I’ve written a lot about this in broad strokes. See the Parable of the rose garden for a start. I saw problems well before I left the company and my warnings fell on deaf ears. I also think ChatGPT is merely a trigger that set off a chain reaction which had been latent for many years. If it hadn’t been ChatGPT, something else would have caused this outcome instead.
What would I do now, if I were suddenly hired to be CEO? I’d start by focusing on the longterm problem of answer rates. It’s hard to remember today, but Stack Overflow used to be a miracle of quick answers. Not as fast as ChatGPT, perhaps, but the median time to first answer was 24 minutes. I don’t know what the number is today (because my query times out), but I’m guessing the number is much higher than that if you even get an answer. Solving this problem isn’t easy, but it’s a lot easier then cramming a GPT model into Q&A.
Speaking of which, I’d also consider reviving Stack Overflow Jobs. From what I understand it was a profitable product and a mature one. It seems easier to start the servers and call former clients than to build a new product from scratch.
Speaking of which, I’d also turn chat into a product. (Did you know Stack Exchange has chat? It does!) In my current job I use Microsoft Teams and Slack. (Yes both.) Roughly once a day I wish we could just use Stack Exchange chat, but we can’t because it’s not a product. Would it be profitable? I don’t know but the product itself has been in operation (with very little development) for years and I think it has advantages over all the competitors I’ve tried. At the very least it could be an add-on product to Stack Overflow for Teams.
Instead of building artificial interactions using LLMs, I’d look into building mentoring relationships between real human people. This would truly allow Stack Overflow to be a resource promoting learning and promote better interactions than the (somewhat confrontational) Q&A format. Meanwhile, I’d put resources into improving the Q&A experience as well. It’s the core of Stack Overflow and the only reason you and I are talking about it all.
While doing these things, I’d take about them incessantly and encourage every employee to talk about Stack Overflow’s serious challenges. And apologize for screwing up even if I wasn’t the person who screwed up. Finally I’d be skeptical of ChatGPT and point out that authentic human interactions are just better than talking to a bot.
Would it work? I don’t know.