I am looking at it from the point of view of a harried user, which I am, and I believe that I am much more like the typical non-technical harried user than I am like the people who smoothly operate everything.
In the early days, it was enough for Imgur to have a team that was focused on building product and engineering. But I realized early on if we were going to be successful, we needed someone who would be a bridge between the company and community.
If a user is having a problem, it's our problem.
I don't know who's running IMDB. It could be computers. I'd like to talk to someone from IMDB.
Well, user feedback was excellent. Even when the software didn't work at all, there were few people who were avid users, and there were people who were just sending excellent feedback and excellent ideas.
We want to make sure every user is happy.
As software began to be sold to people who would never consider themselves technical, it suddenly became clear that you needed people who spoke their language.
The funny thing was, with IT, I was never really a tech type of person: I was better with people, good at dealing with people. I had technical experience; I knew the nitty gritty. I could never be a programmer or anything, but I knew my way around.