Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

One of Marissa Mayer’s trusted product leaders is leaving for Instagram

Robby Stein will join Instagram’s new-look product team.

rmstein.0.jpg

Robby Stein, an important product director at Yahoo for most of Marissa Mayer’s time as CEO, is leaving the company for a “product leadership” role at Instagram, he announced Friday, May 13, in an Instagram post.

”As one of the first users on the initial beta, I’ve seen Instagram grow to become the essential visual platform that connects the world, and I am thrilled to reunite with @kevin to help lead this exciting next phase of the product,” Stein posted. “I’m also incredibly thankful to Marissa for giving me the opportunity to build new products and teams at Yahoo the last several years.”

“@kevin,” of course, refers to Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom, who met Stein at Google years ago (where Stein also worked with Mayer). Systrom was also an adviser to Stein’s startup, Stamped, which was Mayer’s first acquisition at Yahoo in 2012.

At Yahoo, Stein led the New York engineering office, working on mobile and video products, which had been key to Mayer’s turnaround pitch. Still, Mayer and Yahoo haven’t been able to create meaningful growth, and it now looks like the company will be sold. (Yahoo has also had trouble hanging on to key people brought in through acquisition.)

Not a bad time to head to Instagram, then. The mobile photo-sharing network has been a huge success under Facebook, passing 400 million monthly active users. But it now must prove itself as a business and also increasingly compete for attention with Snapchat.

Systrom recently hired ex-Twitter executive Kevin Weil as head of product, and has now made another major outside product hire in Stein. Another former Yahoo, James Everingham, became Instagram’s head of engineering last year.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh