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You are the PM for Facebook Pages. What features would you prioritize?

Asked at Meta (Facebook)
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Structure: 

Structure: 

2. Layout FB's overall mission

3. Frame the problem that Pages feature solves for the different user groups it touches the role it plays  in advancing FB's overall mission:

  • Determine a north star metric to capture the overall Objective set above
  • Dig deeper into Goals for each user group
  • Identify/prioritize Goal metrics to inform prioritization
  • Discuss trade offs as we go 
FB's Mission:
It's focussed on bringing people together and creating community. 
There are two things I infer from there: creating connections and fostering meaningful interactions between them. 
 
Pages Feature (purpose/overall objective):
FB Page is a like a storefront for you - whether you are business, public figure, blogger, it creates a space where you can showcase what your business is all about. I see 2 core user groups with this feature:
1) Page Owners: This group can consist of businesses, artists, bloggers and so on that are interested in expressing a point of view on social media. They might use a FB Page to express/build their brand identity, communicate the breadth of things they offer under their business, bring customers into their stores, interact with their community and so on. A strong/active FB Page can plays very important / pivotal role for a business in today's age of social media. 
 
2) Vistors: This group consists of users that browse FB Pages that they like, follow. They might follow Pages to establish their own personal brand on FB, browse to stay up to date with Pages they follow, learn about and interact with Page owners, initiate purchases. Again, Pages would form a very imp reason for people to visit FB and spend time on it. 
 
In terms of the overall objective for this feature, I see it as successful if both of these user groups are actively engaging with this feature and realizing mutual benefit. That would create the network effect required to build a thriving ecosystem around it. 
 
A top level North Star goal to capture this objective could be - Total Number of Active Pages on FB per Day (maybe Week), where Active could be defined as Pages where the Page Owners posted some content, made an update, interacted with their community, received new Followers, reactions, shares, comments and so on. This top level metric can be good indicator that both user groups are getting value from the feature. 
 
Goals/Priorities:
Give where Pages is in maturity, I would assume there are enough number of Pages created already on FB where Owners are actively posting content. So I would focus on the Visitor side, assuming the more we can get people to discover/visit/interact with Pages, the more encouraged Owners will be to continue posting high quality content. 
 
So let's lay out the top goals/related metrics for this user group by journey: 
 
Awareness
User discovers a Page by proactively searching for it
Metrics: 
  • # new Page searches/user/D,W 
  • % of FB users searching for a Page in a D,W
  • Segment by Page Type: Business, Public Figure, Blogger, Channel (Web, Mobile), User Type (New users, Latent, Inactive, Mature Users) 
User discovers a Page reactively through an Ad / FB suggestion or through a Friend that followed/liked a Page
Metrics: 
  • % Users that receive an Ad for a Page
  • % Users that see a Friend that Followed/Liked a Page in their News Feed
  • Segment by the same criteria as above
 
I would assume a good number of users are Aware of Pages and are seeking out for them so I may not prioritize anything in this category and depend more on organic growth. If anything, I might prioritize % Users that receive an Ad for a Page in the New User segment to develop early engagement with the feature. 
 
Activation
User visits a Page
Metrics: 
  • % of users that visit a Page / D, W 
  • # Page Visits / User / D,W
  • Segment by new, previously Followed Page, Page Type, User Tenure, Channel
In this category, I might prioritize # Page Visits / User / D,W possibly in a certain sub-segment like Latent Users (Users that don't interact with Pages much) assuming the opportunity is sizeable. This is with the rationale that encouraging Page visits will help this segment of users discover the benefits of Pages and drive strong network effect on the Page Owner side as well. 
 
Engagement:
User lands on a Page and performs an action (Follow, Like, Interact with content on the page)
 
  • % of users that land on new Page that then Follow it 
  • % of users that land on Page that then Like it 
  • % of users that interact with a page by Liking content on the page, commenting on it, sharing it
  • % of users that share a Page
  • # Page Follows/User/ D,W
  • # Page Likes / User/ D,W
  • # Page Interactions / User/ D, W (segment by type of interaction)
  • Time Spent on Pages / User / Session, D, W
Segment all metrics by new, previously Followed Page, Page Type, User Tenure, Channel to help determine priorities. 
 
I would strongly focus on this segment given the strategic context we set on top. Again, continuing with our Latent User sub-segment, I would prioritize %Latent Users  that land on new Page that then Follow it, Might also prioritize #Time Spent on Pages / User / Session, D, W
in this sub-segment. 
 
Retention
User sees content from Followed/Liked Pages in their News Feed, they continue to engage with this content, continue to love Pages as a feature, going on to Follow/Like more pages in the future. 
 
I would prioritize user actions in the Latent User sub-segment that correlate most with long term retention. E.g. If I see that getting a user to spend at least 15 mins a week on a recently followed page will get them hooked to a page or go on to like a new page, that's what I would prioritize. 
 
