Vora: WhatsApp paused AI and filters to focus on reliable messaging
Ami Vora · Simplify To Win | Lenny & Friends Summit 2024 · Nov 11, 2024 · at 4:50
This episode carries Ami Vora's own address, with nobody on the show putting questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Ami Vora, former VP of Product at WhatsApp, discusses how WhatsApp prioritized core reliability on low-end devices over flashy features.
0:00 / 0:22exact quote · 22.1s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So we had to spend our entire roadmap on that. We had to slow down all the other grand ideas we had. And I'll tell you, this was not always easy. We would look at other teams building the newest AI models or advanced photo filters, and we'd get a little bit jealous. But that focus, whittling down to calls and messages, meant that our users never had to ask, what is WhatsApp for?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ami Vora
Vora: Product managers without clear impact goals drive feature complexity
“What's the most dangerous thing in a tech company? A PM without a way to create impact. Oh no, he's toeing the line here. Maybe you know this person. Maybe you've been this person. I certainly have. Where you know you want to do something big, but you're not q…”
Vora: Shrank her presence to appear more likable early at Facebook
“I kind of went out of my way to be more likable, which for me ended up being like Shrinking myself a little bit and not being so aggressive, not being so opinionated, kind of being more unobjectionable. And the weird part is that it kind of worked for a long t…”
Vora: Prescribing mentorship creates an unnecessary burden for women in tech
“I think we tell women things like, you need to find a mentor, and you need to find a sponsor, and that's just another set of hoops that we have that we tell women to jump through that I don't think we tell other parts of population to jump through.”
Vora: Senior executive decisions are inherently choices between bad options
“Especially as you get more senior, you can only make bad decisions. You know, like, at some point, someone can bring you a problem, you can recognize a problem, and you can, like, solve it. And there's, like, ah, so much happiness in solving that, and, like, t…”
Vora: Faire doubled its growth rate despite a global marketplace slowdown
“Well, at a time when consumer spending is down and most global marketplaces have declining growth rates, VAR's growth rate has doubled because our customers are getting more value and we're getting more efficient about providing it.”
Vora: Perfect strategy fails without execution because you learn nothing
“If you have great strategy, perfect strategy, but poor execution, you don't win. Because your strategy never makes it to the market. And what's even worse is that you have learned nothing. You don't know whether it was your strategy that was wrong or whether i…”