Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s consumer product head, Jeff Seibert, is no longer running its product team, says Re/code, citing multiple sources. Seibert, who founded Crashlytics and took over Twitter’s core product team in September, will now be running the company’s developer product suite Fabric, the website says. Seibert was running Fabric before the promotion in the fall and now will be running it again.
No permanent replacement lined up
Citing unnamed sources, Re/code says the micro-blogging giant has no permanent replacement for Seibert yet and is opening up a search to fill the role. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s products will be taken over by Ed Ho on an interim basis. Ho has been at the micro-blogging giant for two years and is a senior engineering director.
A spokesperson confirmed the move in a statement to Re/code. The spokesperson said they are focused on delivering on five product priorities this year — their core service, safety, developers, creators and live-streaming video — and are focused on recruiting great talent in these areas.
“We’ve successfully increased our shipping cadence on our core service and have asked some of our top leaders to take on key roles in the other priority areas,” the spokesperson told.
Seibert is the fourth person to run Twitter’s core product team since early 2014. He took over the day-to-day consumer product responsibilities from Kevin Weil, the then-VP of Product. In January, Weil took the same role at Instagram as part of a massive executive exodus from the micro-blogging site. CEO Jack Dorsey was still technically “interim” CEO at that time, and Seibert’s appointment was the first major restructuring move by him.
No permanent product head: a big problem for Twitter (TWTR)
Seibert now joins the long list of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) product bosses who have either been pushed out or who have left the micro-blogging site in the past two years. For Twitter, the head of product role has become a position that it cannot seem to lock down.
This is a big problem for any consumer technology company, especially for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), which has a tough time adding new users. People still think that the micro-blogging site is difficult to use, and thus, it has comparatively fewer users than Facebook. Dorsey has been quite vocal about the need to change that, but without a stable and permanent product leader in charge, it will be difficult.
Meanwhile, the micro-blogging giant is adding a new branch to its product team as part of the change. This branch will work with important users and influencers and help them create content for the micro-blogging site. Engineering VP Jeremy Rishel, who joined the social media platform in 2013 when it acquired Bluefin Labs, will be supervising the team.
