Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, our own MG Siegler led a panel called Design vs. Engineering, featuring Charlie Cheever (Quora), Jason Goldman (Twitter), and Bradley Horowitz (Google). The conversation focused on the relationship between UI and the engineering muscle driving it, and how important each is to the success of a product.
During the panel, Jason Goldman, who leads product at Twitter, mentioned that New Twitter — which is a total redesign of the site with a bevy of new features — was initially planned to be a less ambitious, more iterative product. But CEO Evan Williams stepped in and said that users needed “something much better for end users”.
Goldman also detailed some of the work that went into making NewTwitter. The product resulted from a collaboration of a three-man design team, Twitter’s engineers, and CEO Evan Williams. These three groups essentially locked themselves in a conference room and didn’t come out until they’d sown the seeds for what would eventually become New Twitter. And it’s certainly paid off — Goldman says that user response has been quite positive.