"If I Ruled the Tweets: Building Products for Twitter's Passion Economy"

"If I Ruled the Tweets: Building Products for Twitter's Passion Economy"

Twitter, a platform that is often mistaken for an ad product, is actually a subscription product that caters to the Passion Economy. It is a professional network that focuses on the strength of ideas rather than past experience. However, Twitter is not effectively capitalizing on its potential as a professional network and fails to provide creators with a pro subscription product they would willingly pay for.

Incentives play a crucial role in shaping behavior, both at the company and individual level. Professional networks strive to deliver measurable value to top companies and individuals, encouraging them to directly pay for that value. Bots and outrage, which are prevalent on Twitter, hinder the users from achieving their goals of hiring, partnering, and selling. These factors are detrimental to a professional network.

Contrary to popular belief, Twitter is not meant for everyone. It caters specifically to knowledge workers who rely on the platform to exchange ideas, promote their work, and engage in real-time conversations on a global scale. With its targeted and professional audience, Twitter has the potential to generate more revenue per user compared to Facebook. In fact, it may even create more value than Facebook. However, the lack of self-awareness prevents Twitter from capturing this value.

A survey conducted among newsletter writers revealed that 95% of them use Twitter to grow their audiences. Interestingly, Twitter serves as a powerful tool for podcast discovery, despite the in-app discovery being notoriously inadequate. Countless media and tech companies, as well as personalities, leverage Twitter to amplify their presence for free and then redirect users to their own products. This highlights an interesting insight - while Google collects money when users leave its platform, Twitter fails to capitalize on this opportunity.

Professional networks such as LinkedIn have a different approach. In these networks, most users are the product, but power users are the customers. On the other hand, social networks treat users as the product, with advertisers being the customers. Twitter should consider adopting LinkedIn's model by keeping the current free, ad-supported version for casual users while offering advanced tools to its customers - the creators who rely on Twitter to build and grow their businesses. This new business model would involve a combination of ads and creator subscriptions.

When it comes to building products, it is important to have a clear problem statement that can be easily communicated and resonates with the target audience. The success of a team lies not in avoiding failures (which are bound to happen) but in consistently executing their plans. When exploring solutions, it is crucial to brainstorm extensively and consider a wide range of ideas before narrowing down to a "winner." The real creativity happens when you venture beyond the obvious solutions.

It is important to have a rigorous exploration process to avoid overlooking potential alternatives. If someone suggests an alternative solution that you haven't considered, it is a red flag that your exploration process was not thorough enough. Constantly seek ways to test your ideas and gather feedback from others. Can you explain your idea to people on the street and have them understand it?

Defining success metrics for your product before launching is essential. This way, you can objectively interpret the results instead of falling into the trap of confirmation bias. If you find yourself constantly debating with your teammates about product direction, it is likely that there is a fundamental disagreement in how success is measured. Try proposing a new way to measure success that aligns with everyone's concerns.

Lastly, good communication is vital for a healthy team. Every team member should feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints, even if they go against the majority. Encourage a culture of open communication to foster innovation and collaboration.

In conclusion, Twitter has the potential to thrive as a subscription-based professional network for content creators. By adopting a new business model that combines ads and creator subscriptions, Twitter can unlock its true value. Additionally, when building products, it is crucial to have a clear problem statement, explore a wide range of solutions, define success metrics early on, and foster open communication within the team. By following these actionable pieces of advice, Twitter and product teams can make significant strides towards success in the Passion Economy.