{"id":660091,"date":"2013-05-24T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=649120"},"modified":"2013-05-24T12:00:31","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:00:31","slug":"the-designer-behind-google-leaves-facebook-for-startup-intercom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/660091","title":{"rendered":"The designer behind Google+ leaves Facebook for startup Intercom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well-known designer Paul Adams, who played an integral role in designing Google+ and then went on to Facebook, plans to announce on Friday that he is leaving Facebook and joining business collaboration startup Intercom<\/a> as head of product design. Adams has been advising Intercom for about 9 months, and is leaving Facebook after just over two years.<\/p>\n

In an interview this week Adams told me that he will be taking inspiration from some of his design work with Google+ and the Google\u2019s circles concept<\/a> while building product at Intercom. \u201cHumans want to form groups. We don\u2019t want to show everything to everybody \u2014 that\u2019s not how human beings are hard wired,\u201d said Adams. With Google+ and circles, Adams said his team was attempting to solve that grouping issue in order to make it easier to talk within various social groups that users wanted to connect with.<\/p>\n

\"Intercom\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tricky thing to get right is that there\u2019s a lot of effort involved with adding people to groups. That problem still exists; it\u2019s not a solved problem yet,\u201d said Adams. Companies like group messaging app Snapchat and photo sharing app Path are working on easier ways to solve these grouping constraints, he said.<\/p>\n

Intercom has built tools that enable businesses to connect with their customers. An Intercom customer can use the service to see the behavior of their online customers and message them about customer service issues and new offers. Like with Google circles, Intercom can segment customers into various types \u2014 for example, customers that are using certain features, or customers that bought items in a certain time period \u2014 and then message those segmented groups. \u201cIt gives companies insights into specific user patterns in their product,\u201d explained Adams, adding \u201cI think it\u2019ll be huge.\u201d GitHub is a beta customer.<\/p>\n

\"Physical<\/a><\/p>\n

Intercom has around 20 employees and was incubated by 500 Startups. A little over a year ago<\/a> the company raised a seed round from 500 Startups, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Huddle founder Andy McLoughlin, Dan Martell and Digital Garage. The company was founded by Irish co-founders Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee, and David Barrett, who previously built startup Exceptional.<\/p>\n

Adams is the latest designer to leave Facebook. The social network giant has been hard at work building up its design talent<\/a>, bringing in key designers like Nicholas Felton, Ben Blumenfeld,\u00a0Mike Matas, and Nate Bolt. Facebook has both acqui-hired and hired rockstar designers.<\/p>\n

But it hasn\u2019t always been easy to keep those designers. Felton was hired back in April 2011<\/a>, but he left after about two years: about the same stint that Paul Adams just did. After five years at Facebook, designer Ben Blumenfeld recently left<\/a> for the Design Fund.<\/p>\n

It seems like there\u2019s only so long that a young ambitious designer wants to remain part of the machine that is Facebook.<\/p>\n

GigaOM will highlight the web\u2019s rockstar designers at our third annual RoadMap conference in November in San Francisco. Tickets will go on sale later this Summer, but to learn more about the event, and get access to the first tickets, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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