To Succeed in Musk’s Twitter: Embrace the Chaos

One of the Twitter managers Elon Musk met with as he completed his purchase of Twitter last month was Esther Crawford, a product manager who had previously overseen projects aimed at helping creators make money on Twitter. The two had a one-on-one discussion about the company’s future—including ways of generating more revenue from creator projects.

Musk apparently liked what he heard. He told Crawford to start working on the ideas they discussed and gave her his contact information. Crawford subsequently revved up efforts to revamp Twitter’s products outside of advertising, including subscriptions, in what is likely to be the first of a series of ideas pursued to generate more revenue. Another possible project that would fall under Crawford is a pay-wall video service allowing creators—including those producing pornography—to charge for their videos, something Crawford has advocated for before that Twitter’s previous management deemed too risky, according to a person familiar with the situation.