Instagram hires first Director of Product, Facebook’s Peter Deng

Product Management Director Peter Deng is leaving Facebook — but he’s not going far. The Verge reported Wednesday that Deng has accepted a position with Instagram, marking the photo-sharing company’s first Director of Product.

Deng has largely been responsible for Facebook’s rapid growth, and the company is hoping he can achieve similar results with Instagram. He has been a part of Facebook since 2007, working on News Feed and Facebook’s messaging platforms. Deng was a force behind Facebook’s Chat Heads, which started as a utility within Facebook Home, but has now migrated to both iOS and Android devices.

Facebook confirmed Deng’s hiring to Inside Facebook:

We are excited to announce that Facebook Product Management Director Peter Deng is joining the Instagram team as the Director of Product. Peter will help build out the product team to bring our users even more great new products and features in future.

Deng, who will report directly to Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, talked about his new position with The Verge:

Back in 2007, there were so many challenges with building quickly and knowing what our users want, like, how do we go international? Having seen the evolution of that, I see a lot of the same exact challenges on the horizon for Instagram right now.

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Facebook, P&G, UM! Brands, Jordan and others on this week’s top PTAT gainers among product and service pages

Facebook’s company page is this week’s top gaining page in the People Talking About This metric among product and services. The page saw over 1.1 million additional engagements in the last week and continues to grow among with almost 900,000 engagements in the last 24 hours.

Of the top 10 pages this week, six have over 1 million likes. Two have less than 1 million, but more than 30,000 page likes. The Conservative Newsfeed has only 12,000 likes and UM! Brands only has 7,500 likes yet still rank in the top 10 because of their highly engaging, viral posts.

We compile this list with our PageData tool, which tracks page growth across Facebook.

Facebook comes in at number one this week in credit to the introduction of Graph Search. Announced on Jan. 15, the promotional video of Mark Zuckerberg explaining the building of Graph Search continues to draw engagement, growing virally with a large number of shares. Many users do not have access to the feature so uninformed Facebook users may just be finding out about the announcement in their newsfeeds.

Both The Conservative Newsfeed and UM! Brands have a lot fewer total page Likes than the other the pages on the list this week. However, due to some of their page posts going viral by drawing shares, their page’s reach has been amplified for the week. Their posts may have been shared by a big influencer which would lead to the larger PTAT.

Visit PageData to see more about the top talked about product and service pages as well as other categories.

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Facebook asking users about Facebook Home campaign, educate on product

Some Facebook users are seeing sponsored research polls about the company’s most recent Facebook Home campaign.

The poll asks users which companies they most associate with “putting your friends at the heart of your phone” and provides related companies and social networks. The marketing campaign included news feed advertisements and the company’s first produced television commercials.

In response to the poor reception of Home including AT&T’s discontinuation of Home’s flagship phone, the HTC First, Facebook looks interested in learning more about how these ads can be improved for future campaigns. The company has also recently updated the application for better stability and make improvements to the experience.

Earlier this week, Facebook reminded users that they could turn off Facebook Home and use their phone normally as they see fit. The company seems to be making a continued effort in to educate their users on the product and how it can be used. By researching through polls and learning more about how users understand it, Facebook can try to correct on oversights for future campaigns of Home.

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Facebook Director of Product Management Doug Purdy discusses Parse, Mobile App Install Ads

In his fireside chat at Inside Social Apps today, Facebook Director of Product Management Doug Purdy discussed about mobile app discovery difficulties faced by developers. He discussed how developers can use the platform to drive app installations through mobile app install ads.

Since first launching last October, mobile app install ads have started to be used by more than 3,800 developers. Since sharing this number earlier last month, Purdy today stated that 4,000  developers have started using the ads which have driven over 25 million app installs. He added that one app developer has earned over three times its average ROI from the ads.

Purdy explained that Facebook’s goal is to build its products to complement existing app stores and help developers drive more users toward their applications. He suggests that developers look beyond the install and create a goal for users to engage deeper with their applications. This is done by planning around having users take a specific action after installing the app. He added that with Facebook’s robust targeting options, it is the best way to target and identify which users will take the appropriate action.

He also brought up Parse, a cloud-based platform which provides mobile app developers with tools to seamlessly integrate their apps across multiple platforms, which Facebook acquired last April. Purdy explained that the acquisition was based on Facebook’s goal of helping developers integrate faster and easier.

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Facebook careers: filmmaker, product marketing managers, user operations analysts, measurement leads, more

Facebook added 42 new positions to its careers page this week, including a number of openings on the user operations, product marketing, analytics and sales teams.

The company added a listings for user operations analysts for regions including Indonesia, Russia and Vietnam. There are new product marketing jobs focused on pages, developers, developer monetization and other areas. New vertical measurement positions will look at the auto industry, e-commerce and financial services. Facebook is also building out its media analytics team

Another noteworthy job added this week is for a filmmaker to work on the communication design team. The filmmaker will “create videos that clearly communicate the functionality and value proposition of new products and features” and “help define and build the Facebook brand.”

