No Five-Year Plan
Williams: I don't build a five-year plan and a roadmap. How I describe what we're building will change. What I think the really important elements are will change. This is the way I develop products — you discover them over time.
I don't build a five-year plan. You discover products over time.
Twitter's Key Insight
Williams: The really key, huge insight we had at Twitter — around 2009 — was when we changed the question from 'what are you doing' to 'what's happening.' We realized Twitter isn't about status updates to my friends. It's an information network, not a social network.
Then we started tweaking the product in that direction. We put more emphasis on search, on trends. We designed retweet to maximize the efficient flow of whatever information is important to you. Very different than if we had maximized making interpersonal connections.
We changed from 'what are you doing' to 'what's happening.' It's an information network, not a social network.
Usage Is Oxygen for Ideas
Williams: With Medium, in the last 6 months we've changed how we approach the idea of what publishing is. At first we had these big full-page images. We got rid of those because we realized if we launched with that, we'd just be a photo sharing site.
Matt Mullenweg said — usage for your product is like oxygen for ideas. I believe that's true. It's not about data analysis or listening to feedback and saying 'it should do this.' You realize in real time — oh, that thing's not important. This thing over here is important. You nudge it that direction. Then in retrospect you look back like — oh yeah, brilliant plan, we were doing that all along.
You realize in real time — that thing's not important, this thing over here is. You nudge it. Then in retrospect it looks like a plan.