to separate the 203 00:10:27,559 --> 00:10:31,959 Speaker 1: strategic from the tactical, because as organizations get larger, there's 204 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: a never ending stream of things you could be doing 205 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: that feel urgent and feel simple and straightforward and are 206 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: probably rewarding to do as well. They're like immediate gratification. 207 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:44,120 Speaker 1: You get this thing done. It's done. So being able 208 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 1: to take a step back and think, how should I 209 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:48,560 Speaker 1: be spending the balance of my time today, this week, 210 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:50,960 Speaker 1: this month, What is the time that's going into our 211 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:52,760 Speaker 1: next six months or next year, the next three or 212 00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:56,120 Speaker 1: five years versus tasks I can complete today. And I 213 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,480 Speaker 1: think that in some ways, growing as a leader is 214 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,480 Speaker 1: that instant cycle of understanding that you need to be 215 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: more strategic and less tactical and keep that balance correct 216 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,240 Speaker 1: so I think it's a mental shift to understand that 217 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:13,720 Speaker 1: while that feels rewarding, that isn't the thing that's going 218 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: to make you the most successful over the long term. Well, 219 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: this is this is fascinating, and we've we've kind of 220 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: bled into obviously your time at Slack. I'm curious to 221 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,720 Speaker 1: hear more about when you first started working on the 222 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: thing that would become Slack and the genesis of those 223 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,599 Speaker 1: ideas and how it kind of coalesced and all the 224 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:37,840 Speaker 1: way up into the early era of Slack. Can you 225 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that. Yeah, So we left 226 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:43,679 Speaker 1: Flicker in two thousand nine, so quite a while ago. Now, 227 00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:47,160 Speaker 1: with the intention of making video games. When I say 228 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: video games, lots of people think of like, you know, 229 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:53,720 Speaker 1: Call of Duty, shooting people, competitive violent games very much, 230 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:58,280 Speaker 1: not that we're trying to make a web based, massively 231 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:03,440 Speaker 1: multiplayer game around kind of exploration and community and cooperation. 232 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: The fact that it's kind of hard for me to 233 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 1: describe it, I think is one of the challenges. The 234 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:12,439 Speaker 1: game was called Glitch, and it had hundreds of excited players. 235 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:14,920 Speaker 1: Unfortunately at a time when we needed thousands or tens 236 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,559 Speaker 1: of thousands for the scale of investment, and ultimately the 237 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 1: game didn't work out and we were hounded down. But 238 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:23,080 Speaker 1: during the four years of building the game, we were 239 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:27,360 Speaker 1: split between San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York, and we 240 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: built a set of tools to be able to work together. 241 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:32,439 Speaker 1: And we built it on top of I r C 242 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:35,400 Speaker 1: Internet Relay Chat, which is kind of a multi user 243 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,840 Speaker 1: chat that's been around since the eighties, never very widely 244 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,600 Speaker 1: used and it's long long past it's heyday. Even then 245 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: in the in the mid two thousands, and it was 246 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:48,480 Speaker 1: very capable, but very difficult for normal humans to use. 247 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:51,960 Speaker 1: It's like super nerdy doesn't have the ability to see 248 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,760 Speaker 1: messages when you weren't online. You can't search for things, 249 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: there's a record of what happened in the past. It's 250 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:00,040 Speaker 1: very hard to share files. And so we start of 251 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:02,719 Speaker 1: building all of these tools and modifications on top of 252 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:06,360 Speaker 1: C to allow us to to communicate and work better. 253 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:09,080 Speaker 1: And it was all things built for expediency. So, you know, 254 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:11,760 Speaker 1: the smartphone had come out semi recently. There was no 255 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,000 Speaker 1: ir C client for for the iPhone at the time. 256 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 1: We're like, okay, let's make a web page so that 257 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,120 Speaker 1: we can at least see the messages from the phone 258 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:20,240 Speaker 1: while we're at lunch in case something happens while we're 259 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: at lunch, and much of the building kind of just 260 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:25,680 Speaker 1: happened like that of functionality that we needed to operate, 261 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:28,040 Speaker 1: and by the time we shut the game down, kind 262 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: of the whole business was just running on top