This doesn't surprise me, based mostly on the occasional conversations I've had with Medium employees (all of whom raved about their jobs, by the way).
Medium seems to fall into a growing group of companies that are more interested in innovating on their management/internal politics than actually creating innovative products. (Buffer, which also had layoffs and management departures, is another example.) They're very invested in trying new management frameworks like holacracy and signaling a commitment to things like transparency or diversity. This is all well and good (plenty of very successful companies have innovated on internal structures as well).
The problem is when it becomes the entire emphasis of the company. If you look at what people's priorities are, it seems like they're more interested in the company than the product. You can't have two P0s and until you have a successful and profitable product, that needs to be your P0. [0]
[0] Unless you can fund things indefinitely off your personal brand and net worth.
Medium seems to fall into a growing group of companies that are more interested in innovating on their management/internal politics than actually creating innovative products. (Buffer, which also had layoffs and management departures, is another example.) They're very invested in trying new management frameworks like holacracy and signaling a commitment to things like transparency or diversity. This is all well and good (plenty of very successful companies have innovated on internal structures as well).
The problem is when it becomes the entire emphasis of the company. If you look at what people's priorities are, it seems like they're more interested in the company than the product. You can't have two P0s and until you have a successful and profitable product, that needs to be your P0. [0]
[0] Unless you can fund things indefinitely off your personal brand and net worth.