Twitter’s ex-Head of Product on Elon, consumer products, culture, more | Kayvon Beykpour

Kayvon Beykpour was the longest-serving head of product at Twitter and was GM of Twitter’s consumer division until the platform was acquired by Elon Musk. He originally joined Twitter in 2015 through the acquisition of his company, Periscope, the largest live video streaming platform at the time. Periscope pioneered technology that inspired Instagram Live, TikTok Live, Facebook Live, and other social networks’ expansion into video streaming. In our conversation, we discuss:
• The story of being let go from Twitter after Elon’s acquisition
• How he turned Twitter’s stagnant culture around
• Kayvon’s thoughts on the limitations of frameworks like Jobs to Be Done
• Why Periscope failed
• Advice for building consumer products
• When to copy, when to innovate
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Find the transcript and references at: www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/tw...
Where to find Kayvon Beykpour:
• X: / kayvz
• LinkedIn: / kayvz
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: / lennysan
• LinkedIn: / lennyrachitsky
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Kayvon’s background
(04:31) Getting Elon up to speed at Twitter
(11:34) The story of being let go from Twitter after Elon’s acquisition
(21:09) Changing the product culture at Twitter
(29:44) Building the “hide replies” feature
(32:02) Sacred crows, taking bold bets, and reigniting growth
(34:28) Aquihires and their impact
(42:40) Tips for successful acquisitions and staffing
(47:00) The limitations of frameworks like JTBD
(53:20) Signs you’ve gone too far with a framework
(57:44) Lessons from building Periscope
(01:00:41) Reasons why Periscope failed
(01:07:24) The challenges of implementing video at Twitter
(01:12:05) Copying ideas in good taste
(01:17:58) How to get better at building consumer products
(01:19:51) What Kayvon is building
(01:20:31) Lightning round
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

[@DanielleNewnham]

Can't wait to watch this - long been a fan of Kayvon Beykpour and what he did at Twitter and Periscope

[@terrykelliher8001]

Great podcast the story of Twitter from his perspective is invaluable.

[@TuitionNearMe]

The interview was really good! I enjoyed it. Periscope was such a useful tool and infelt it got shit down prematurely

[@jayzeng149]

This episode is gold!

[@sonallagad284]

Very nice takeaways. Real practical issues that we all face

[@Entrepreneur_in_progress]

Super interesting discussion.
By the way, when can we dream of the presence of Andrej Karpathy?

[@What_do_I_Think]

Does monetary success really make somebody a "genius"? Or is it just some special faculty to "sell dreams" to investors -- even when never fulfilled (self-driving cars, "free speech" on Twitter).
Elisabeth Holmes was also very successful in selling dreams.

[@fatezero1919]

A question to the people working in sillicon valley: Without being bias, how do you see the role of product managers going for the upcoming years? Is the role really somehow dying as some people on Reddit assert? What about the salary? I feel like it is not on the same level as Software engineers anymore.

[@dishankshah5080]

can you share reddit post link where this discussion is happening?

[@JulioReguero]

I like Marty Cagan's views on this subject. To me personally, the PM role as it's been defined and put in practice for the last 10 years, is redundant and inefficient when it comes to creating value in product teams. Many of them really believe they "own" the product, and that right there is part of the problem. A project must have all the builders (product managers, designers and engineers) engaged and on the same page to deliver the desired outcomes in a project. As a PM, you're mistaken if you think the scope of your contributions is to create roadmaps, feature lists, PRDs, hang out on MixPanel, and tell people what to do without context, especially if you like to do all of that "discovery" in a silo. I have worked in the past with PMs where they simply won't talk to me as the lead designer. I blame the top-down "culture" to build software in these companies. Mediocre PMs is a key reason why so many projects fails, and the reason so many team members are not engaged and eventually quit to work for companies that truly understand the role of a PM and how they can enable product teams to create value to customers.I seen this happened in different organizations who call themselves "a design-centric organization". The amount of waste before realizing the project must be shutdown is insane, both time and money.

[@varunimal]

Kayvon did a stellar job at Twitter

[@JulioReguero]

Elon and his antics is the reason why I stopped paying attention to and consuming content on Twitter. I rarely use the thing.

[@praveensg]

Twitter never had a business model. Still does not.

[@What_do_I_Think]

Musk basically destroyed Twitter.

[@Drackomass]

Third

[@DrivingCr00ner]

Shout-out to all the tech and product nerds out there watching this early Sunday morning with excitement. 🫖