of 263 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: this system. So every bit of business process. So if 264 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: a illustrator design something, then they'd upload the file to 265 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:39,320 Speaker 1: pass it off to the animators and it would go 266 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: through an approval process and then be integrated into the 267 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:45,000 Speaker 1: game asset management system, and that would all happen through 268 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,560 Speaker 1: this messaging platform. And the same for like every time 269 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:50,280 Speaker 1: somebody new signed up for the game or bought something, 270 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,160 Speaker 1: that would all flow in and if we needed to 271 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: reboot a server, that would happen out of this system too. 272 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:57,080 Speaker 1: It just became kind of the central nervous system of 273 00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:59,719 Speaker 1: the company, if you like. We also realized that we 274 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,199 Speaker 1: really loved working this way and we would want to 275 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: continue to work this way whatever we were doing, and 276 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: so maybe the system that we built could be useful 277 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: to other companies like us, and at the time, we're 278 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:15,000 Speaker 1: thinking other kind of tech oriented small companies, maybe up 279 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:17,280 Speaker 1: to about fifty people and this would be a good 280 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: solution for them, and that's where Slack was born. That's 281 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:24,120 Speaker 1: a fascinating story. It reminds me about a couple of 282 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:27,840 Speaker 1: other companies that kind of started off as offshoots of 283 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: something else and then took a life of their own 284 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: and ended up eclipsing the company that spawned it. Yeah, exactly. 285 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,520 Speaker 1: And we started building Slack at the beginning of a year, 286 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:40,800 Speaker 1: and after a couple of months, we started using it 287 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:44,400 Speaker 1: does selves internally, like we switched over from our previous 288 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: system onto this system. Then we enlisted kind of our 289 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,600 Speaker 1: first set of alpha testers, who were companies in San 290 00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: Francisco in the Bay Area that we're friends with. Basically, 291 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 1: it's like went out to our friends and said, please 292 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: use this tool for your team, which at first was 293 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 1: a super hard proposition because for Star, you're not just 294 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:05,680 Speaker 1: asking somebody to give it a go. You're asking somebody 295 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:07,560 Speaker 1: to convince their team to give it a go, because 296 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: you can't use like by yourself, you need to use 297 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: it with a team of people. And secondly, we're coming 298 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,040 Speaker 1: off the back of failing to make games, so we're saying, well, 299 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: we just failed at what we did, but try this 300 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 1: thing and get your whole company to use it, and 301 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: you know, risk your company's productivity on this thing that 302 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: we are trying to convince you is going to be successful. 303 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: And so I think that was a kind of hard proposition, 304 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 1: a tough sell. But we did eventually enlist some of 305 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 1: our friendly companies to use it, and that was such 306 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:37,400 Speaker 1: an important, you know, kind of part of the development 307 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: of it. We went from us using it ourselves with 308 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 1: our idiosyncratic way of working that we're built up over 309 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:45,080 Speaker 1: several years, to just like other normal people who who 310 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: hadn't been doing it for several years, trying to use it. 311 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:50,800 Speaker 1: And we learned so much in that period, you know, 312 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: that really refined and shape the product over the next 313 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:55,880 Speaker 1: few months as we got that feedback from my alpha testers. 314 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: I think that was incredibly important. And also the way 315 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:00,960 Speaker 1: we tried to build Flicker, in the way we've tried 316 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:03,560 Speaker 1: to build everything is with a lot of kind of 317 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,080 Speaker 1: real time understanding it ourselves and how we use it, 318 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 1: but also a lot of kind of real time customer feedback, 319 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: spending up a huge man time talking talking to customers, 320 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,440 Speaker 1: watching customers and how they use things and understand what's 321 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: what works for them and what doesn't. And I think 322 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: that that customer feedback loop is so important in you know, 323 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:25,040 Speaker 1: kind of consumer ish products, and I think one of 324 