Nikita Bier, head of product at X (formerly Twitter), is stepping down after a one-year tenure to become an advisor and refers to his new role as "a poster." During his time, he oversaw significant changes to the platform, rebuilding many features including the timeline and Android app. Bier's departure comes shortly after Elon Musk's companies went public, and he highlighted the recent launch of X Money and ongoing challenges with the platform's algorithm. Successors Benji Taylor (design) and Jonah Katz (iOS) will lead the product team moving forward.

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X product chief Nikita Bier is leaving after one year

Nikita Bier says he’s stepping down to become “a poster,” 13 months after taking over the service formerly known as Twitter.

byStevie Bonifield

Aug 5, 2026, 6:19 PM EDT

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Stevie Bonifieldis a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.

X head of product Nikita Bier is stepping down and says he will move into a role as an advisor, writing that “it’s time to pass the torch and demote myself to my natural state: a poster.” He shared the update just over a month after celebrating his one-year anniversary on the job, and just weeks after Elon Musk’s combined SpaceX / X / xAI companies went public.

He says that “almost every aspect of X” has been rebuilt while he was head of product, including its timeline, Android app, chat, and notifications. Going forward, the “next leaders” mentioned are Benji Taylor leading design with iOS lead Jonah Katz and Mridul Singhai leading the product team.

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Bier also called out the long-delayed and recently-launched X Money, which Elon Musk at one point expected to launch by the end of 2024. During his tenure, X has continued to focus on incentivizing native posts and login requirements for access to features, and last month Bier said that missing data from the X algorithm had made the platform feel like a “battleground.”

Bier previously co-founded the startups tbh (acquired by Meta) and Gas (acquired by Discord). He was appointed to lead product just days before former X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down, and has been a public face of the company ever since.

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