He blames “impatient strategic moves.” If they’re done hastily, are they even strategic?
Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
151–160 of 195 posts
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#152Oh, so now Evan Spiegel want to prioritize developing countries... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/17/snapchat-...
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#153I used to be a heavy user of Snapchat, and fall into its dominant demographic - young* (edit, had forgotten this word) users. I remember buying stock in the company, and the same week, their big update rolling out, and quite literally burying my friends and their stories underneath the "overcrowded pile of clickbait" mentioned in the article. That, I believe, is where Snap really went wrong, and what drove 3 million…
Why they didn’t do extensive internal testing before rolling out such a huge UX changes? At least they should have rolled it out to smaller groups, measure metrics and expand group over time. The general rule in UX update is that larger the changes, longer it needs the A/B testing for impact on metrics. All botched UX updates have root cause in circumventing this rule by some passionate folks.
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Short answer: the US has two senators for each state, some states have much more population than others, so proportionally a vote in Wyoming counts "more" than a vote in California. This has direct effects in the legislative branch (the Senate) and indirect effects in presidential elections (electoral college) and thus also indirectly in the Supreme Court (nomination + approval).
Well, the US also has the House of Representatives where representation is proportional. A bicameral congress most certainly does not disqualify the entire system from being considered a democracy.
Yeah, I am not trying to make a political statement, I'm just explaining why people say that
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#155Lost in all this is an important distinction that Snapchat wanted to make: they wanted to separate friends from influencers / celebrities / media. It was a good change. Another important thing Snapchat does is it doesn't show likes / followers publicly - when the whole world is chasing these numbers Snapchat has taken stance against it. The general philosophy they follow makes me think this is short term pain and the…
I'd love to hear why you think that separating friends from influencers, celebrity, or media is a good change. The last element I get somewhat, but I don't think anyone has a conceptual issue identifying who is a fried and who is an influencer, and being able to see stories with minimal friction was a major draw for me.
I follow few friends and non-friends on FB and they are very distinct entities. The non-friends I follow are because of some common interest like a research field or outdoor sport. I would be happy to see weekend yard work photos from my friend but I wouldn’t care so much of that from non-friends. The intent of why I follow these two classes is very different. However Snapchat crowd might be different as I understand. Young folks would tend to consider both classes as same.
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#156Give credit where credit is due. Spiegel is digging deep, showing humility, and asking the right questions after Snap has been flailing for a long time. The crux of the issue is that they haven't launched anything fundamentally innovative and game-changing since the original Snapchat, which went insanely viral in the teen demographic. In this sense they are following a similar path as Bebo, where I worked before they…
original Snapchat was not fundamentally innovative and game-changing...
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#157I used to be a heavy user of Snapchat, and fall into its dominant demographic - young* (edit, had forgotten this word) users. I remember buying stock in the company, and the same week, their big update rolling out, and quite literally burying my friends and their stories underneath the "overcrowded pile of clickbait" mentioned in the article. That, I believe, is where Snap really went wrong, and what drove 3 million…
Why they didn’t do extensive internal testing before rolling out such a huge UX changes? At least they should have rolled it out to smaller groups, measure metrics and expand group over time. The general rule in UX update is that larger the changes, longer it needs the A/B testing for impact on metrics. All botched UX updates have root cause in circumventing this rule by some passionate folks.
It was forced down the company's throat by the CEO. 0 testing was done by Snap before rolling it out, and he was 100% behind it. All of product design/management said no, he over ruled them. This is what I was told by a snap employee.
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. There were reports that came out from several sources that Evan ignored all feedback from product and design including hard numbers from early tests. There were apparently several groups internally that tried to stop the massive changes from dropping without adequate testing and iteration. Those groups were overridden by Evan in favor of "vision" and that apparent lack of di…
> then the board should absolutely give him the boot in the next 24 months. Very funny, Snapchat has two classes of stock and he owns enough of the kind that matters that no one can oust him. I looked through the S-1 when they were going public and decided owning the shares they were selling to the public was the equivalent of a "board observer" seat. You are free to watch him run his company, but it is still his com…
This is general pattern and it’s a good thing. More often than not founder is much better bet to execute on vision and longer term success. However, recently it has been shown that investors still are able to excert good level of influence and control. The way this happens is via controlling the future flow of investment. If big investors gang up on not buying a stock or sell out en mass, the founders with dictatorial powers will have to bent. Uber is example where founder got ousted despite of his retaining voting majority.
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#159I used to be a heavy user of Snapchat, and fall into its dominant demographic - young* (edit, had forgotten this word) users. I remember buying stock in the company, and the same week, their big update rolling out, and quite literally burying my friends and their stories underneath the "overcrowded pile of clickbait" mentioned in the article. That, I believe, is where Snap really went wrong, and what drove 3 million…
Why they didn’t do extensive internal testing before rolling out such a huge UX changes? At least they should have rolled it out to smaller groups, measure metrics and expand group over time. The general rule in UX update is that larger the changes, longer it needs the A/B testing for impact on metrics. All botched UX updates have root cause in circumventing this rule by some passionate folks.
They were changing things all the time anyway, in 6 months I had maybe 3 complete redesign of the home page. And if you were on Android like me, you know testing and stability certainly wasn't part of the company motto, Snapshat was easily the most buggy mainstream app I know.
Re: Snapchat CEO’s leaked memo on survival
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. There were reports that came out from several sources that Evan ignored all feedback from product and design including hard numbers from early tests. There were apparently several groups internally that tried to stop the massive changes from dropping without adequate testing and iteration. Those groups were overridden by Evan in favor of "vision" and that apparent lack of di…
There's multiple legends of CEOs famously shunning the rational advice of their team and charging down a path they believe in. You're a genius if it works out (ie. Steve Jobs) and second guessed if it doesn't.
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