Nikita Bier has stepped down as head of product at X, transitioning to an advisory role after leading a major overhaul of the social media platform’s core experience.
In a post on X, Bier described leading product at the company as “the privilege of a lifetime,” but said the role had become a “24/7 job” and that it was time to “take a breather.”
During his tenure, Bier said X recorded unprecedented growth in new users and engagement, climbed 70 places in Apple’s App Store rankings over the past year, and rebuilt key parts of the platform, including the timeline, Android app, onboarding, notifications and chat.
He added that X launched nearly 30 new products over the last 400 days while introducing Country-of-Origin labels on user profiles and strengthening defenses against AI-powered bots.
Bier said product leadership responsibilities will now be shared by Benji Taylor, who will oversee design, Singhai, who will lead core product engineering, and Dinkin Flicka, who will head mobile engineering.
Before joining X, Bier had already established himself as one of Silicon Valley’s most successful consumer app founders. He created the viral social app TBH, which was acquired by Facebook in 2017, before launching Gas, an anonymous compliments app for teenagers that was acquired by Discord in 2023. His track record of building fast-growing social products made him one of the technology industry’s best-known product leaders before he joined X.
Bier thanked X owner Elon Musk and the company’s employees for the opportunity, saying he looks forward to remaining active on the platform as an advisor.
The leadership change comes as X continues to invest in product development and user growth amid intensifying competition in the social media market.
Nikita Bier holds degrees in Business Administration and Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with honors. He also completed study programs in Denmark and France, as well as a summer Russian language course at the University of Virginia.