Revenue
User interacts with Ad content, leading them to then Follow, Like a Page, in turn also result in purchases from that page in the same session or over time
 
  • CTR for Page Ads
  • Transactions / User / Page through Messenger/Whatsapp
 
Continuing with the theme of engaging Latent Users, I would prioritize CTR for Page Ads.
 
 Counter Metrics:
For the Latent User sub-segment, I would measure to impact on overall engagement with FB to make sure there is no negative impact 
  • Time Spent on FB / User / Session, D, W
  • Time Spent on News Feed / User / Session, D, W (or other related services)
 
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What is a FB page: It is similar to a FB user account, but instead of a person, it represents a product or a topic/ theme, and is followed by a group/ community of people who are interested to know more about the same. They can be of 2 types:
1. Business pages: used by businesses to spread awareness about their product, restaurant, offers etc.
2. Other pages: created for the purposes of entertainment, like fan pages, book readers club etc.

Goals: Business pages primarily help in monetisation, for themselves, as well as for FB. Other pages help increase user engagement and retention.

I will now walk throuhg with some important metrics for these pages, and prioritise them on their impace and effort to implement. Depending upon the most relevant metric, we will try to establish ground for having features which enable the same.

AwarenessThis is one of the most important metric, as people can only follow a page about which they have informationImpact(5)Effort(1)
Acquisition/ ActivationOnce a user joins a page, he is now a member of the same, and can receive all the information Impact(3)Effort(3)
EngagementNo of DAU, WAU. Time spent in interaction with posts on page(comments/ likes, passive scrolling on page, bounce rate)Impact(5)Effort(1)
MonetisationPurchases made, ads clicked on the pages, visited official website(for business pages)Imapct(5)Effort(4)
ReferralPeople who add their friends/ connections to the page, share a post with others etc. Impact(5)Effort(1)

*Impact refers to the value added for the page, effort refers to the effort required by the user.

 

From the above criteria, we can see that it is important and viable to have awareness, engagement and referral. Some features that can help acheive the same respectively are:
1. Feature to -> Suggest a user the pages she may like(depending upon her previous data, her friends' followed pages etc)
2. Feature to -> Simplify posting on pages, add more filters/ backgrounds/ templates etc. This will increase posts per day, and increase user interaction. 
3. Feature to -> Offer incentives to follow and share the page's details

After this, we can calculate the success of these features based on above metrics, and improve accordingly. 

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Start answering this Facebook metrics question by focusing on clarifying questions:

  • Clarify question

    • What is FB pages?

      1. It’s a public profile for a business or entity (non-individual). A page will gather fans (followers) rather than friends and it exists to keep the fans involved and informed about happenings of the business.

      2. From FB revenue perspective, businesses buy ads to promote their FB page to users. That's how FB generates at least a portion of their revenue.

    • How does FB pages relate to FB mission?

      1. FB connects people and builds tools to make communities stronger. In this case, FB pages make stronger connections between entities and individuals by enabling individuals to stay informed about happenings of the business. 

  • Users

    • What user personas are involved in FB pages?

      1. Business owners: who want to make their business known (awareness), showcase the value of the business with photos; acquire buyers (in case of e-commerce businesses)

      2. Followers: ppl who want to stay up to speed with entities, maybe gather coupons/discounts

    • I’d like to focus on business owners for the purpose of this exercise because without pages fans wouldn’t be able to stay up to date about their favorite places. Also, FB pages are a revenue source for FB. 

  • User problems/needs

    • What user problems does a business owner have with FB pages? Let’s suppose the business is a restaurant:

      1. Awareness: making ppl aware of my presence is hard (ads solve this)

      2. Activation: once on the page, we want ppl to take action that our business considers a conversion, like reserving the table. This may be hard because users may not know that they are able to reserve the table via FB page, or they may not be ready to. 

      3. Engagement: knowing what content to produce and when to serve it to users is hard 

    • We should prioritize engagement because FB is uniquely positioned to help business owners chose a better time & content to share information with their followers

  • Solutions

    • “Dinner time push notifications”: Ability to push content when my followers are in the area and its dinner time

    • “Friends liked” Pop up when their friends checked in, liked or commented on the page

    • “Special coupon automatic issue” special coupon is automatically sent to followers on their birthday

  • I’d suggest prioritizing automatic dinner time push notifications to currently active users on FB. This would help the pain point of business owners not being able to send the messages to fan base at the right time and with the right content. 

