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Yahoo's Entire Design Innovation Team Fired

17 points by nickb 19y ago

wumi 19y ago
Yahoo and design innovation are oxymorons
- Taintedhero 19y ago
  Aw, Tell me you miss giant obnoxious smiley faces and frames?
boredguy8 19y ago
"Hey boss, the company's headed for trouble. Costs are trending towards exceeding revenue." "Hmm, looks like we need to cut costs. Let's fire the innovation team." "But boss, without new innovations, how will we manage to stay ahead of the competition?" "Silly child, we're Yahoo! We have a bang at the end of our name! We don't need innovation." "..." "Plus, we can just buy anything that's innovative. Outsourcing innovation! I should give myself a raise." :scribble, scribble: "..." "..." Wow.
- daniel-cussen 19y ago
  It's kind of true, though. Outsourcing production seems to be working well for Yahoo. Delicious and flicker are pretty awesome, and I can't think of a Yahoo in-house app that's at that level. Plus, I suspect there are inherent problems in any group called "innovation team."
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
DarrenStuart 19y ago
I feel for the people laid off its not nice happened to me last year but that said its not clear what they did from that article. did they deal with all aspects of design? or was it just font and logos etc I can't help but think it would be cheaper to contract this stuff out.
klein_waffle 19y ago
The Design Innovation Team produced a lot of interesting toys in Processing and Flash, but nothing that was relevant to Yahoo's business. http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=1 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=1 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=2 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=2 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=3 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=3 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=4 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=4 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=5 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=5 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=6 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=6 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=7 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=7 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=8 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=8 This one is just a ripoff of something a Google engineer did a long time ago, and has been part of the Mountain View tour for years: http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=9 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=9 The artists from yHaus were very talented, but their relevance to Yahoo amounted to supercool projections at Brickhouse parties. And that may be all that they were asked to do. Some companies treat innovation as a core part of the business, and others treat it as a P.R. exercise.

17 points by nickb 19y ago

wumi 19y ago

Yahoo and design innovation are oxymorons

Taintedhero 19y ago
Aw, Tell me you miss giant obnoxious smiley faces and frames?

boredguy8 19y ago

"Hey boss, the company's headed for trouble. Costs are trending towards exceeding revenue." "Hmm, looks like we need to cut costs. Let's fire the innovation team." "But boss, without new innovations, how will we manage to stay ahead of the competition?" "Silly child, we're Yahoo! We have a bang at the end of our name! We don't need innovation." "..." "Plus, we can just buy anything that's innovative. Outsourcing innovation! I should give myself a raise." :scribble, scribble: "..." "..." Wow.

daniel-cussen 19y ago
It's kind of true, though. Outsourcing production seems to be working well for Yahoo. Delicious and flicker are pretty awesome, and I can't think of a Yahoo in-house app that's at that level. Plus, I suspect there are inherent problems in any group called "innovation team."
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]

DarrenStuart 19y ago

I feel for the people laid off its not nice happened to me last year but that said its not clear what they did from that article. did they deal with all aspects of design? or was it just font and logos etc I can't help but think it would be cheaper to contract this stuff out.

klein_waffle 19y ago

The Design Innovation Team produced a lot of interesting toys in Processing and Flash, but nothing that was relevant to Yahoo's business. http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=1 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=1 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=2 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=2 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=3 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=3 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=4 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=4 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=5 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=5 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=6 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=6 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=7 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=7 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=8 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=8 This one is just a ripoff of something a Google engineer did a long time ago, and has been part of the Mountain View tour for years: http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=9 http://design.yahoo.com/project.php?pid=9 The artists from yHaus were very talented, but their relevance to Yahoo amounted to supercool projections at Brickhouse parties. And that may be all that they were asked to do. Some companies treat innovation as a core part of the business, and others treat it as a P.R. exercise.