Oracle Applications Engineer (Dublin)Hardware Test Engineer Intern (Menlo Park)Corporate FP&A Associate (Menlo Park)Financial Accountant – EMEA (contract) (Dublin)International General Ledger Accountant – Hyderabad (Contract) (Hyderabad)Administrative Assistant, Dublin – Contract (Dublin)Regional Product Marketing Partner (Dublin) (Dublin)HR Specialist (Menlo Park)Learning & Development (L&D) Ops & Systems Administrator – Contractor (Menlo Park)Senior Business Recruiter (Menlo Park)Communication Designer – Filmmaker (Menlo Park)Content Strategist (Menlo Park)UX Researcher, University (Menlo Park)Logistics and Inventory Manager (Menlo Park)Logistics and Warehousing Program Manager (Menlo Park)University Business Intern: Data Center Energy Intern (Menlo Park)Associate Product Marketing Manager (Menlo Park)Product Marketing Manager, Pages (Menlo Park)Product Marketing Manager, Developer Monetization (Menlo Park)Product Marketing Manager, Developers (Menlo Park)Analyst, User Operations, Arabic (Dublin)Analyst, User Operations, Indonesian (Dublin)Analyst, User Operations, Malaysian (Dublin)Analyst, User Operations, Philippines (Dublin)Analyst, User Operations, Russian (Dublin)Analyst, User Operations, Vietnamese (Dublin)Team Lead, User Operations Intellectual Property (Austin)Account Manager, QSR (New York)Account Manager (Toronto)Team Coordinator (Sales) (Milan)UK Sales Associate- Contract (Dublin)Account Manager Brazil (São Paulo)Relationship Manager, Agency Relations (London) (London)Client Partner, Agency (New York)Client Partner, Technology/Telecommunications (Austin – Menlo Park)Sales Development Consultant (Menlo Park)Analyst, Media Analytics (Hyderabad)Manager, Media Analytics (Hyderabad)Technical Lead, Media Analytics (Hyderabad)Analyst, Vertical Measurement – Financial Services / Automotive (Menlo Park)Lead, Vertical Measurement – Autos (Menlo Park)Lead, Vertical Measurement – eCommerce (Menlo Park)

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

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Facebook adds iTunes gift cards to Gifts product, integrates iTunes catalogue

Facebook today announced that it is now selling iTunes digital gift cards through its Gifts product. The feature includes iTunes catalogue integration so users can search for music, movies, apps and other content through Facebook and then send recommendations along with the gift cards they buy for friends.

The addition comes just at the start of the holiday shopping season, which will be an early test for Facebook Gifts. The social network recently added new retail partners, such as babyGAP, Fab, Brookstone and Lindt. Users can also gift subscriptions to television and music services like Hulu Plus, Pandora and Rdio. These digital gifts, especially iTunes credits, could be big sellers since they are low cost and nearly universal in appeal.

Users can purchase iTunes cards worth $10, $15, $25 or $50. There is an option to search and recommend specific content for a friend, but there is no way to buy a particular album or movie, for example. We’d like to see Facebook and Apple offer the option for users to give even smaller gifts, such as a single song, iOS app or movie rental. Users might be more likely to send each other these gifts for everyday occasions.

Facebook takes a percentage of sales — varying by partner or item — and in exchange helps promote the goods, photographing the products, writing copy and displaying them on site. Facebook and Apple haven’t revealed their arrangement, but AllThingsD sources say retailers that sell iTunes gift cards typically take 13 percent of those sales. The two companies have partnered in new ways this year, including deep Facebook integration with Apple’s mobile and desktop operating systems. In the past, Facebook and Apple have had a more difficult time cooperating. Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Facebook’s terms “onerous” after an integration with the Ping social network fell through. Now, either through leadership changes or growing necessity, the companies are apparently able to work together.

Facebook Gifts are still rolling out to users in the U.S. The company hasn’t said when all U.S. users will have the feature, but it’s possible for users to get access sooner if they receive a gift from a friend.

For physical goods, Facebook provides merchants with packaging materials and helps with tracking shipping and customer service. A benefit of Facebook Gifts is that users don’t have to know a friend’s address to send them something. They can choose a gift, send their friend a message and a preview of the gift, and then the recipient can enter where they want the item shipped. Users receive notifications throughout the process so they can track the status of the gift.

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Facebook Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen leaving company

Facebook Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen announced today that he is leaving Facebook to start something new, though he tells TechCrunch he doesn’t have concrete plans about what that will be.

Sjogreen, who led Facebook’s efforts to create the Open Graph app platform, is another key employee to step down following the company’s initial public offering in May. Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor announced his departure last month, also with entrepreneurial plans. Director of Corporate Communications Barry Schnitt recently left Facebook for Pinterest. It is common for long-time employees to leave a company after it goes public, though for Facebook, it will be especially important to retain leaders who believe in the social network’s mission and vision of the future.

Sjogreen came to Facebook in 2010, through the company’s acquisition of travel startup Nextstop, of which he was a co-founder. Sjogreen soon took on many of Taylor’s product management responsibilities after Taylor was promoted to CTO. Before Facebook, Sjogreen led Google Calendar and helped Google build up its presence in Australia and New Zealand.

