Jack Dorsey's Checklist For Running Twitter In 2016: It's All About Users

Jack Dorsey has had a rocky start as Twitter's newest CEO.

The stock is down about 47% since Dorsey officially took the helm four months ago. During his first few weeks, he cut 8% of the workforce, noting that teams had become bloated. Last month, five top executives departed. The company has also faced repeated pushback from users in response to proposed product changes.

When Twitter reported fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday, one problem glared: the site actually lost monthly active users, excluding SMS "fast-followers" who access the site via feature phones, in its latest quarter, dropping from 307 million monthly active users to 305 million. Twitter said on Wednesday it has made up for those lost users in the current quarter on that basis, however, it doesn't bode well for the company's ability to ramp up user growth any time soon. (Even including SMS fast followers in the fourth quarter, monthly active user growth was flat.) Twitter still has a sizable adverting business and solid rate of monetization per user, yet quarterly revenue growth has been declining for nearly two years.

While investors would certainly be pleased to see Twitter have a profitable quarter and boost revenue growth, Twitter's advertising business doesn't seem to be analysts' biggest concern -- or Dorsey's for that matter. On Wednesday's call with analysts and investors, Dorsey offered a list of his top five priorities for Twitter in 2016, and they all revolve around addressing user growth. Despite Twitter's struggle to keep and attract users, the company says it hasn't given up on its goal to become "the planet's largest daily connected audience."

Here are Dorsey's priorities and how they could change Twitter:

1.Refine the core service: One of the best shots Twitter has at attracting and keeping new users is making the service more intuitive and friendly to newbies. While Dorsey has already overseen the rollout of Twitter's curated events and topics tab "Moments," the replacement of the star-shaped "favorite" button with the "heart-shaped" like button and this week's launch of a "best tweets" timeline feature, these changes haven't been enough. Dorsey emphasized in the call that revamping the timeline will be his biggest product focus. If Twitter wants to be a billion-person app, deeper curation, or a full-fledged algorithmic timeline will likely be necessary. He also revealed on Wednesday that the company will change the structure of its reply ".@" feature. "We have some really weird rules around conversation and replies that no one understands and we need to fix those things," Dorsey said on the call. And the company is working on new tools to make it easier for users to connect with people they know or might find interesting on the site.

2.Invest in live-streaming video: Twitter's greatest strength is its value as a real-time information service. As competitors like Facebook continue to edge into live sharing, Twitter needs to up its game. To Dorsey, live video is where Twitter should focus its attention to maintain relevance. "We're focused now on what Twitter does best: live," Dorsey said. "Hearing about and watching a live event unfold is the fastest way to understand the power of Twitter. Twitter has always been considered a 'second screen' for what's happening in the world, and we believe we can become the first screen for everything that's happening now." Twitter's live video app Periscope, which has become significantly more integrated into the flagship app under Dorsey, will likely be prominent in this effort. Better video tools should help boost Twitter's ad business, too, as a third of Twitter's managed marketing clients use video ads, according to the company.

3. Give creators and influencers better tools: A big part of what makes Twitter valuable is that important, global conversations happen on the platform. The easier it is for politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and creators such as social media celebrities to make and share compelling, viral content, the better chance Twitter has at being a robust forum in the long haul.

4. Invest in making the site safer: A lack of authentication measures on Twitter and systems to prevent harassment can too-often lead users to have a bad experience on the site. Recent headlines about global terrorism also highlight the potential for the platform and other major social networks to be used as a tool for committing harm. It will be challenging but important for Twitter to develop transparent policies that govern how threatening accounts are monitored or shutdown and find a process that's sustainable.

5. Improve relationship with developers: Twitter has had a fraught relationship with developers, thanks in part to times when it has blocked access to its platform and made unpredictable decisions. (Last summer, for example, Twitter controversially shutdown an account called Politwoops, which tracked politicians'  deleted tweets, citing terms of service violations.) Dorsey apologized to developers in a conference in October and said he wants to "reset" the relationship. He echoed that sentiment on Wednesday. This will require that Twitter communicate more openly with developers and proactively seek their feedback.