Trevor O'Brien, the Product Lead Running All Twitter Apps, Is Departing
Kurt Wagner / Re/code :
Context & Ripple Effects
Trevor O'Brien's exit lands just months after Twitter lost its global head of developer and platform relations, Jeff Sandquist, who left in February after less than 18 months on the job — a sign the churn reaches deep into the teams that shape what Twitter ships. O'Brien held an unusually broad remit: all consumer apps, on every platform.
First-order effects
- Twitter must immediately find an owner for the entire consumer app portfolio — iOS, Android and web product decisions sit with no named leader until one is named.
Second-order effects
- Each senior vacancy compounds the last: with business development head Jana Messerschmidt, media and commerce head Nathan Hubbard and others also planning exits per related coverage, remaining leaders absorb overlapping duties while the company recruits replacements from outside.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Twitter's problem stops being individual resignations and becomes institutional: by late 2016, six of ten members of its own leadership team had left in a single year, including the CTO, COO and VP of Product — forcing a rebuild that leaned on outside hires like former Facebook and Snap ad exec Sriram Krishnan joining as senior director of product.
The trend: O'Brien's departure is one data point in Twitter's multi-year executive exodus, which by 2016 had hollowed out most of its leadership team.