In a Facebook post shared with friends and published on TechCrunch, Sjogreen says of his departure, “I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart and I’m excited to be starting something on my own again, but I will miss all of you at Facebook tremendously.”

We sat down with Sjogreen earlier this year for a fireside chat about the Facebook platform at our Inside Social Apps conference. He told the audience, “What you’ve seen from Open Graph so far is a small part of the vision.”

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Facebook hires: product design, engineering, recruiting, more

Ryan O’Rourke of Groupon joined the Facebook design team this week, and according to Facebook’s Careers page, the company seems to have hired a few engineers, marketers and other staff. The company’s LinkedIn feed shows that an engineer, fraud specialist, analyst and a few others were hired since our last post.

Ryan O’Rourke, Product Design – formerly of Groupon, he announced on his Facebook profile that he would be joining Facebook’s product design team.Lin Yuan, Software Engineer – former intern at Yahoo.Tara Stewart, Fraud Specialist – former student.Jason Fernando, Analyst – former senior research analyst at Beroe, Inc.Johnny Yu, Associate, Site Integrity – former customer support engineer at Cisco Systems.Kevin Lyle, Recruiter – former recruiter at Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center.Immigration and Tax ManagerEngineering Bootcamp and Training Program ManagerSoftware Engineer, Research Tools (Contractor)Manager, Business Operations Data AnalyticsManager, Marketing Business OperationsInternet Marketing AnalystRegional Logistics AnalystPhysical Security Manager, Data Centers (Forest City, N.C.)Developer Support Engineer, Arabic (Dublin)Developer Support Engineer (Dublin)Partner Engineer, Payments (Games)Global Business Manager (New York)Analyst, Platform Operations, European (Dublin)Recruiter (Singapore)Technical University Recruiter (Seattle)Technical SourcerUniversity Strategic Sourcing SpecialistUniversity Strategic Sourcing Specialist – DublinAnalyst, User Operations (Austin)Security Specialist – ContractAssociate, Ad Operations (Sydney)Client Partner (Hamburg)Client Partner, Retail (Menlo Park or Seattle)Client Partner, Retail (New York)Agency Account Specialist – U.S.Administrative Assistant, Public Policy (Brussels)

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

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Zynga's product head can't resist a good deal, joins Groupon

Have you seen the deals on Groupon? We can't blame the guy, really. Oh, this is a different kind of deal, isn't it? TechCrunch reports that Curtis Lee, Zynga's director of product management, has left the company for daily deals service Groupon. Now, Lee is Groupon's VP of consumer products, overseeing everything that is consumer-facing about Groupon.

Considering Groupon is all about consumers saving money, isn't that kind of everything? Anyway, TechCrunch suggests that this is a rather large talent loss for Zynga, which we'd have a hard time disagreeing with. According to the website, Lee was a "monetization guru" at the developer, and laid the blueprint for the company's clearly effective money-making schemes.

Citing unnamed sources, TechCrunch also reports that Lee was working with FarmVille designer Mark Skaggs on his super secret project at Zynga. But what's worse about the situation is the rate at which the CityVille creator has lost high-level talent recently. Just this past month alone, Zynga has lost a lead designer and its brand advertising head.

That said, it's not as if Zynga hasn't been on a hiring spree either. Most recently, the developer snapped up EA Interactive's Barry Cottle as its EVP of business development. And given the advent of Zynga.com, we doubt this is the last new face we'll see at the developer in 2012.

Do you expect Zynga to suffer at all from this loss? Will Zynga see any new direct competitors in 2012? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Facebook Snags Product Designers From NY Personal Analytics Startup Daytum

Facebook has hired the two founders of New York-based startup Daytum, which describes itself as “an elegant and intuitive tool for counting and communicating personal statistics.” Daytum will continue to operate, though its founders Ryan Case and Nicholas Felton will be working full-time in Facebook’s California product design team.

This talent grab could help Facebook offer new options for tracking personal achievements, or allow users to visualize data from their existing Facebook content, such as mentions of keywords in status updates or frequency of correspondence with specific friends.

These “acq-hires” are becoming more frequent for Facebook as it looks to secure talent in areas it sees as important to the service’s future. So far this year it has picked up teams from HTML5-focused Recrec, social recruiting service Pursuit, feature phone app porter Snaptu, and hyper-local mobile advertising startup Rel8tion. It also bought both the team and product from group messaging app Beluga.

Daytum allows users to manually enter data through the web or mobile app such as trips to the gym, films watched, or types of food consumed. Users can set goals and track their own performance. Free accounts let users track a limited number of data points, while a $4 / month subscription gives them unlimited data tracking and more visualization options.

Remembering to enter data can an accomplishment of its own, so users had to be diligent to derive value. Now imagine a similar service but that could automatically track and visualize Facebook behavior such as photo uploads, Places checkins, or wall posts. While there’s no telling exactly what Case and Felton will work on, their expertise could help Facebook increase it’s utility as a diary, personal organizer, or to-do list.

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