Life After Yahoo!: Preface

After almost 10 years leading product teams at Yahoo, I’m moving on. I’ve been thinking for a while that I wanted to take some time off and press the “reset button” on my brain, but it has been a grueling coming to a final decision. And its complicated by the fact that I really love my job and the people I work with.

Looking back over the last 10 years, I am proud of the measurable impact I’ve made on Yahoo! I’m proud of the many years I was known as the My Yahoo! guy, bringing you the features you love and growing Yahoo’s audience significantly. I’m proud of my work with RSS at Yahoo, bringing openness to My Yahoo and many other products–including an RSS ad product. I’m proud of my time as GM of Yahoo! Search when I pitched the idea and launched sponsored search and helped move Yahoo from directory search to web search model. And I helped make a few acquisitions along the way). And I’m proud of leading an innovation incubator (Advanced Products @ Yahoo!) and launching a number of interesting projects. But most of all, I’m proud of the teams I’ve built and the people I’ve hired – to this day it is Yahoo’s people that make this place great.

If you’ll bear with with me in the coming days, I’ll post some of my favorite stories of those years and give you a little inside view of my proudest moments at Yahoo and the biggest mistakes I made along the way. And in general, I hope to blog a lot more, covering product management, the industry and people management. If you aren’t already a subscriber to this blog, grab the feed.

My next step is to take some time off to catch my breath and travel a bit. Then, I’ll be off on my next adventure.

It is always tough to leave a job when you are having so much fun and working with great people. Then again, that’s probably the best time to leave. I know that I’m leaving behind a strong, talented team. My team’s major projects are going well and two will launch early in 2008. And two people whom I admire and enjoy working with are keeping the torch burning. Chad Dickerson will be leading Advanced Products and Salim Ismail (my partner in crime over last few months) will continue to lead the Brickhouse program.

All of which made it possible for me to leave with ease, and I’m thankful for that. I’m not going too far, I’m still a fan of Yahoo. I’ll help in any way I can with my teammates’ upcoming launches, I can’t wait to tell people about them.

So thank you to all the people that I’ve gotten to meet and to work alongside, you made my decade. Wish me luck as I start the next one…

21 thoughts on “Life After Yahoo!: Preface”

  1. That’s quite an impressive run you’ve had, Scott! I’m really looking forward to those upcoming posts! Good luck with your travels and whatever follows! Let me know if you’re in the NY area!

  2. Wow a decade of bragging that my son is a big muckymuck with Yahoo comes to a terminus. When I read the rumor re’ you moving on I was chomping at the bit to ask what’s up when we see each other at Christmas. Guess thats moot now. Looking forward to all the scoop.
    Proud Pop

  3. Scott… I am sure it was really hard to get to this point but I bet you will enjoy a whole new lease on life “outside”. If you need any advice on managing leisure, holler….i’ve been practicing.

  4. Scott, your interview with me played a big role in my deciding to work for Yahoo. Your list of “who does what” was invaluable in giving me a running start and I’ve tried to re-pay the favor to new Yahoo’s that have followed me. Thank you for your guidance over the years and best of luck in your next adventure!

    Ian

  5. Scott, good luck with whatever you choose. I’ve following what you have been doing, and wish you the best.

    Dave

  6. I was in a shopping mall in Bangkok last year using an Internet cafe while I was traveling. A couple of chairs over were three teenagers who were giggling at their screen but not talking. I watched for a minute out of the corner of my eye and realized they were signing to their friends over the webcam. That was an incredible “a-ha!” moment for me.

    I think we are (appropriately) driven to make our applications work for the masses but when you do something for the other 5-10%, you have truly meaningful impact. Very neat story, thanks for sharing.

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