Reports have come down from on high that Twitter has already demoted their brand new head of consumer product, Jeff Seibert. He will be back in his old position, running Twitter’s developer-focused product house, Fabric. The embattled position was only filled last September. Reports flooding in that the position has already been emptied are thus all the more puzzling when they also say that the position remains empty at the moment, with no permanent replacement lined up at this time. This could signal a major shift in focus for Twitter, or be just another sign of internal strife. Seibert’s predecessor was put into the position in 2014 and left in January of this year for Instagram, making Seibert the fourth product head for Twitter since 2014.
As of writing, the position has not been announced as officially filled, and its functions will likely be taken care of by interim candidates or spread across other team members for the moment. CEO Jack Dorsey was tight-lipped for now, but a spokesperson for Twitter did confirm reports and speak briefly on the matter, saying that the company is essentially undergoing a metamorphosis – by focusing on five key product areas and having key staff take on new roles as they recruit top talent, they plan to revamp their product and image to be more versatile and streamlined. Particularly, the focus will be on Twitter’s core service, live video, major content creators on the platform, developers and, of course, safety and security in the face of the rash of data breaches that seem to happen every day in recent months.
Jeremy Rishel, Twitter’s VP of engineering who came over from Bluefin Labs during their 2013 buyout, will be heading up a new product sub-department that focuses on content creator advocacy. People who drive users to the service with their unique content and personality, such as Ali Spagnola, will see increased support and even some direction and help from Twitter, though details were rather sparse on exactly what this new department will be doing for content creators and what new privileges and perks, if any, top creators will be enjoying.