ARTICLE

Ian Tien on Mattermost, Messaging, and Building a Business

by | Mon 28 Sep 2020

There is little doubt that realtime discussion, collaboration, and chat has had a significant impact on businesses and communities. While Slack has risen as a dominant leader, open source powered Mattermost has gone on to grow more and more significantly as a powerful option, and one that arguably puts far more control in the hands of their users.

This is why I was thrilled to bring Ian Tien, CEO of Mattermost on Conversations With Bacon. We don’t just dig into what is happening at Camp Mattermost, but also the broader state of messaging, collaboration, open source, and more.

We dig into:

  • What Mattermost is and why it is different
  • There is a lot of talk about Microsoft Team’s growth – is it real?
  • How open source has played a role in Mattermost and beyond
  • What Ian learned in his years at Microsoft and how that impacts creating and delivering value
  • How Microsoft went through a cultural change in their relationship with open source
  • How Mattermost has approached managing and delivering their product roadmap
  • The role of “customer obsession”
  • What has been the hardest elements of building a remote company and culture
  • The importance of finding what gives you “energy” in the work you do
  • …and much more…

This was a really interesting and deep conversation, and we covered a lot of ground. Be sure to check it out!

Communities are changing the way we do business. Discover a concrete framework for building powerful, productive communities and integrating them into your business. My new book, ‘People Powered: How communities can supercharge your business, brand, and teams’, is out now, available in Audible, Hardcover, and Kindle formats.

Thank you to always rocking Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for mixing the show!

Discover a private community development accelerator that delivers community results faster with coaching, training, and 1-on-1 support...

Want to read some more?

Decoding DevRel: Exploring Job Roles in Developer Relations

Decoding DevRel: Exploring Job Roles in Developer Relations

DevRel, short for Developer Relations, is a critical part of many tech companies. It refers to the strategic efforts aimed at engaging and nurturing relationships with the developer community. This involves creating a conducive environment for developers, facilitating...

What is Developer Relations (DevRel)? A Complete Guide.

What is Developer Relations (DevRel)? A Complete Guide.

Developer Relations, commonly known as DevRel, is a rapidly growing field within the tech industry that focuses on fostering relationships between companies and their developer communities. DevRel professionals bridge the gap between companies and developers by...

5 Things I Would Do To Fix Twitter

5 Things I Would Do To Fix Twitter

So, Elon Musk has purchased Twitter. I don't really want to get into the politics of whether this is a good or bad thing (other people are already debating this), but it got me thinking about what needs fixing in Twitter. There is little doubt that Twitter has a...

Should you use Facebook Groups for Your Community?

Should you use Facebook Groups for Your Community?

Yeah...yeah...I get it...Facebook... ...even people who use Facebook don't seem to be huge fans of Facebook as a company...but let's put that to one side for a moment. Thousands of companies, interest groups, support groups and more use Facebook Groups every single...

How Developers Stay up to Date in 2022

How Developers Stay up to Date in 2022

Developers are a really important demographic for a lot of companies. Front-end, back-end, QA, cloud architects, mobile devs...every tech company needs clarity on how to engage with developers. But...how do you know how developers like to stay up to date? How can you...