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Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer to Step Down
- LyalinDotCom 10y agoWhile change is always hard I think Twitter can use some new and hungry people to drive it in a new direction. Its such an important service and I really wish them all the best.
- isopod 10y agoSeeing the rise of Noto as other executives and leaders fall away, are removed, or otherwise leave Twitter makes me wonder how much longer Dorsey can hold on to his job, especially after the embarrassment of the failed acquisition talks. It's like watching Game of Thrones, but in real life.
- gkoberger 10y agoI don't understand why you'd want to rise in Twitter. It seems to never work out for anyone; they clear house constantly.
- kristianc 10y agoIsn't that the life of any C-level exec anywhere? At most mature, post-growth companies, leaving is part of the job.
- idlewords 10y agoHe's giving someone the gift of one day writing an article called "Noto Considered Harmful"
- asdfasdfa11112 10y agoI can think of a few reasons. 1 - they might give you big bags of cash 2 - they think they can be the ones to turn it around (what, execs, big egos? unrealistic expectations? complete faith in their self as savior of mankind? surely you jest.) 3 - their career doesn't end at twitter
- arcticbull 10y agoAnd of course if (2) falls down and they can't steer the ship, they can leverage their new position (3) and big bags of money (1) to go move somewhere else.
- nikcub 10y ago> I don't understand why you'd want to rise in Twitter. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cuplqd1XEAEre6n.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cuplqd1XEAEre6n.jpg:large not bad work if you can get it :)
- misterbowfinger 10y ago:face_palm: is there hope? can anyone confirm?
- BinaryIdiot 10y agoWill December 1 see Twitter posting an executive position under HN's "who's hiring?" post?
- yuhong 10y agoI really wish the restrictions can be reduced or removed so board of directors (like @pmarca) and CEOs can tweet more on public companies, which is part of what I mean by "Yishan-style CEOs".
- zitterbewegung 10y agoSeems like tweeting would be more of a liability than positive for the company.
- yuhong 10y agoThat is the problem that should be fixed, for all public companies.
- test1235 10y agoGoing by the article, it doesn't look like they'll need to advertise - someone who works there will already have a friend in mind to fill those shoes.
- hackaflocka 10y agoThis has to be good news for Twitter. Twitter suffered enormously under his leadership. It lost users, potential revenue, potential profits, and people. He seemed to not care about all the trolling and abuse problems. This is good news.
- dharmon 10y agoWhen is Dorsey going to step down? Running two successful, public businesses is damn near impossible. Running two public companies that are both in dire straits? Get outta here. It was incredibly irresponsible of the board to allow him to come back in the CEO role, and they need to put an end to it.
- acchow 10y agoWhy do you think Square is in "dire straits"? They're beating expectations every quarter and raising forward guidance.
- baccheion 10y agoThey aren't necessarily in dire straits, but it seems their (prematurely) slowing growth has many spooked, and it is also puzzling, as they shouldn't have slown down this quickly. Also, many complain about Twitter's user experience, overall product, and lack of desire to tend to its users and their needs. Essentially, it seems they just stalled out, are slowly drifting deeper into mediocrity, and aren't going anywhere. Though with growth still present (as their stock price is now more aligned with their projected growth rate) and a large (billions in IPO proceeds) cash cushion relative to their size.
- moyta 10y agoHow is any of Square's performance surprising though? I would be surprised if they are able to be more successful than other ISOs in the payment processing industry, and at this point the little niche they had has been commoditized like the rest of the industry. Clover Go, Paypal Here, etc are eating their marketshare and can beat them on rates all day long, except for customers that don't make sense (high Amex/Visa Infinite usage), and First Data and their ISOs are happy to let Square lay there and bleed out from those "customers".
- twblalock 10y agoI blame the board for Dorsey and for most of the other problems. (Yes, I know he's a member of the board...) It's inevitable that a lot of executive positions get filled by personal connections, and it's inevitable that board members reward their friends, etc. Despite that, many businesses end up being run pretty well. However, the Twitter board has extremely irresponsible and negligent -- far more so than is normally the case. I don't think any executive reshuffles or new CEOs will help, because the board contributes as much to the problem as anyone else.
