A new role at Yahoo!
I guess the headline tips my hand. I’m taking on a new role at Yahoo: running the Advanced Products group, a position just vacated by Scott Gatz. Scott has built a great team and I have big shoes to fill, but the groundwork that Scott and his team have laid only increases my excitement about taking on the new challenge.
Obviously, that means that I’m moving on from the Yahoo! Developer Network (aka YDN) team. I’m really proud of the work the YDN team has done over the past 18 months and I’m honored that we were able to help surface and represent the incredible work of so many teams inside Yahoo! Working closely with product teams all over Yahoo, we rolled out APIs that opened up large chunks of Yahoo’s infrastructure: Yahoo! Mail, Browser-based Authentication and Yahoo! Answers, just to name a few. Aside from the APIs, the YUI team continued their impressive work, incredibly useful performance tools like YSlow were released, and Yahoo’s work with Hadoop emerged. We pulled off a couple of Open Hack Days that were simply mind-blowing (Beck playing on the grass outside our fitness center in Sunnyvale?! Rain indoors in London?!). Through it all, I was constantly humbled by the talent and capability of the individuals and teams within the company. Best of all, I was inspired by lots of developers with big dreams and ideas. If I take just a small fraction of that inspiration with me into the new role, I will be truly blessed.
The YDN experience was over-the-top fun by any reasonable standard. I met Beck, played an impromptu game of Faceball on stage at London Hack Day (and lost), and interviewed the kind citizens of Dublin on the streets during Mashup Camp. While there are literally hundreds of people who deserve thanks around Yahoo, I want to thank the core YDN team for making it such a great experience: Matt McAlister, Jeremy Zawodny, Dan Theurer, Micah Laaker, JR Conlin, Kent Brewster, Ricky Montalvo, and Jason Levitt. (And I demand a sushi lunch!)
I’m really happy about where YDN is headed and I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the things in the pipeline emerge. Chris Yeh (cyeh -at- yahoo-inc.com) is taking over YDN from here, and I’ll be helping the team any way I can as part of the extended Yahoo! team. Good luck to Chris, and stay tuned for some interesting things coming from my new sphere at Yahoo!
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Comments
Congrats! Looking forward to hearing how you make the faceballs rain down at the Advanced Products group. Watch out for lightning strikes.
Well, I’ll say it. You’ll be missed horribly around the cubes, but I’m VERY happy you’re taking on this role now. (Frankly, I couldn’t imagine anyone better suited after Scott.) Congrats! and have fun.
[...] Please help Kickstart my reset December 19th, 2007 on 5:40 pm | by Scott Gatz | Tagged: apps, kickstart Maybe you’ve heard the rumors or read the post on my blog. It’s true. After nearly ten years, I’m leaving a job I love — leading product teams and building great products and new directions at Yahoo!. My decision has been made easier knowing that Chad “Hack Day” Dickerson is stepping in to head up the Advanced Products group. [...]
[...] I had the distinct pleasure of working with Chad Dickerson when we were organising the London Hack Day last year.Chad is truly a gentleman and treated me to an excellent meal on my recent trip to San Francisco – I tried to pursued him to let me clean his pool (I have no idea if he has one) in exchange for hiding me from US immigration so I could stay. Exciting things are ahead as he takes on a new role at Yahoo! I guess the headline tips my hand. I’m taking on a new role at Yahoo: running the Advanced Products group, a position just vacated by Scott Gatz. Scott has built a great team and I have big shoes to fill, but the groundwork that Scott and his team have laid only increases my excitement about taking on the new challenge. From Chad’s blog. [...]
obviously, you were able to tell Bradley how many manhole covers can fit in a 747 ;-)
congrats and welcome. . . officially!
Catching up with my feedreader, so just read this…congrats Chad! Looking forward to hearing more about your work at APG.
Congrats Chad –
Can’t wait to see the things you bring out of the Advanced Products Group :)