Career Reflections
As I leave Twitter to join Facebook—well, Meta, some reflection on my career to this point and how I view “the company” vs “the product”
The Details
I joined Twitter in March of 2020. If that time sounds familiar then you know it was right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had an onsite interview scheduled that was moved to a virtual call, that’s how aligned the beginning of my time at Twitter was with the great shutdown of 2020.
Twitter was one of the companies I always wanted to work for. I love the product. I love the conversation aspect of social media. Obviously I love videos and pictures and all that, but those aren’t things I feel very comfortable sharing of myself. I’ve always communicated best in text and Twitter is #1 for that. Before Twitter I worked at Apple, Tonal, and then Netflix. All of these jobs were super cool and big steps in my career, but when that Twitter offer came I was a different kind of ecstatic.
After I joined Twitter, the task ahead of me and my team was significant. We were standing up a DesignOps / Design Program Management function in a company that had never had it. We started as a team of four across multiple initiatives and product areas, and there really was not even close to enough resources for us to even support the highest priority projects going on. Individually, I was responsible for supporting the entire Revenue organization, which was an impossible task. I did my best to take a 10,000ft approach but it was still very overwhelming and as someone who has since been diagnosed with ADHD, was an extremely difficult hurdle to overcome.
There was also a culture shift in motion at Twitter, and when I interviewed I was under the impression that a direct feedback, decisive, and empathetic style was what Twitter was looking for. I came in with that approach and it wasn’t quite met with open arms. There definitely was a cohort of folks who still embraced a culture of “being nice” over getting things done.
This all caused me to retreat a bit. While I do have values and still felt that more process and organizational excellence was necessary, I also didn’t want my time there to be full of conflict. I looked for lanes where I could operate and make changes for the better. I even found a group of folks who wanted to revamp the Product Development Process at Twitter, and we ended up launching it earlier this year.
I continued to struggle with being spread too thin and with constant changes in the organizational structure and a lack of definition over our roles. As 2020 wound down, a lot of personal tragedy happened and I looked forward to entering 2021 with a reset of sorts. Unfortunately, 2021 came with many resets, but the amount of change and the influx of an entire agency that we acquired (Ueno) really threw things for a loop. Tenured folks kept leaving and we brought in a large number of new hires at once while still not having tools and organization and process. I know many cringe at the idea of operational process, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that operating in chaos is not sustainable. Creatives need structure and need to know what’s expected. People need to do what they are great at without having to reinvent the wheel every time.
The changes continued through the summer. It’s all been documented in the New York Times and in FastCo and I’m not really interested in adding more to the discourse, but the struggles I had lined up with what many current and ex employees experienced. I had no growth path at Twitter, mostly because the path was never set. I also felt like I wasn’t good at what I did anymore, because I could never really do it.
The NYT article came out on the first day of a 3-week break I was encouraged to take. The timing of all of that was not lost on me, especially as recruiters started reaching out. I was still reluctant for about a week but as I continued to reflect on my career and my life in this moment, I finally crossed the threshold of opening myself up to something new. And that led me to what’s next.
"The Company" vs "The Product"
What started as a dalliance with Facebook ended up winning me over in the end. I approached the opportunity with a lot of skepticism and laid out the parameters I needed in order to make a switch. Ultimately, through the interviews and recruiting process, I felt that every criteria I cared about was met or exceeded.
First of all, Facebook offered me growth, both immediate and in the future. The role I’m taking on brings me back to being a manager within DesignOps.
Second, the opportunity to be fully remote like I was at Twitter was offered, with the ability to travel to offices when they reopen. This scenario is what I need at this point in my life, with 5 kids and living in Colorado. I declined other opportunities because I wasn’t willing to move to one of the company hubs.
Third, Facebook offers a situation where there is established process and a community of DesignOps that I can connect with and learn from. I know going in that I can show up and do my job without having to reinvent entire systems and processes.
And it was in these things that I craved that I realized how different my ambitions are today. I spent a lot of my career in the past decade going to startups and small agencies with the distinct goal to establish DesignOps for Product Development or Creative Ops. I loved coming into the chaos and adding process that I knew was pretty simple but would make huge inroads with my creative teams. I even enjoyed the stress and the back and forth with other leaders over doing the right thing.
And now? Well I have a big family and I’ve had a lot happen that has changed my perspective. Five kids aged 10 and younger tends to pull a lot of focus away. I want to be present in the other aspects of my life. I’m in my early 30’s, and there is so much time in my career left for me to go and dedicate a majority of my energy toward the unique and difficult challenges I faced at Twitter. I think that when I joined I was prepared to do just that, but the pandemic happened and my kids were home all the time and two of my kids lost their mom and suddenly we were moving out of state because our lease got cancelled.
Despite all of that, I felt a bit apprehensive leaving Twitter (a product I love) and joining Facebook (especially in light of the week they’ve had). But I came to realize the difference between “The Company” and “The Product”. Ultimately, I chose a company that aligns with my growth and my individual needs at this time over a company that creates a product that I love and will still continue to use. When I was younger, the dream of working for certain companies was always in the excitement of working for a company who’s products I love. I work at Apple! I use all their stuff! I work at Netflix, I love their shows!
Joining Facebook now is so different, and not because I don’t love their products. Instagram and Whatsapp are awesome. The Facebook app itself is so much more than a lightning rod social media app. But it’s not even about the products to me, it’s the opportunity and the manager I’m going to work with. It’s the team I get to build and the programs I get to implement. Maybe this all will go south unexpectedly and maybe I’ll be looking for the right fit again. But I feel more confident in taking a job because it’s right for me at this point in my life over taking a job because I love what they do.