- michaelvoz 10y agoI still do not understand why twitter needs one. Fire everyone, bring on a skeleton crew of engineers to fix bugs, and maybe 4 product engineers, a couple managers and a couple designers. Boom, instantly ultra profitable.
- paulddraper 10y agoAnd no one to work the advertising deals? You're leaving money on the table with zero sales staff.
- MichaelBurge 10y agoYou probably need dedicated account managers too. I imagine the White House Twitter account is willing to pay for support.
- hackaflocka 10y agoIt would make too much sense, and the liberal know-it-all anal-cysts' heads would ass-plode.
- dang 10y agoSince you've ignored our repeated requests to stop posting uncivil, unsubstantive comments, we've banned your account.
- hackaflocka 10y agoDoes that mean I can't be downvoted any more?
- trprog 10y agoLikely part of their valuation is built around expected future growth and innovation. It becomes hard to maintain that story if you cut your engineering too deep.
- flurdy 10y ago
- baccheion 10y agoThey need to do more than get rid of the higher up executives. If they aren't that good, then everyone from middle management up needs to be cleared out. What they do instead is regularly clear out others and it results in nothing but a weaker environment and more fear-based maneuvering (which is probably what's desired given how weak Twitter's management is). Twitter gets fairly good ratings on Glassdoor overall, but settles on a 3.2/5 for senior management (ie, even Google's 3.9/5 rating is reflective of poorly regarded senior management). In order to think of management as good (according to Glassdoor), they need a 4.0/5. If they get a 4.2/5 or higher, then they can be considered elite or special. That is, they need to get rid of their crap middle management that's likely getting in the way of everything and driving it all (slowly) into the ground, then use the space that creates to get people in who know what they are doing and that are about progressing forward.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- majormajor 10y agoMiddle management is a really easy area for a growing company to end up weak in. If you promote a junior manager (out of necessity, or as a reward for being a very good junior manager) who's never seen what good higher level management looks like, they don't even know enough about what they don't know. And then most junior managers never end up seeing it. Took me a while before I did - I liked my boss, even, but then they left and someone new came in, and the difference was night and day. Being able to come into a new place and figure out what details to focus on and what to not, identify common problem areas, identify people to delegate to and trust, get upper-management support for you when necessary, figure out where you're still uncomfortable and how to get you to start stretching yourself there... it's not stuff I knew I was missing. And I could've gone another decade without knowing it, probably! Late edit: the more I see of the skills it takes to be good at it, and how easily it can be a thankless role, the more I'm kinda terrified even more of that jump than the dev->manager jump.
- just_had_tea 10y ago> And then most junior managers never end up seeing it. Took me a while before I did - I liked my boss, even, but then they left and someone new came in, and the difference was night and day. Being able to come into a new place and figure out what details to focus on and what to not, identify common problem areas, identify people to delegate to and trust, get upper-management support for you when necessary, figure out where you're still uncomfortable and how to get you to start stretching yourself there... it's not stuff I knew I was missing. And I could've gone another decade without knowing it, probably! Perhaps a silly question, and definitely tangential, but do you have resources / pointers on where to learn about these kinds of skills? Or is that what MBA's are for? (sounds snarky but meant sincerely)
- gregshap 10y agoNot much accountability from the CEO for stagnant product vision and direction. I guess if I founded Twitter I wouldnt fire myself either, but if I was their board I would think about it.
- nameisu 10y agotwitter is a saudi company now. It cannot be trusted.
- cloudjacker 10y agoDo you guys ever get tired of Twitter stories? Do you guys ever get tired of me pointing out that it will still be a Unicorn when it trades at 1/10th of the price and has a sustainable business model? We call those success stories, but lets be honest, its the share price you are worried about.
- mikebay 10y agoTwitter and facebook is supressing peoples opinions/comments/articles and deleting they accounts when they ideology is not mainstream "suitable". For me both medias are big disappointment.