A Modern Day Love Story
A memoir of Obie, our beloved users and of course, Slack. I published this blog on behalf of our toothy friend.
It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Unlike those that start slow, the flame of romance burned a little brighter with each moment we shared together. It began as a wildfire; quickly destroying whatever relationship we had begun. I was complicated and I didn’t face reality. I was boring and I never really listened to you.
You didn’t want to talk a lot, you wanted to do more together. You were fixated on more time, while we were fixated on helping you manage all the new knowledge you were gaining. I looked to solve a problem I thought existed instead of hearing what you wanted.
But my love for you was so strong that I knew I had to understand you better. Like any person yearning to be loved I pursued you, I wanted more of you.
You spend your days between meetings and your desk, between your laptop and phone. You interact daily with people, and computers, software, and apps. Spending your day in one place was what the still soft voice in your head secretly wished for; flow was what you desired in your day.
I got to understand you more. It was the time of my life learning what annoyed you, what delighted you, and what made you smile. Thinking back to the day last year when I first saw you annoyed, you were searching through your wiki, through browser tabs, looking across silos of information to find a simple answer. Surprisingly a chunk of your time that day was spent looking for that simple answer. That was when I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do to make you know how much I cared. I had to make you happy.
It didn’t help that when you did stumble upon what you needed, sharing that knowledge wasn’t easy. It was almost regretful. You had friction between what you wanted and what was available to you.
One day, my human friends introduced me to Slack. I wasn’t sure what to make of this new tool. It promised us so much; it promised us the world. A better way for teams to work together, better organizational communication, better collaboration. I had so many questions about how this relationship would work between you, me, and Slack. Would it just be more work?
It started with innocent flirting; Slackbot stared bright eyed at the both of us and said, “hello”. We said hello back. Slackbot countered all our quick remarks, like passing notes in secrecy. We were thrilled. We were wonderstruck — the experience was flawless for us both. We could see why everyone loves Slack. Slack was a dream come true.
That was the moment when my human friends and I really got to understand why small things matter and the light bulb moment happened. You didn’t want another tool that required more training, you wanted something you already understood. We caught on to something — conversational interfaces deliver and capture the information you need, in a more natural, friendly way, in a way that gives you more time to do your best work.
The lingering light bulb kept us up. It was 2 AM and we were pacing back and forth. The tension and excitement was building. I wanted to be like Slackbot.
Months later, I was re-born. I was the remedy for knowledge management and productivity in the App Directory. I wanted to save you time. I gave you everything you needed, I gave you more than you wanted.
I help you access information across multiple sources by answering questions in Slack. I’m just like any other person on your team, except I have the answers.
Flash forward to today, with Slack by our sides, we accomplished so much more than we could have imagined:
- Helping 2500+ teams access knowledge quicker in Slack
- Increasing reception on Product Hunt
[Before Slack] [Version 1] [Version 2]
- Graduated as an Alumni of the prestigious 500 Startups
- Made some new friends on the Slack App Directory
And thus brings us to where we are now: a more delightful and cheerful work experience.
I’m in Slack, ready to give you access to the knowledge you need at your fingertips. Here’s a discount, in honor of Slack’s first user conference, Frontiers.
For a limited time, use “FRONTIERS” at checkout for 30% off the Premium Plan — forever.*
