The big shakeup in leadership at Twitter over the weekend drew some interesting reaction from Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, who said the company’s challenges go beyond executive and boardroom turmoil. Rascoff wants Twitter to figure out how to make sense to his mom.
In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” on Monday, Rascoff sympathized with those doing good work at Twitter. But, he said, “The challenge before Twitter is they need to explain to my mom what Twitter is and why she should care.” Host Kayla Tausche responded by saying, “You haven’t done that?” Rascoff replied, “I’ve tried, and it is hard. … My mom is kinda sorta on Twitter. She follows me and no one else.”
But as Rascoff goes on to explain, it’s not his job to show his mom or any user how to wrap their head around a product.
“It’s Twitter’s job to articulate to its users and to its non-users what it is and why they should care, and that’s the challenge for them,” Rascoff said. “They’ve actually improved the product dramatically over the last two years. But I don’t think they’ve articulated the value proposition and what the purpose of the service is.”
Faced with what Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey finds himself facing, Rascoff was asked what he would do as CEO.
“It’s a mess. I feel badly for them,” Rascoff said. “You have to try to rebuild. You find great people … you have to attract new great people.” And Rascoff said the CEO needs to get employees “back on mission and focused on the product and the users rather than on the stock price and the media speculation.”