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:28,320 Speaker 1: the things that's really made that possible at scale in 325 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: the last decade um they think a lot of people 326 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,400 Speaker 1: kind of skip over is Twitter. And the reason for that. 327 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:37,720 Speaker 1: In the kind of pre Twitter era, if you used 328 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: some product and it was not like terrible but annoyingly bad, 329 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: there was some problem with it, it's just like, yeah, 330 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: this sucks. It's possible. You might have told your friends 331 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 1: or your partner about that over a drink, and and 332 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:54,200 Speaker 1: that's as far as it would go. It's not like, 333 00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,120 Speaker 1: you know, you had a poor experience. Normal people don't 334 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,000 Speaker 1: write to customer support and say I had a poor 335 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: but not terrible experience, and here's what I think. But 336 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:06,760 Speaker 1: for whatever reason, Twitter broke down that barrier, and now 337 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: if people have a slightly annoying experience, they will get 338 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:12,400 Speaker 1: on the internet and broadcast it, which on the one 339 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:14,919 Speaker 1: hand is like, well that's a bit much, but on 340 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:17,520 Speaker 1: the other hand, it's fantastic. It is free user feedback 341 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 1: at a level where you get user feedback even if 342 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,919 Speaker 1: they're not super angry. Or super happy, you know that 343 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:24,680 Speaker 1: big kind of area in the middle where people are 344 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: like a bit happy or a bit annoyed. We can 345 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,600 Speaker 1: get thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of bits 346 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:32,080 Speaker 1: to use a feedback completely for free, and that drove 347 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:34,160 Speaker 1: a lot of a kind of early design its eration 348 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:36,919 Speaker 1: still does today. We look at every one of those 349 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,320 Speaker 1: and put that into the product development process and it's 350 00:17:40,359 --> 00:17:42,679 Speaker 1: it's amazing. It's you know, it's a free, free source 351 00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:50,920 Speaker 1: of constant user feedback. It's amazing. At T Mobile for business, 352 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,360 Speaker 1: unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can 353 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:57,960 Speaker 1: focus on what matters most. Where some see another small town, 354 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,119 Speaker 1: we see businesses in need of connectivity. So we built 355 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,159 Speaker 1: the largest five G network to cover cities, towns, and 356 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,040 Speaker 1: the most interstate miles in between. Where some see a 357 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: caller in a queue, we see an opportunity for our 358 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:13,960 Speaker 1: experts to provide solutions without transfers. Where some see another 359 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,680 Speaker 1: virtual meeting, we see five G enabling wireless real time 360 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: translations almost anywhere you do business. Our unique approach built 361 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:26,080 Speaker 1: America's largest, fastest five G network and also delivers exceptional 362 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:29,520 Speaker 1: customer support and five G included in every plan, so 363 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 1: you get it all without trade offs. Unconventional thinking is 364 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,159 Speaker 1: better for business. T Mobile for Business fastest five G 365 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:40,000 Speaker 1: based on average overall combined five G speeds according to 366 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,359 Speaker 1: Open Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October. 367 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:46,560 Speaker 1: See five G device coverage and access details at to 368 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: mobile dot com. So you're getting user feedback, you're refining 369 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:05,680 Speaker 1: the product, your learning what are the most common use cases, 370 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: things that might not have even applied in your in 371 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: your more idiosyncratic approach. At what point in the process 372 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:15,240 Speaker 1: was it clear that you had really hit on something. 373 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:18,399 Speaker 1: I think, on the one hand, I could say at 374 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,720 Speaker 1: the point at which we we switched to our kind 375 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,320 Speaker 1: of open beta, we allowed anybody to sign up and 376 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: start using Slack, and we kind of overnight had I 377 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 1: think it was something like eight thousand people sign up 378 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: to try it for their companies. It's like, whoa, that's okay, 379 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,359 Speaker 1: we have something here. There's a buzz around it. But 380 00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:38,399 Speaker 1: at the same time, that was, you know, especially compared 381 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,280 Speaker 1: to years later, it was a very small scale. So 382 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 1: it's like, okay, we think there's a product here, we 383 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,720 