Guessed Right?

Earlier this month I blogged about MySpace and its fading popularity. I drew some conclusions:

It appears the management decisions are to not risk existing structures despite their flaws and bolt on features that users appreciate in other sites. Looking from the outside in this is all conjecture but I cannot help but think MySpace's new owners either lacked the technical awareness to pursue enhancements or lacked the fortitude to challenge superiors (like Murdoch himself) on the need to develop upgrades.

Exactly one week after that post I read an article about the departure of one of the creative talents at MySpace who chose to leave for a position with Facebook. Monica Keller issued a blog post that echoed my suspicions about the management style in place at MySpace:

To my friends and colleagues at MySpace, some parting advice:
It is imperative that MySpace puts in place strong technical leadership who can attract good technical talent and make well-informed decisions. It is important that they stay connected to rest of the world and work on interoperable standards and solid products which benefit the end user. Many of my fellow engineers have fantastic ideas and a plan for phased delivery.

Of course it is entirely possible this was a parting shot from a disgruntled employee. However she was there three years and it is also possible she was sharing with the world the internal problems at MySpace. The implication was MySpace management needed more technical expertise and for management to support new development better.

I called it.