Growing Pains at Slack: Embracing Sales and Scaling Up
James Sherrett narrates Slack's realization we needed to grow up. But what did that mean? And how did we scale up our sales organization to match the increasingly complex demands of larger customers without losing what made the experience excellent for customers. Sherrett recalls some of challenges faced, solutions implemented, and pivotal decisions made. Key moments include adding specialized roles like solution engineers and customer success managers, then evolving our internal identity during an offsite meeting.
00:17 Facing the need to grow up
03:22 Preparing for change: the latest offsite
04:29 Defining a team identity
07:28 Competency traps and customer matching
12:03 Sales Math: Oh, look, customer expectations
13:49 Becoming Sales finally, an anti-climax
15:34 Conclusion: Hello world