  • Success metrics

    • Usage 

      1. # of messages sent

      2. % clickthrough from notification to page

        1. Dismiss rate / Unsubscribe rate

      3. Reservation rate

  • Risk 

    • May seem spammy

    • Privacy: it may seem uneasy to users that FB knows my location

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Things you did well 

  • Structure: Great structure of the answer. It's easy to follow 
  • Product Description: You did a great job explaining what the product does and how it works today 
  • Clarifying Questions: You asked a good set of clarifying questions to narrow down the scope of the question 
  • Product Goal: You did a good job describing the objective that you are going to focus on 
  • User groups: Great job breaking down the users to multiple user groups  
  • Pain points: You listed a good number of meaningful pain points / user needs
  • Prioritization of the pain points: You prioritized the paint points well 
  • Solutions: Great set of solutions to solve for the pain points you highlighted 
  • Metrics of Success: Good set of metrics to measure the success of your product improvement 

Areas of Improvement 

  • List more solutions: Consider listing at least 5 solutions to give yourself some room for evaluation of the solutions and eliminating some of them
  • Metrics of success: pick a "primary" metric from the list of metrics you've provided and label the additional metrics as secondary.  
  • Answer format: This is just a feedback for the format of your answers so people can easily read them and post more feedback. I suggest using the editor to have a heading for each section of your answer:)
I hope it helps, 
1
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C: Clarify the question

I believe that Facebook page is a public profile specifically created for businesses, brands, celebrities, causes and other organizations. Facebook pages do not gain friends but fans -- which are people who choose to "like" a page. It has statuses, links, events, photos, and videos

I: Identify the customers

Facebook pages are mostly used for non-individuals described above. It is a way for a business to get their brand or subject at hand known with the ultimate goal of instigating further engagement with their subject. Possibly a purchase, endorsement, or a visit to their website.

Facebook's business goal is to garner engagement among users. The customer in this case would be someone who wanted to use facebook pages to promote something. To them, user acquisition, activation, retention, engagement would be the three most important goals for their facebook page. Perhaps in some cases, monetization by direct purchase of subject-related services/things would be included as well.

C: Customer Needs

The main customer I want to clarify here are the individuals who are setting up the Facebook pages. Their needs will be

1. Bringing consumers to the page (Acquisition)

2. Keep consumers on the page and interest them in the content (Engagement)

3. Transition the consumers to fans to keep them updated about page activity (Activation)

4. Keep the number of fans (Retention)

User Business Successes could be seen as

1. Count of users who visit the page every day

1a. Entry-point of users who landed on the page

2. The average number of minutes a user stayed on the page per day

2a. % of users who stayed on the page >3 minutes after visiting per day

3. % of users who engaged with the page (posts, comment, chat, like etc) out of the ones that visited that day

4. Number of fans per day

L: List Solutions

Users Need to bring consumers to the page

1. Search optimization on search engines

2. Product Advertisements on timeline based on targeted demographic

3. Shareable content that connects back to the page

Users need to keep consumers on the page and interest them in the content

1. Recent news about the business with visuals

2. Support of any media, Audio, Video, Pictures, Animations, Powerpoints, Muzli Slides, UI experiences, 3D renderings to vividly showcase content

3. Suggested autoplay after video media to have continued engagement

4. Live-agent, comment, reactions, up-votes, corner

5. Forums, discussions, Q and A boards to garner engagement among the fans

6. Direct purchasing flow for immediate transaction

Number of Fans a day

1. Clear "Like" button easily accessible on any entry-point or content page

2. Notification and "subscribe" ability to keep the user informed about the page and its updates

3. Ability to control the types of content the user wants to be notified about to avoid spamming

4. Unlockability to boards/review/forums with a like (Fans = more content motivators)

E: Evaluate Tradeoffs + Prioritize

Among the 4 success metrics, I am choosing to prioritize the features under "Users need to bring consumers on the page" and "Number of fans a day" because I believe this encompasses the over-arching workflow of the goals of a Facebook page. Features under "Users need to keep consumers on the page and involved in their content" can also be added to see its impact in the metric "Number of fans a day" secondarily. These are numbered in priority order

A: Users need to bring consumers to the page

1. Search optimization on all search engines (the page should show up within the top 3 of the subject related searches)

2. Subject advertisements should arrive on the Facebook Page, or have a clear entry point to the Facebook Page

3. Page content that is targeted to the public should show up on newsfeeds of users based on the timeline algorithm should be shareable, "Likeable" and arrive on the Facebook Page itself.

B. Number of Fans

4. Clean and organized layout with core information and interactions clearly presented to the user on the first page

5. Increase discoverability of the Like button of the page,

6. Notify the users to keep informed about the page and its updates.

7. Provide a direct purchasing experience for one-shot monetization

8. Allow unlockable content to motivate users to become fans.

9. Support any media to be uploaded as a visual representation. Support auto-play

10. Have a live-feed section

11. Have recent news collections about the subject

12. Live agent, bot, or support means of contact.

13. Forums, Q&A, boards to create a sense of community
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