So very sad to hear about the passing of my wonderful friend and former Guardian colleague Piers Jones. A thread 1/10
We worked together at @guardian where he achieved so much and was regarded by all as an amazing, kind and thoughtful colleague 2/10
@guardian In many respects, the Guardian owes the success of user donations down to Piers who got backing from editorial to test the concept despite some very strong opposition from other parts of the org 3/10
@guardian The wording of the test, that just politely asked for a donation, was v similar to the very successful final version you see today 4/10
@guardian Piers was also instrumental in pushing social in the early days of FB which allowed the Guardian to adapt quickly to changes in reader behaviour 5/10
@guardian And Piers was an early advocate for joining up the data within the Guardian to get a single view of the customer 6/10
@guardian Every one of these projects was met with opposition but Piers soldiered on, motivating the team along the way, convincing new people each week that these were important steps. 7/10
@guardian One of my favourite memories the Guardian was Pier’s birthday when his mother contacted us and shared some fab photos of Piers through the ages. He was so shocked when he saw them on the big screens in the office. A day of many smiles and happiness 8/10
