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Former Google+ UI Designer Suggests Inept Management Played Role In Demise (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Morgan Knutson, a UI designer who seven years ago, spent eight months at Google working on its recently shuttered social networking product Google+ and who, in light of the shutdown, decided to share on Twitter his personal experience with how "awful the project and exec team was." It's a fairly long read, but among his most notable complaints is that former Google SVP Vic Gundotra, who oversaw Google+, ruled by fear and never bothered to talk with Knutson, whose desk was "directly next to Vic's glass-walled office. He would walk by my desk dozens of times during the day. He could see my screen from his desk. During the 8 months I was there, culminating in me leading the redesign of his product, Vic didn't say a word to me. No hello. No goodbye, or thanks for staying late. No handshake. No eye contact."
He also says Gundotra essentially bribed other teams within Google to incorporate Google+'s features into their products by promising them handsome financial rewards for doing so atop their yearly bonuses. "You read that correctly, "tweeted Knutson. "A f*ck ton of money to ruin the product you were building with bloated garbage that no one wanted." Gundotra is today the cofounder and CEO of AliveCor, maker of a device that captures a "medical grade" E.K.G. within 30 seconds; AliveCor has gone on to raise $30 million from investors, including the Mayo Clinic. Asked about Knutson's characterization of him, Gundotra suggested the rant was "absurd" but otherwise declined to comment. Knutson goes on to paint "a picture of a political, haphazard, wasteful and ultimately disappointing division where it was never quite clear who should be working on what or why," reports TechCrunch.
He also says Gundotra essentially bribed other teams within Google to incorporate Google+'s features into their products by promising them handsome financial rewards for doing so atop their yearly bonuses. "You read that correctly, "tweeted Knutson. "A f*ck ton of money to ruin the product you were building with bloated garbage that no one wanted." Gundotra is today the cofounder and CEO of AliveCor, maker of a device that captures a "medical grade" E.K.G. within 30 seconds; AliveCor has gone on to raise $30 million from investors, including the Mayo Clinic. Asked about Knutson's characterization of him, Gundotra suggested the rant was "absurd" but otherwise declined to comment. Knutson goes on to paint "a picture of a political, haphazard, wasteful and ultimately disappointing division where it was never quite clear who should be working on what or why," reports TechCrunch.
I feel like the next hundred comments could each mention a different issue that played "a role" in google+'s demise.
I'll start: Invite-only rollout.
This guy might be right, but he's also a huge narcissist. This guy thinks he shits gold
What, did Twitter up its character limit again?
4chan was/is successful because it's a oasis of free speech and anonymity in a world of services that demand a DNA sample to post and will ban you and try to get you fired if you post a meme they don't like. The fact that the guy who created 4chan failed to make a difference at the Ministry of Truth is hardly a shock.
Maybe if he'd been a black transsexual otherkin muslim things could've been different.
They have gone through the transition from a small, cool, outwardly facing start up to a huge bureaucratic, inwardly facing monster. Happens to all successful companies.
The Damore memo incident is a good indicator of this. Not because I care about Damore but because it gave a rare insight into the thinking and priorities of Google's CEO.
Alphabet was a good idea as a way to try to escape it. Not sure whether it will succeed.