Former Google+ designer airs his 'dirty laundry' in massive tweetstorm

2025-04-27 20:01:04admin

Google+ may soon be coming to an end, but stories from behind the scenes are just beginning to surface.

Over the span of a week, Morgan Knutson, a former Google+ UI designer, posted several tweets sharing his version of what it was like work for the search giant's failed social media project.

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Knutson’s massive, multi-day tweetstorm chronicles his 8 months working at Google, where he was brought on to work on the Google+ redesign in 2011. The designer began airing his "dirty laundry” on October 8th with a tweet declaring “how awful the project and exec team was.” Suffice to say, the designer’s experience at the company wasn’t very positive.

Tweet may have been deleted

Aside from some issues with his former employer as a whole, things many of us have or will have experienced at one job or another throughout our careers, much of Knutson’s complaints really shine a light on the issue with the Google+ product, specifically.

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At the crux of the matter, which Mashable has previously covered in our 2015 look of Google’s failed social media project, was what Knutson put as a vision of the product from up-top as “fear-based.”

Tweet may have been deleted

“Google built the knowledge graph, and Facebook swooped in and built the social graph. If we don’t own the social graph then we can’t claim to have indexed ALL the world’s data,” quotes Knutson as the view taken by the executives in charge of Google+ to push the service. And pushing the service may be an understatement. There was financial incentive for Google teams outside of Google+ to push the service too. Knutson explains how if a team were to “integrate Google+’s features then your team would be awarded a 1.5-3x multiplier on top of your yearly bonus.”

Tweet may have been deleted

Knutson goes on to explain more specific issues and instances with company management, which you’re really better off hearing from him over at his tweetstorm.

It’s certainly worth a read for those looking for one behind-the-scenes take of the failure of Google+. It’s also a good read in understanding how bad management at a company, even one as “hip” and successful as Google, could tank a project, regardless of how talented its employees on the team may be.

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