Trivia Scaling 0-1

Building Springworks' first revenue product — #2 on Product Hunt, 19K+ players in month one

Springworks · Founding Designer

Context

Springworks was building tools to improve workplace culture and engagement. Trivia was conceived as a Slack-integrated quiz game that teams could play together — designed to be fun, lightweight, and something that naturally fits into the workday. As the founding designer, I was responsible for shaping the product from concept to launch.

Problem

Remote teams were struggling with engagement and connection. Existing team-building tools felt forced or required too much coordination. We needed something that could create genuine moments of fun without disrupting work, was effortless to set up and play, worked natively within Slack where teams already spent their time, and could scale from small teams to large organisations.

Design Process

I started with extensive research into how teams interact in Slack — studying message patterns, channel usage, and existing bot interactions. The key insight was that the best engagement happens in small, spontaneous moments rather than scheduled events. I designed Trivia to work within these natural interaction patterns: automated quiz rounds that pop up in channels, quick 30-second answer windows, leaderboards that build friendly competition over time, and customisable question categories that teams could tailor to their interests.

Wireframes to Product

The design evolved through multiple iterations — from rough wireframes testing the core quiz loop, to polished interactions that made answering questions feel snappy and rewarding. I designed the entire Slack app interface, the web dashboard for admins, onboarding flows, and marketing materials. Every interaction was optimised to be completable in under 30 seconds to respect people's work time.

Launch & Growth

Trivia launched on Product Hunt and reached #2 for the day. Within the first month, the product had 19,000+ players across 500+ workspaces in 30+ countries. It reached #2 on the Slack App Store. The virality was built into the product — when one person in a team played, it naturally attracted others in the channel to join in.

Key Metrics

#2 on Slack App Store. #2 on Product Hunt. 19,000+ players in month one. 500+ workspaces. 30+ countries. These numbers validated the core hypothesis — that lightweight, spontaneous social interactions could drive meaningful team engagement without requiring heavy coordination.

Learnings

Building a 0-to-1 product taught me that the best products feel inevitable in hindsight. Trivia worked because it didn't ask people to change their behaviour — it met them where they already were. As a founding designer, I learned the importance of wearing multiple hats: research, product thinking, visual design, prototyping, and even contributing to marketing and growth strategy. The constraints of designing for Slack's platform actually sharpened the product — limitations forced clarity.