Speaker 1: think this can turn into a business. But then over 384 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:48,440 Speaker 1: the kind of next few years, it was a constant, 385 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:52,680 Speaker 1: steady increment. Because it was slow and constant, there wasn't 386 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,400 Speaker 1: that cliff moment of like, Wow, this is getting really 387 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:57,040 Speaker 1: big or this is going to be really successful. It 388 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: was just getting a bit more successful every day, and 389 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:01,440 Speaker 1: so we didn't really feel it. I think, you know, 390 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,840 Speaker 1: when you then go back and look at the stats 391 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 1: at how it changed from kind of over the course 392 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: of six months or over a year, it looks stark, 393 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:09,639 Speaker 1: But at the time we're in it, we were just 394 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 1: in it and it and it was growing around us. 395 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: And I think, you know, much like the success we 396 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:20,280 Speaker 1: had with Flicker was is very attributable to being timing 397 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:22,920 Speaker 1: it right with a lot of kind of extrinsic factors 398 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,000 Speaker 1: that were just happening in the world. I think the 399 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,360 Speaker 1: same thing happened with Slack. It has been the combination 400 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:31,159 Speaker 1: of the kind of rise of consumer messaging. You know, 401 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,560 Speaker 1: people made the switch from you don't email your friends anymore, 402 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,600 Speaker 1: use WhatsApp or use eye message, and also the rise 403 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: of mobile being an actually important part of people's working lives. 404 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: It seems crazy, but back when we started Slack, people 405 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,720 Speaker 1: didn't really use phones for work very much. You know, 406 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,720 Speaker 1: there was like the the pre smartphone BlackBerry crowd with 407 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:52,359 Speaker 1: their email, but that wasn't that many people. But now, 408 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,640 Speaker 1: you know, phone is really essential part of your kind 409 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: of work, you know, software experience, and the shift to 410 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,320 Speaker 1: the cloud, which I think is also one of those 411 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 1: things that just feels like it's been there forever now. 412 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 1: But the idea that you know, companies you would use 413 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:10,639 Speaker 1: software hosted in the cloud is relatively new thing, especially 414 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:12,359 Speaker 1: at the scale that it's at today. And I think 415 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,600 Speaker 1: all of those things came together for something like Slack 416 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,879 Speaker 1: to be inevitable just at the time we did it. 417 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,439 Speaker 1: You know, if we've done it earlier, it would have 418 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:22,320 Speaker 1: been too early. If we've done it later, somebody else 419 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:24,439 Speaker 1: would have done it. So I think we've really lucked 420 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,359 Speaker 1: into the timing, the kind of confluence of all of 421 00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:31,280 Speaker 1: those factors happening around the same time. Well, apart from Glitch, 422 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:34,879 Speaker 1: I'm definitely sensing an ongoing theme of being at the 423 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,040 Speaker 1: right place at the right time for some of these 424 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,120 Speaker 1: I wanted to get more insight into what Cal's job 425 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:44,880 Speaker 1: actually entails, as well as learn more about Slack's evolution 426 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:50,320 Speaker 1: over the last few years. Yeah, so as a CTO. 427 00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:53,280 Speaker 1: I run our engineering organization, which is you know, a good, 428 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:57,480 Speaker 1: good chunk of the company. Together with our chief product officer, 429 00:21:57,560 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: we make up the kind of R and D side 430 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,439 Speaker 1: of the business um and I'd say like the primary 431 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,840 Speaker 1: responsibility is Slack as a service that has to keep 432 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:08,600 Speaker 1: running seven th six to five days a year. It's 433 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,480 Speaker 1: a piece of infrastructure and people just expect it to 434 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 1: work when you you know, when your company organization runs 435 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:18,880 Speaker 1: on Slack. If Slack is not working, then work stops, 436 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: especially in the you know, last year and a half, 437 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,960 Speaker 1: as more and more companies are fully distributed, people are 438 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,520 Speaker 1: working from home. It's a utility to people. So a 439 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: lot of the responsibility in general at Slack is around 440 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,480 Speaker 1: we have to keep that working, keep that going the 441 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,199 Speaker 1: whole time. But then on top of that, how do 442 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:35,119 Speaker 1: we evolve that service to be able to offer it 443 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:37,760 Speaker 1: to more and more people, whether that's in kind of 444 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:42,720 Speaker 1: regulated industries with special compliance requirements. You know, building software 445 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,280 Speaker 1: for small companies is very different from building software for 446 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:49,399 Speaker 1: large banks or for healthcare providers or things of that nature. 