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I joined back in 2014 and left this year. I feel like I got to enjoy a couple of years before the company started to lose its nimbleness. Feedback groups used

I joined back in 2014 and left this year. I feel like I got to enjoy a couple of years before the company started to lose its nimbleness. Feedback groups used to get responses from the people that actually built the things instead of contractors whose primary function is feedback group triage. Sometimes you could actually have an impact by giving feedback, and you could see others having those impacts as well. When I left, it seemed like whatever wasn't planned for upfront at the planning meetings for each half just won't happen. Around 2018 I came to a team with a small feature request that I was happy to take on myself as long as they'd provide code review. I was told if I'd come to them a month ago they might've been able to do it, but now I'd need to wait until planning for the next half. I think Portal is a perfect example of how slow to adapt the company has become. It's a fantastic video conferencing device, certainly the best at its price point. We happened to enter the pandemic with this device already available for sale, but we completely failed to capitalize on it. Zoom become the dominant video conferencing service pretty quickly. We failed to roll out Zoom support until October of 2020, when everyone had already established their video conferencing routines and were less likely to see the benefit of a dedicated device. Portal ended up failing so hard as a consumer product that it got transferred over to the Workplace division. I'd argued internally that at the very least we should allow sideloading of apps. Portal is just Android. People could run their videoconferencing application of choice, as well as any other apps. That would make the Portal more competitive versus an Android tablet, which all have okay videoconferencing as well as the whole world of Android apps. The Portal camera is fisheye so we'd need to modify Android to let regular apps pull a normal image using the Android camera APIs, but that's totally doable. In the distant past these kinds of requests would've at least gotten engagement from people working on the product. In 2020, they got a chipper response from a contractor who I guess filed them in a feature requests tool where they went to die. Oh, the contractor also would provide directions on how to use the web browser in lieu of apps. Like the first iPhone.

jonny_eh 4y ago
> Feedback groups What's that?
- crorella 4y ago
  each team or project normally has a group where you can ask questions, provide feedback or ask for features.
dev_tty01 4y ago
>I think Portal is a perfect example of how slow to adapt the company has become. It's a fantastic video conferencing device, certainly the best at its price point. We happened to enter the pandemic with this device already available for sale, but we completely failed to capitalize on it. Thanks for your insight, but the Portal failure shouldn't be surprising. There are a large number of people who would never want to have a private conversation or meeting using Facebook infrastructure or be forced to create a Facebook account to join a meeting. As far as Zoom support, again, why would anyone trust Facebook infrastructure with private meetings? Aside from the trust issue, why buy hardware from FB just to have meetings?
- xvector 4y ago
  It's difficult to describe how amazing Portal is. It was a game changer for those that used it
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - billjings 4y ago
    I get the feeling that the Quest Pro is a similar game changing experience, but the strategy tax from being forced into Facebook services is absolutely suffocating. I am legit excited about the idea of having VR eye contact, and would gladly pilot headsets for my team. But nobody wants to be on Facebook's platform. It's embarrassing to even talk about it. And I'm frustrated that something that should be a fun, cool, liberating, wide open new platform is so stifled and locked down.
    - pavlov 4y ago
      Locked down? The Quest allows both sideloading and third party app stores, and the browser has good WebXR support. It’s far less locked down than an iPhone.
      - TeMPOraL 4y ago
happyopossum 4y ago
> Portal ended up failing so hard as a consumer product that it got transferred over to the Workplace division The immediate response I heard from everyone who heard about it (not in my tech circle) was an immediate NOPE. Followed by “I’m not letting Facebook put a camera in my house.” I don’t think the failure can be blamed on the lack of zoom support.
ojbyrne 4y ago
One of the things that bothered me there was working with contractors. I felt like having two tiers really undermined a lot of the culture.
- rightbyte 4y ago
  Ye you get an apartheid atmosphere when the amount of contractors go so high that they can't be experts anymore. Oh so now there is a Xmas lunch, but a third of the group is not invited. Or "No ice cream" for you. It is funny how it was the small things that pissed me off. Who in their right mind even has a Xmas lunch without everyone ... It was always one manager layer disconnected from the actual contractors that pulled off the BS meany things. The direct management knew that had to give ice cream to contractors too.
saddist0 4y ago
In contrast to all other comments, Portal was/is one of the best done video conferencing product made before pendamic, and fully support your speculation. I wanted to buy it for personal work meetings usage, corporate usage to setup in conferencing room, etc, but.. [1] zoom wasn't supported. [2] not available worldwide to buy. [3] regularly out of stock when it even came.
underwater 4y ago
Allowing sideloading of apps is a business decision, not a technical one.
broknbottle 4y ago
The portal devices wouldn't have succeeded even if it came with lunch voucher for a 1:1 with the Zuck himself. The devices failed as a consumer product due to years of Facebook disregarding users privacy and their focus on growth at all costs. Zuck has become nothing more than a meme ceo and the only reason he hasn't been removed by the board is because of the king like structure that he has setup for himself.

