The question that Twitter's CEO asks at every product meeting
Its stock crashed after a disappointing Q1 earnings report. Early investor and fervent Twitter-cheerleader Chris Sacca posted on his blog that he's prepared to start writing more critically about the company. CEO Dick Costolo has dealt with analysts and Wall Streeters saying he could be out by the end of the year (something he says he's not worried about).
On stage at at Re/Code's Code Conference this week, Costolo gave some insight on how he's trying to spur innovation within the company.
As Twitter continues to focus on growing its number of logged in, logged out, and syndicated users (people who see tweets when they're embedded in other places), he's also putting an increased focus on getting employees to make bigger, bolder bets at a much faster pace.
"I'm constantly, constantly, constantly focused with the product team on courage," he says.
Every week he has three thirty minute meetings with the different product teams, and he makes sure he always asks the same question.
"What's a bolder choice we could be making?" he said. "What if you added this constraint to what you're doing that forced you to be more creative or bold? And I've been delighted to see the result that has had."
Costolo shared the stage with Kayvon Beykpour, CEO of Periscope, the live-streaming app that Twitter acquired for a "sizable amount" roughly three months ago, who echoed the idea that Twitter is getting bolder - but said that it still had some work to do.
When Re/code founder Kara Swisher asked Beykpour what he thought Twitter could improve on, he said that he wanted to continue to see more dedication to ambition to be innovative.
"I've only been here three months but the culture of experimentation is palpable," he said. "But I think that's a newer thing. I like that momentum. ... That's what Twitter needs."
Costolo mentioned Twitter's continual attempts to curb harassment on the service as one area where he has been proud of his team's work and focus on moving fast.
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