447 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:51,719 Speaker 1: And so it's a lot about how can we evolve 448 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,040 Speaker 1: the product, add new features and capabilities while still you know, 449 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:59,960 Speaker 1: maintaining reliability, security, compliance, all that kind of stuff. I think, 450 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: you know, the evolution over the last couple of years, 451 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,359 Speaker 1: you know, with the pandemic. Seconds tool was obviously used 452 00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: by a lot of companies, like in the office prior 453 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 1: to the pandemic, but I think this gave us a 454 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,200 Speaker 1: really unique opportunity to be able to try and convince 455 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,840 Speaker 1: more organizations that there are different ways to work that 456 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,359 Speaker 1: you know, you we can build a set of tools 457 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: that allows you to you know, work in a distributed 458 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:27,320 Speaker 1: manner without just duplicating how people worked when they're in 459 00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 1: the office. I think big trend that we saw and 460 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:31,879 Speaker 1: that we did ourselves was that at the beginning of 461 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:34,639 Speaker 1: the pandemic, we wanted just take all of the ways 462 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: in which we worked in an office and lift them 463 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: up and put them on the internet, you know, And 464 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,440 Speaker 1: that's you know, the massive success of zoom um has 465 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,399 Speaker 1: been how can we take those meetings and just do 466 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:46,640 Speaker 1: the same meetings go over the internet. And I think 467 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,400 Speaker 1: that was good because it allowed companies to continue to operate. 468 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: But I think as the pandemic progress, what we're looking 469 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,080 Speaker 1: at was how can we build processes and tools and 470 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:59,960 Speaker 1: capabilities that allow people to approach work differently and make 471 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:03,600 Speaker 1: the most of being in this distribute environment. So two 472 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,040 Speaker 1: of the things which we launched recently things like huddles 473 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,920 Speaker 1: in Slack, which is kind of always on voice chat 474 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,760 Speaker 1: to allow you to transition from kind of messaging to 475 00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 1: talking live back to messaging, have that all be searchable 476 00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:18,760 Speaker 1: in the same way, and many of our customers are 477 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,320 Speaker 1: finding that's a really good alternative to scheduled meetings, So 478 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:24,720 Speaker 1: we're seeing a lot of that. And then more recently 479 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,600 Speaker 1: we launched a set of capabilities we call clips for 480 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:32,120 Speaker 1: being able to record video or audio messages really easily 481 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,480 Speaker 1: and then share those in the context of channels as well, 482 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,320 Speaker 1: so that you know, can replace some kinds of stands 483 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,480 Speaker 1: up and stand up and status meetings by having everybody 484 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:44,280 Speaker 1: record little videos or easily doing kind of design presentations 485 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,199 Speaker 1: within your team, things like that. So I think the 486 00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: you know, it is still really a kind of fertile 487 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:53,280 Speaker 1: ground for what are the tools that we need right 488 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:54,960 Speaker 1: now and what are the tools that organization is going 489 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,000 Speaker 1: to need over the next couple of years, because it 490 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,280 Speaker 1: is just operating in such a different environment now and 491 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: that's going to change again as as companies are able 492 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,720 Speaker 1: to open their offices back up mm hmm. And I 493 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:07,440 Speaker 1: know that there are a lot of companies out there 494 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,720 Speaker 1: that have sort of, at least for the foreseeable future, 495 00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:14,919 Speaker 1: planned out almost a hybrid approach to work. And to 496 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: your point, I don't think any of that would have 497 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:21,000 Speaker 1: been possible, maybe even as recently as five years ago, 498 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,119 Speaker 1: without the developments we've seen in the cloud space, in 499 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 1: the fact that we're seeing connectivity extend wirelessly which enables 500 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,680 Speaker 1: all of the mobility. Uh, all of these pieces needed 501 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,800 