Insightful article on the battle Kevin Systrom (Instagram founder) had with Zuckerberg post acquisition. Adds some color to what was playing out in the app experience. While this will continue to add to the Zuckerberg “legacy”, the more interesting element is how organization (and product philosophy for that matter) culture clash can lead to dysfunction even in light of a wildly successful product (and acquisition).

Systrom had never been one to criticize Zuckerberg in front of his employees. But after months of what he saw as obstruction and bigfooting, he wrote a long internal message to his team saying he disagreed vehemently with Zuckerberg’s undercutting of Instagram. By the fall of 2018, Systrom started confiding to his close friends that if Zuckerberg wanted to run Instagram like a mere department of Facebook, maybe it was time to let him. In the name of growth, Instagram adopted some of the strategies Systrom had blocked in the past, including pushing out frequent app notifications and aggressively promoting suggested people to follow. Time spent on the app returned to its typical levels; the Facebook strategies, which had seemed so cheap and anti-Instagram, worked.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-07/zuckerberg-s-jealousy-held-back-instagram-and-drove-off-founders