Elon Musk’s unpredictable mood, lack of data-driven decisions, and a seemingly fawning entourage – this is the unexpected picture painted by Esther Crawford, a former product manager for the now-renamed Twitter, in a scathing blog post shared this Wednesday on ‘X’.
Last year, Crawford unexpectedly became an internet sensation when her image, asleep in a Twitter office, went viral. But her recent comments, sparked by her departure from the social media giant, have brought her back into the public eye with a vengeance.
“I’ve been taken aback by his readiness to dismantle so much, but with sufficient resources and time, something innovative could potentially surface,” Crawford stated, expressing her disagreement with Musk’s decisions since taking over the company.
Crawford’s journey with Twitter began in 2020 when her start-up was acquired by the platform, much before Musk’s surprising $44 billion purchase.
“Elon possesses a strange charisma and a genuinely good sense of humor,” Crawford commented. However, she quickly adds, “His mood, however, can fluctuate wildly, from enthusiasm to rage.”
This erratic behavior, Crawford reveals, led to a climate of trepidation among the Twitter staff, with employees dreading summons for meetings or having to relay disappointing news to Musk.
Crawford voiced concerns over the seemingly blind loyalty of Musk’s inner circle, noting, “His every pronouncement was met with unyielding support. It was both fanatical and excessive.”
She criticised Musk’s reliance on instinct over hard data and expertise in steering product and business decisions. She said that Musk often turned to Twitter polls and impromptu feedback over input from employees actually engaged in problem-solving at the company.
Crawford also took the opportunity to criticize the previous management, describing it as “pampered” and “entitled”. She pointed to the inefficiency of teams that would work on a feature for months, only to have it discarded at the last minute as being too risky.
Under Musk’s leadership, the Twitter logo has been replaced with a white ‘X’. In Musk’s vision, ‘X’ will serve as a super-app mirroring the functionality of China’s WeChat, merging social media, messaging, and payment services.
However, the platform’s advertising business has plummeted since Musk’s takeover, with marketers disillusioned by Musk’s management style and mass layoffs that weakened the platform’s content moderation. In a pivot, Musk has moved towards building a subscriber base and introducing a pay model in a bid for fresh revenue streams.
Despite these changes, many users and advertisers are objecting to the platform’s new charges for previously complimentary services, alterations to content moderation, and the reinstatement of previously blocked right-wing accounts.
The news is based on an article by MalayMail.com.