Speaker 1: to come into place for this to be possible, or 502 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,200 Speaker 1: I think we would be in pretty dire straits when 503 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:45,040 Speaker 1: it comes to our response to life during the pandemic. Yeah, 504 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,879 Speaker 1: I think that's absolutely true. I think it was a 505 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: surprise to many organizations that it was possible for people 506 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:57,200 Speaker 1: to kind of really overnight switch to everybody being remote 507 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 1: and business just continued. And I think that it's the 508 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,119 Speaker 1: technology has come a long way really recently and enabled 509 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,240 Speaker 1: it to be possible. And I think now people see 510 00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: that it's possible, see the advantages, and a huge number 511 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,159 Speaker 1: of people, the vast majority, really enjoy the flexibility that 512 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,200 Speaker 1: they've been able to have over the last year and 513 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,040 Speaker 1: a half. So while we will see a whole bunch 514 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,040 Speaker 1: of returns of the office, and some organizations, you know, 515 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,280 Speaker 1: like large banks, have said everybody's going to be back 516 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:26,760 Speaker 1: in the office every day, it's going to be exactly 517 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: back to how it was. I think that's going to 518 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:32,160 Speaker 1: be the kind of margin case because so many people 519 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: have seen it's possible for them to be productive, so 520 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:36,840 Speaker 1: of course they're going to continue to work as they will, 521 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,600 Speaker 1: and the office is still going to exist for the 522 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:41,960 Speaker 1: majority of companies, it's going to be just such a 523 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,359 Speaker 1: different experience. It's no longer going to be the place 524 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 1: where most people go every day to sit at an 525 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:48,960 Speaker 1: individual desk and do individual work. It's going to be 526 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,439 Speaker 1: a place where you go to do collaborative work, to 527 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:53,600 Speaker 1: meet people, and that you don't go into every day. 528 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,280 Speaker 1: I was curious to find out what cal thought about 529 00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,120 Speaker 1: emerging technologies, and I was surprised to discover that this 530 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:08,400 Speaker 1: lover of speculative fiction has a pretty grounded approach toward futurism. 531 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:12,679 Speaker 1: I came across a great story about uh some some 532 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:17,600 Speaker 1: folks who essentially hacked a system to utilize Slack as 533 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:21,600 Speaker 1: a user interface or back end to some Internet of 534 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:25,200 Speaker 1: Things applications. Specifically, they had it so that they could 535 00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 1: use a command in Slack to UH to turn on 536 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: a light outside of a meeting room to let people 537 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,240 Speaker 1: know that the meeting room was in use. And as 538 00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:37,680 Speaker 1: someone who podcasts, I mean, we have the same sort 539 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,399 Speaker 1: of kind of set up here. The thought of having 540 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,399 Speaker 1: that so that I don't have to get up and 541 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,399 Speaker 1: turn on a physical switch that appeals to me. But 542 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,720 Speaker 1: beyond that, it just it opens up this idea of 543 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:53,719 Speaker 1: of the creative and the hacker and the finding ways 544 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,439 Speaker 1: to utilize systems to do things that perhaps even the 545 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:01,080 Speaker 1: creators of those systems had not originally intended. Do you 546 00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:04,560 Speaker 1: kind of feel an affinity for that sort of hacker 547 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: ethos the idea of this is really cool what it does. 548 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,040 Speaker 1: Let's see what happens if we try to make it 549 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: do this other thing. Absolutely, I think that's kind of 550 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,400 Speaker 1: a key part of what we wanted to design into 551 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,119 Speaker 1: Slack from the beginning, honestly, is the idea that there's 552 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,359 Speaker 1: more and more software tools, more and more automation that 553 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: we use in our lives. You know, the kind of 554 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: the average number of like bits of SASS used by 555 00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,040 Speaker 1: you know, medium sized enterprise company is now like a 556 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,400 Speaker 1: couple of thousand, which is sounds crazy, but there's more 557 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:36,520 Speaker 1: and more bits of software for more and more kind 558 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,479 Speaker 1: of niche roles. And that's both off the shelf software 559 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,040 Speaker 1: but also you know, any any company at scale, what 560 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 1: is it? Mark and recent said every company is a 561 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: