The One-Person Product

The One-Person Product

In 2006, I moved to New York and started working for David Karp doing web David Karp in September 2006, a few months after hiring me to build websites blog-with-tumblr) and her post [made it to the Digg front hybrid that has made it so compelling and unique. it was the right thing to do and since he had been paying me (and the hosting of new features and architectural improvements. Davids characteristically spotless desk in December 2007. and fears were proven wrong, and David was right. David and me in February 2008 David and I were like-minded in prioritizing user-, geek-, and designer- people went if they had the patience and writing output to maintain a David and I surprise-attended the [very first Tumblr Even though Tumblr was never a one-person company, it usually felt like a one- David would come in with a grand new feature idea, and Id tell him My infamous standing desk improvised from Coke cans and IKEA bookshelves, Hes a workaholic he truly lives and level, but David pushed me to do amazing work that I didnt think was possible. David working on a Dashboard redesign in November 2008. pushing the product forward meant that he didnt want to think about boring hold out a bit longer or try to become profitable, and hed convince me that front-end developer, and wall of hair. of growing the staff, so we just put it off for too long, in retrospect. Eventually, David knew that wed need to expand to handle the load, but his job product manager, start overseeing a lot more people, and delegate some of the David and me figuring something out in January 2009 After a rough start, David got the hang of being a manager Instead, he continued doing what he does best: driving the product forward, Ive only seen one other product person as good as David, and that was Steve David has an impeccable sense of whats best for Tumblr, and he doesnt need By June 2009, the staff had grown to include (clockwise from Jacobs wall of When I read the

Sources said that as part of the deal, founder and CEO David Karp would and I tested new shirts at Shake Shack in June 2010. support and maintenance roles off of Davids plate so he can focus on the Davids perfectly able to worry about money and operations, but I bet he better served if David can focus on his products features, design, and Shortly before I left Tumblr, in July 2010, the original corner of the office shows that Tumblr and Yahoo are seeing eye-to-eye on quite a lot already This is clearly what David believes is best for his product much better, faster, more stable, and more sustainable since Google bought it. to ruin it or shut it down like YouTube and Google, Tumblr will probably More importantly, it gives David, and the rest of Tumblrs team, the freedom to from the acquisition, and I wont be switching to dedicated day and night

Source: http://www.marco.org/2013/05/20/one-person-product