Jack asked us for ideas on how to fix Twitter. A coherent plan for fixing Twitter would make millions of people happier, and pick up a billion dollars in market cap along the way. C’mon, it’ll be great!
Listen, it’s almost 2017, so it’s absurd to still be writing “how to save Twitter” thinkpieces. But I’m an eternal optimist, a fan of Twitter right from the start (no seriously, it says so on the company blog) and I don’t have time to go fix Twitter since I’m busy with my new job at Fog Creek now. So, Jack: I’ll give you this one for free, just because I still have a soft spot in my heart for the product and I really want us all to stop having to rescue Twitter in 2017.
Here’s the short version:
- Show you can consistently ship new features
- Directly handle abuse and tell the world what you’re doing
- Stop using meaningless metrics as your measure of success
- Provide specific tools for each of your types of users
- Decide if you give a damn about developers or not....
Anil Dash provides a compelling analysis and a prescription for making Twitter great again. Twitter really has been bound by the shortsightedness of the markets and it's perennial focus on quarter by quarter earnings. That usually means failure for innovative companies. I mean, imagine if Amazon had not taken Jeff Bezos' long view? Recommended reading! 10/10