software company at a certain scale because you have to 562 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,719 Speaker 1: build tools for what you're doing. UM, you know, specific 563 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:52,760 Speaker 1: to to what you're doing, specific to the challenges you 564 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:54,640 Speaker 1: have as an organization. And so I think one of 565 00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:57,680 Speaker 1: the really important things is, you know, Slack is orientered 566 00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:59,840 Speaker 1: around having a very open platform that anybody can be 567 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: all done. That is, whatever piece of software you're using 568 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:04,680 Speaker 1: or whatever you're building, you can get data inter Slack, 569 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: and you can get data outer Slack, and you know, 570 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 1: command things like this. UM we've seen lots of really 571 00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:13,560 Speaker 1: interesting things from our customers. Who ever, a customer in 572 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: Japan who added kind of toilet door sensors to all 573 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,720 Speaker 1: of their bathrooms so that they could know in Slack 574 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:23,440 Speaker 1: if the bathroom was free, because it was on a 575 00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:25,120 Speaker 1: different floor and they didn't want to have to walk 576 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:26,360 Speaker 1: all the way down there to know if the door 577 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,880 Speaker 1: was locked. UM, and you know or you know, we 578 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: have customers who do things more related to their business 579 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,520 Speaker 1: out in the fields, you know, so like vehicle fleet 580 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: that they manage can report in through Slack and things 581 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: like that, and Slack as an open platform on which 582 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,360 Speaker 1: people can build things which we could never have imagined 583 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: and also things which didn't exist when we built Slack. Right, 584 00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:48,040 Speaker 1: there's new new technologies being developed constantly, and I think 585 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: that the you know, technologies products that are successful over 586 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:54,320 Speaker 1: the next five to ten years are going to be 587 00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 1: ones which allow you to work with other bits of 588 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:59,560 Speaker 1: software and so, you know, in this phase of technology cycle, 589 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,360 Speaker 1: it's how can you tie more things together and how 590 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: can you bring information and data into one place to 591 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,920 Speaker 1: how you synthesize it all well. And I think that 592 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: philosophy also taps into something that is really important in 593 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: the open source world, which is that you can have 594 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:19,240 Speaker 1: the smartest people in your organization all working together to 595 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: create stuff, but that collective intelligence is still a drop 596 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,000 Speaker 1: in the ocean when you open it up to everyone 597 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:29,520 Speaker 1: and you get all these ideas that you could not 598 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:32,280 Speaker 1: have possibly come up with with the group of people 599 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,840 Speaker 1: you've assembled, as well as the fact that you know 600 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: you've enabled someone else to succeed in whatever it was 601 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:41,960 Speaker 1: they were doing. And I really like that that ethos. 602 00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:44,720 Speaker 1: One of the things that's our favorite topic to talk 603 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,880 Speaker 1: about here on the Restless Ones is the rollout and 604 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 1: implementation of five G technologies. What role do you see 605 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:55,960 Speaker 1: five G playing in the future of of work? I 606 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 1: think the kind of general availability of ubiquitous connection to 607 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,800 Speaker 1: the Internet has changed how people think about location of 608 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: where they were. One of the factors that's played into 609 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 1: how things have gone over the last year and a 610 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,600 Speaker 1: half is just the ability for it to happen. The 611 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 1: ability to you know, use your smartphone, use your laptop 612 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,640 Speaker 1: from anywhere is huge and just cuts down one of 613 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 1: those otherwise hard constraints on how people work. Increasing requirements 614 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 1: for bandwidth and latency, you know, video and studies that 615 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,760 Speaker 1: show that video latency has a huge effect on kind 616 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,400 Speaker 1: of your interaction with co workers, That milliseconds make a 617 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,200 Speaker 1: difference in being able to read people's body language in 618 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,920 Speaker 1: a nonverbal communication, and so it is kind of default assumption. 