Esther Crawford, famous for 'sleeping bag photos', talks about Twitter era anecdotes and company secrets



Mr. Esther Crawford, who was a member of Twitter (now X) until he was laid off in February 2023, what it was like inside Twitter, what Mr. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter, looked like, etc. is frankly speaking.



In 2016, Crawford founded Squad, which develops video chat tools. He joined Twitter in 2020 with its acquisition of Squad.

Video chat 'Squad' that allows you to share movies and browser contents for free and without membership registration - GIGAZINE



For Mr. Crawford, who said, ``There is a sense of crisis in a maniac,'' Twitter often felt stuffy and bureaucratic. He also said he was distracted by a series of silly power plays, reorganizations, and name changes for someone else's ego.

The corporate culture is too soft for Mr. Crawford's tastes, and healthy arguments and criticisms are replaced by 'you can't do that' and 'other people are in charge, don't touch me' and what It seems that there was also a last-minute conflict with the function that was built over months, and he disliked the risk and died.

Former CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for ``growing too quickly'' for the cause of Twitter's numerous problems.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey apologized for ``growing too quickly'' in mass dismissal, and the number of employees surged from 2000 to 7500 in 9 years-GIGAZINE


by

Mark Warner

According to Mr. Crawford, who was in the company, although the ability of each individual was high, it was almost impossible to fire people with poor performance, and there were no managers with methods or resources to fire such people. . For this reason, bad people were passed to another team. As a result, it seems that the performance was lowered everywhere and it was in a state of being pressured. Mr. Crawford said that he often felt like 'a place where he continues to waste his potential' and was frustrated.

At that time, Mr. Kavon Bakepool was the one who inspired the company, but he was not the CEO, so he did not have the necessary authority to turn the company.

On Twitter, small cross-functional teams often make a big impact by challenging core assumptions, especially in the months before Elon Musk's acquisition was completed. says Crawford.

Mr. Crawford said he didn't know much about Mr. Mask at the time, but as a person who created companies like Tesla and SpaceX, Mr. Mask's acquisition of Twitter ``may breathe new life into the company. ', and in fact, he described the post-Musk acquisition as 'full of lively nuances.'

However, 'Twitter 2.0' after Mr. Mask's acquisition could be dismissed without reason at any time, and there were many situations where people were actually dismissed, which adversely affected the morale of the team. .

Mr. Crawford describes Mr. Mask as 'a charming and interesting person.' However, he had a habit of personality, and it was difficult to read what kind of mood he was in, and there were times when he suddenly changed from excitement to anger. When it comes to product and business decisions, Musk seems to rely more on random feedback than on people who do their best to tackle the problem in front of him, which Crawford said. “I am still confused,” he said.

In November 2022, Mr. Crawford posted a photo of himself wearing an eye mask in a sleeping bag at the Twitter headquarters after Mr. Mask's acquisition, saying, ``I'm going to stay here and work until I correct the company.'' is known. Regarding the truth of this matter, Mr. Crawford did not let people do what he did not want to do as a product leader, so he worked around the clock with teams across multiple time zones to achieve results on schedule. He said that he was

A scalpel of an investigation by regulatory authorities enters as an illegal nap room was set up at Twitter headquarters - GIGAZINE



Ultimately, Mr. Crawford will be laid off from Twitter in February 2023. However, Mr. Crawford, who 'likes to challenge difficult tasks,' expressed that he continued to stay on Twitter after Mr. Mask's acquisition, 'I felt like I was playing my life at level 10 in hard mode.' He said he found it rewarding.

Also, regarding the layoffs themselves, he did not hold a grudge against the dismantling of the product management team he belonged to, and since all the remaining product managers had been fired, it made sense that he would be leaving. ’ he recalled.

Finally, Crawford said of Twitter X, 'It could be a huge success, or it could be a total failure. Either way, we hope to see a series of very interesting events in the future.' concludes.

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in Web Service, Posted by logc_nt