Flipkart’s Chief Product Officer Punit Soni has officially left the organization, after months of rumors suggesting that the executive was on the way out. Before joining Flipkart in March 2015, Soni was Motorola’s Vice President and the public face of the company’s software efforts.
Prior to Motorola, Soni was heavily involved in Google’s mobile apps, including Google Voice, YouTube, Gmail and Google Buzz, with the executive responsible for Instant Upload, Mobile Hangouts, Nearby and Messenger.
At Flipkart, Soni was tasked with retooling the ecommerce vendor’s mobile strategy, building products such as Ping, a chat client integration into Flipkart’s mobile app that lets you ask your friends and family suggestions on products you’re looking to purchase. However, it looks like Ping failed to take off, as Flipkart has removed the feature in the latest version of its app. Citing an anonymous source, YourStory states that Soni left as he was feeling “constrained” with Flipkart’s heirarchy:
Google is a product-organisation. They have a product focused mindset and give you leeway in terms of what you want to do with the product. But Flipkart is in commerce and wants to see quick turnout, like many other Indian companies. It’s not an R&D organisation where you continue to do research on the product.
Soni isn’t the first senior exec to leave Flipkart this year. Co-founder Binny Bansal took over as CEO, following which commerce platform head Mukesh Bansal and chief business officer Ankit Nagori left the organization. After hiring several high-profile Silicon Valley executives from Google, Motorola, and others, Flipkart is now falling back on the team of executives that led the company through its initial growth stage.