619 00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: It is the substrate that other things are built on 620 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,760 Speaker 1: that just needs to to work all the time. And 621 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: you know, increasingly the Internet feels like a true utility 622 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,520 Speaker 1: in the sense of parrel water and that just like 623 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,440 Speaker 1: nothing works when it's not there. The idea of having 624 00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:57,880 Speaker 1: sort of a like a fiber level connection potentially without 625 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,120 Speaker 1: having to actually have the fiber that is such a 626 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:06,520 Speaker 1: freeing experience. Especially in a world where remote and mobile work, 627 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,800 Speaker 1: We're going to see more solutions geared towards that future 628 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:13,800 Speaker 1: hybrid work space. I think that are is going to 629 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: be increasingly reliant upon things like like high speed wireless 630 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:23,800 Speaker 1: connections because that's what reality is requiring. I couldn't let 631 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:28,880 Speaker 1: Cal go without asking him one more thing, what is 632 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: your favorite science fiction novel? Oh? That's a good one, Okay. 633 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: I would say my favorite science fiction novel is not 634 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: a super well known one. Um, it's a bit called 635 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,480 Speaker 1: The Golden Age by John C. Wright. I think it 636 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 1: was from like two thousand one something like that, and 637 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: it just presents a view of the future that is 638 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:50,880 Speaker 1: really quite different to how we live now. I think 639 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,440 Speaker 1: a lot of my I love science fation. I read 640 00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:55,000 Speaker 1: a huge amount of it, and I think a lot 641 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,320 Speaker 1: of it isn't too different to how the world is 642 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 1: and doesn't think big enough in terms of how society 643 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,080 Speaker 1: everything about how the science interacts changes as technology advances, 644 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,760 Speaker 1: so I think it still holds up and as people 645 00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,840 Speaker 1: to give it a read. Cal, thank you so much 646 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: for joining us. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you 647 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,320 Speaker 1: so much for having me. It's been great. It really 648 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:21,560 Speaker 1: is remarkable how technology enabled many organizations to adjust to 649 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:25,160 Speaker 1: an entirely new approach to getting work done, and as 650 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,400 Speaker 1: Cal pointed out, the future of work promises to include 651 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,280 Speaker 1: at least some of the elements we've become accustomed to 652 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,280 Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Knowing that there are companies that take 653 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:39,400 Speaker 1: this notion as a starting point is actually really exciting. 654 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: I expect we're going to see some incredible innovation when 655 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,920 Speaker 1: it comes to how we work and remain productive, and 656 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: how we derive value and satisfaction from our work, whether 657 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,240 Speaker 1: we are headed into a crowded office or setting up 658 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: a temporary workstation on a beach somewhere. As broadband access grows, 659 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,200 Speaker 1: reaching into communities and reads that previously had limited access 660 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:06,480 Speaker 1: to such things, the constraints on how we do work disappear, 661 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,239 Speaker 1: and this opens up new opportunities for us, creating new 662 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,239 Speaker 1: ways to do business, encouraging new forms of innovation. It 663 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,080 Speaker 1: starts to sound like one of those optimistic takes on 664 00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:22,080 Speaker 1: science fiction, only it's becoming reality. And it's only possible 665 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,200 Speaker 1: because we have this amazing convergence of technologies like cloud computing, 666 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 1: the Internet of Things, and wireless five G connectivity. Make 667 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,919 Speaker 1: sure to come back to the Restless Ones to hear 668 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:37,760 Speaker 1: more conversations with pioneers in tech and leadership. I'm Jonathan 669 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:44,600 Speaker 1: Strickland at T Mobile. For business, unconventional thinking means we 670 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,800 Speaker 1: see things differently so you can focus on what matters most. 671 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: That's why we've built America's largest, fastest five G network 672 00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 1: while remaining a partner who delivers exceptional customer support and 673 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,360 Speaker 1: five G included in every plan so you get it all. 674 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,160 Speaker 1: Unconventional thinking is better for business. Fastest five G based 675 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,440 Speaker 1: on average overall combined five G speeds according to Open 676 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,759 Speaker 1: Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October one. 677 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,640 Speaker 1: See five D device coverage and access details at T 678 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:11,920 Speaker 1: mobile dot com