☽ ✦ ☾

The Collaboration Arcana

A READING FOR THE YEAR 2022

The querent asks: "Which collaboration platform shall guide our organization through the post-pandemic hybrid era?"

♔

👑

The Emperor

Microsoft Teams · The Throne of Productivity

△ Upright — Strengths

Dominion over the Microsoft 365 realm. Co-edit documents mid-meeting. 270M monthly users by 2022. Channels organize kingdoms of work. Bundled free with Office — the ultimate power play. Together Mode and PowerPoint Live debut.

▽ Reversed — Shadows

The throne grows cluttered. Notification tyranny exhausts subjects. External collaboration feels guarded. Copilot not yet born. Chat search remains cryptic. The learning curve intimidates newcomers to the court.

270M

Monthly Users

Entry /user/mo

300

Attendees

1,000+

Apps

MAJOR ARCANA · IV · THE EMPEROR

✦

XVII

⭐

The Star

Zoom · The Light of Connection

△ Upright — Strengths

The brightest light of the pandemic era shines on. 300M daily participants. Gallery view for 49 faces. Breakout rooms, polls, reactions, whiteboard. E2E encryption restored trust. Zoom Phone expands the constellation.

▽ Reversed — Shadows

The star's glow fades post-lockdown as hybrid work shifts needs. Chat features remain shallow. No native document editing. "Zoom fatigue" enters the lexicon. Revenue declines for the first time in 2022.

300M

Daily Participants

$14

Pro /user/mo

1,000

Attendees

Gallery Tiles

MAJOR ARCANA · XVII · THE STAR

⚡

🔮

The Magician

Slack · The Weaver of Integrations

△ Upright — Strengths

Master of 2,400+ integrations — the magician connects all tools. Channels and threads weave organized conversation. Slack Connect bridges organizations. Workflow Builder automates rituals. Huddles add voice presence.

▽ Reversed — Shadows

Now owned by Salesforce (acquired Dec 2020, $27.7B). Video calling limited to 50 participants. Message history capped on free plan. No native phone system. Expensive at $7.25+/user. The magician spreads thin.

18M

Daily Active

$7.25

Pro /user/mo

Video Max

2,400+

Integrations

MAJOR ARCANA · I · THE MAGICIAN

🏔

🔦

The Hermit

Google Meet · The Quiet Guide

△ Upright — Strengths

No download, no fuss — just open the browser and connect. Deeply woven into Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Drive). Hand-raising, breakout rooms, and live captions added by 2022. Clean, minimal light.

▽ Reversed — Shadows

The hermit walks alone — no standalone chat platform (use Google Chat separately). Limited engagement features compared to Zoom or Teams. Free plan capped at 60 minutes. Few third-party integrations beyond Google's own realm.

Free

With Workspace

Starter /user/mo

500

Attendees (Biz+)

100

Free Plan Cap

MAJOR ARCANA · IX · THE HERMIT

☽

🌙

The High Priestess

Cisco Webex · The Keeper of Secrets

△ Upright — Strengths

Guardian of encrypted channels. FedRAMP authorized. Noise cancellation rivaling silence itself. 2022 overhaul brings real-time translation, AI transcription, and gesture recognition. Webex Calling matures. 1,000 attendee capacity.

▽ Reversed — Shadows

The priestess guards her temple too closely — UI complexity deters the uninitiated. Pricing opaque for non-enterprise seekers. Document editing requires external tools. Integration ecosystem smaller than competitors.

Enterprise

Focus

$14

Meet /user/mo

1,000

Attendees

100+

Languages

MAJOR ARCANA · II · THE HIGH PRIESTESS

🏗

XVI

🔓

The Tower

Mattermost · The Sovereign Fortress

△ Upright — Strengths

Open-source liberation. Self-host on your own servers — full data sovereignty. DevOps-native with CI/CD integrations, incident collaboration, and playbook automation. The tower you build and control entirely.

▽ Reversed — Shadows

The tower requires builders — significant IT effort to deploy and maintain. Video calling requires third-party integration. Smaller community than Slack. Not for the faint of heart or resource-constrained.

Free

Open Source

Self

Hosted

DevOps

Native

Full

Data Control

MAJOR ARCANA · XVI · THE TOWER

The Reader's Interpretation

The cards reveal a collaboration landscape in maturation, two years after the pandemic reshuffled the deck. The Emperor (Teams) sits firmly on the throne with 270 million monthly users — its power derives not from charm but from the inevitability of the Microsoft 365 kingdom. In 2022, Teams added Together Mode and PowerPoint Live, deepening its grip on the hybrid workplace. Yet the reversed Emperor warns of complexity and notification fatigue that drives some seekers elsewhere. The Star (Zoom) still shines, but its light is dimming from pandemic peak. Revenue declined for the first time, and "Zoom fatigue" became cultural shorthand for meeting exhaustion. Still, for pure video quality and ease of external collaboration, no card matches its brilliance. The Magician (Slack), now under Salesforce's domain, continues to weave its web of 2,400+ integrations — but Huddles and limited video calling reveal the boundaries of its craft. The Hermit (Google Meet) walks a quieter path, offering simplicity within the Google Workspace ecosystem. Breakout rooms and hand-raising arrived by 2022, but the platform remains best for those who already dwell in Google's light. The High Priestess (Webex) underwent a significant 2022 transformation with AI transcription, real-time translation, and gesture recognition — yet her temple remains most welcoming to Cisco devotees and regulated enterprises. The Tower (Mattermost) represents the sovereign path — full open-source control, self-hosted data, DevOps-native workflows. It demands builders, not consumers. For those with the resources, it offers freedom from all vendor dependency. The reading concludes: there is no single card that answers every question. The wisest organizations draw from multiple cards, combining their energies to match the unique conditions of their hybrid journey.