jonny_eh 4y ago

> Feedback groups What's that?

crorella 4y ago
each team or project normally has a group where you can ask questions, provide feedback or ask for features.

dev_tty01 4y ago

>I think Portal is a perfect example of how slow to adapt the company has become. It's a fantastic video conferencing device, certainly the best at its price point. We happened to enter the pandemic with this device already available for sale, but we completely failed to capitalize on it. Thanks for your insight, but the Portal failure shouldn't be surprising. There are a large number of people who would never want to have a private conversation or meeting using Facebook infrastructure or be forced to create a Facebook account to join a meeting. As far as Zoom support, again, why would anyone trust Facebook infrastructure with private meetings? Aside from the trust issue, why buy hardware from FB just to have meetings?

xvector 4y ago
It's difficult to describe how amazing Portal is. It was a game changer for those that used it
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- billjings 4y ago
  I get the feeling that the Quest Pro is a similar game changing experience, but the strategy tax from being forced into Facebook services is absolutely suffocating. I am legit excited about the idea of having VR eye contact, and would gladly pilot headsets for my team. But nobody wants to be on Facebook's platform. It's embarrassing to even talk about it. And I'm frustrated that something that should be a fun, cool, liberating, wide open new platform is so stifled and locked down.
  - pavlov 4y ago
    Locked down? The Quest allows both sideloading and third party app stores, and the browser has good WebXR support. It’s far less locked down than an iPhone.
    - TeMPOraL 4y ago

happyopossum 4y ago

> Portal ended up failing so hard as a consumer product that it got transferred over to the Workplace division The immediate response I heard from everyone who heard about it (not in my tech circle) was an immediate NOPE. Followed by “I’m not letting Facebook put a camera in my house.” I don’t think the failure can be blamed on the lack of zoom support.

ojbyrne 4y ago

One of the things that bothered me there was working with contractors. I felt like having two tiers really undermined a lot of the culture.

rightbyte 4y ago
Ye you get an apartheid atmosphere when the amount of contractors go so high that they can't be experts anymore. Oh so now there is a Xmas lunch, but a third of the group is not invited. Or "No ice cream" for you. It is funny how it was the small things that pissed me off. Who in their right mind even has a Xmas lunch without everyone ... It was always one manager layer disconnected from the actual contractors that pulled off the BS meany things. The direct management knew that had to give ice cream to contractors too.

saddist0 4y ago

In contrast to all other comments, Portal was/is one of the best done video conferencing product made before pendamic, and fully support your speculation. I wanted to buy it for personal work meetings usage, corporate usage to setup in conferencing room, etc, but.. [1] zoom wasn't supported. [2] not available worldwide to buy. [3] regularly out of stock when it even came.

underwater 4y ago

Allowing sideloading of apps is a business decision, not a technical one.

broknbottle 4y ago

The portal devices wouldn't have succeeded even if it came with lunch voucher for a 1:1 with the Zuck himself. The devices failed as a consumer product due to years of Facebook disregarding users privacy and their focus on growth at all costs. Zuck has become nothing more than a meme ceo and the only reason he hasn't been removed by the board is because of the king like structure that he has setup for himself.