Valleywag: Joy Mountford

Joy Mountford's revenge

Owen Thomas — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:00:01 PST

Yahoo design theorist Joy Mountford may not have had much of a job — but she was hounded out of Yahoo in a particularly nasty way, we hear, and it's left her thirsting for payback. Her responsibilities were taken away weeks before her job was officially axed in last week's mass layoffs. Mountford is now planning to start a new consulting company, and we hear she hopes to reassemble her old Yahoo team, the user-experience group known as "Yhaus," before they scatter. There's just one hitch to her comeback strategy.

Mountford is shopping ideas she developed at Yahoo up and down Sand Hill Road, according to people who have seen the presentations to VCs. Her presentation closely resembles work she previously demonstrated to Yahoo executives. That may well attract attention from Yahoo's lawyers. Mountford would do well to be more cautious: Besides the misuse of work she did for Yahoo, her habit of hiring good-looking young men, and sleeping with them, might come up.

Famed — and famously unproductive — ...

Owen Thomas — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:28:28 PST

Famed — and famously unproductive — interaction theorist Joy Mountford was not the only designer let go from Yahoo this week. Her entire "Design Innovation Team," known in Sunnyvale as yHaus, was let go. Which makes sense. While designers love innovation, consumers usually reject it.

No Joy in Yahoo's design group

Owen Thomas — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:20:12 PST

Joy Mountford, vice president in charge of Yahoo's user experience and design group, was among those laid off, we're told. Mountford founded Apple's human-interface group, wrote books, gave lectures, and encouraged designers to race toy babies by licking lollipops. She did everything, in short, except contribute visibly to shipping a product of consequence. The Yahoo of 2008 has no room for trophy executives.