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I don't think this is as big a deal as the Twitter departures earlier this year. Several years ago Adam Messinger was already more or less sidelined from the en

I don't think this is as big a deal as the Twitter departures earlier this year. Several years ago Adam Messinger was already more or less sidelined from the engineering organization when Chris Fry was made VP of Engineering (CTO does not imply the VP of Engineering reports to the CTO). Later Chris Fry would be replaced by Alex Roetter (thanks commenter below). After Roetter left, Messinger was put back in charge of the engineering organization. But given he had been removed from it (and passed over) in the past, it's not surprising he would leave, voluntarily or involuntarily.

streblo 10y ago
He wasn't even the head of the engineering organization before Roetter. He (Messinger) was sidelined by Chris Fry before Roetter ever took over.
- argonaut 10y ago
  Yeah that sounds about right.
  - sulam 10y ago
    After Mike Abbott left he was responsible for user-facing engineering reporting to Dick. Eventually Chris Fry moved up to SVP and he moved to CTO. So you're mostly right, but there was that weird period in there where he and Chris were peers. Then they were "peers" again, although he didn't have directs.
sulam 10y ago
It's a bigger deal than that because he was put back in charge of the engineering organization for real. That means that from when I started there to now, the engineering leadership has been: Mike Abbott Dick Costolo -> (Chris Fry, Adam Messinger, Mazen Rawashdeh) Chris Fry Alex Roetter Adam Messinger ??? Not as bad as product, but illustrative, and there were far more VP/Director changes in there along the way. In general you knew you were in for a re-org that affected you in a material way every 6 months. I had 10 managers in well under 5 years. It's not surprising many people just crawl in a hole and hope they get ignored while they vest and get stuff done.
- throwawaybird9 10y ago
  Those guys may have had the fancy titles but the real engineering leadership at Twitter was Raffi.
  - sulam 10y ago
    Depends on your org. Alex had just as much pull as Raffi, arguably more since he got the org he wanted eventually. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Raffi and Alex has the empathy of a gnat, but in terms of sheer influence it was Alex/Raffi and then everyone else).

streblo 10y ago

He wasn't even the head of the engineering organization before Roetter. He (Messinger) was sidelined by Chris Fry before Roetter ever took over.

argonaut 10y ago
Yeah that sounds about right.
- sulam 10y ago
  After Mike Abbott left he was responsible for user-facing engineering reporting to Dick. Eventually Chris Fry moved up to SVP and he moved to CTO. So you're mostly right, but there was that weird period in there where he and Chris were peers. Then they were "peers" again, although he didn't have directs.

sulam 10y ago

It's a bigger deal than that because he was put back in charge of the engineering organization for real. That means that from when I started there to now, the engineering leadership has been: Mike Abbott Dick Costolo -> (Chris Fry, Adam Messinger, Mazen Rawashdeh) Chris Fry Alex Roetter Adam Messinger ??? Not as bad as product, but illustrative, and there were far more VP/Director changes in there along the way. In general you knew you were in for a re-org that affected you in a material way every 6 months. I had 10 managers in well under 5 years. It's not surprising many people just crawl in a hole and hope they get ignored while they vest and get stuff done.

throwawaybird9 10y ago
Those guys may have had the fancy titles but the real engineering leadership at Twitter was Raffi.
- sulam 10y ago
  Depends on your org. Alex had just as much pull as Raffi, arguably more since he got the org he wanted eventually. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Raffi and Alex has the empathy of a gnat, but in terms of sheer influence it was Alex/Raffi and then everyone else).