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You are the PM for Facebook newsfeed. How would you improve it?

Asked at Meta (Facebook)
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category Product Improvement category Product Sense companyMeta (Facebook)
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Just to make sure, both of us are in the same page, Let me first share my understanding of the News Feed. News Feed is the main bread and butter for FB that every user engages with as soon as one opens FB. It has different posts from all the friends and other pages that a user has followed. 

Clarification Question:

  • Was there a dip in the feed that made us improve NewsFeed or is it just that it has been long before we did any improvement in the Feed? It is the latter case.
  • Which medium are we focussing on App or Websites? It's better if you could decide on a thing that.
Approach:
 I would like to solve this problem in parts. First, I'll try to think of different User Segments and the Problems that they face. Secondly, I'll look on different solutions after prioritizing one. Finally, I'll prioritize one solution.
 
User Segments:
  • Content Creators
  • Content Consumers
  • Advertisers
  • Content Creators for Brands like startups, Established Companies.

Of these different segments, I'll prioritize the Content Creators over the others as an improvisation for them will influence the engagement at a wide level, which in turn will help Advertisers, Consumers.

User Pain Points:

  • Facebook being a Global product, Creators find it difficult to stay updated in terms of the trending topic.
  • They aren't sure of how well their posts are doing compared to others
Among these pain points, I would like to prioritize the former pain point as it'll improve the engagement of the product drastically and will also align with our vision of bringing the world closer.
 
Solutions:
  • We could create a new way of engagement where users could share their suggestions on what type of post they might want from their favorite creator the next time. This suggestion will go directly to the owner's inbox.
  • We could use data from the trending topics of different creators page and use our ML resources to find the topics that'll be interesting for the creator and that's trending. 
  • We could use the insights given to a page that's similar to another user's page to suggest to him on what are the trending topics that he/she is missing out.
Prioritizing SolutionReachImpactConfidenceEffort
11342
23444
31332

 

 
The reason for giving the solution 1 the scores are:
  • Reach will be lower as I don't see many users are going to take their time to give suggestions
  • The impact will be medium to high because with the given insights directly from the consumers will be of immense help for people to create the aptest content
  • Confidence is higher because of the same reasons stated above
  • Efforts will be lower as this is more like a comment section. However, we'll have to find a way to get it seen in the messenger directly.
NET SCORE:1 * 3 * 4 / 2 = 6
 
The reason for giving the solution 2 the scores are:
  • Reach will be higher as I have loads of data that could be used to get a more accurate conclusion.
  • The impact will be higher because the given insights will be of immense help for people to create the aptest content
  • Confidence is higher because of the same reasons stated above
  • Efforts will be higher as this involves gathering loads of data, finding the useful ones, and then finding a way to get a conclusion from them.
NET SCORE: 3 * 4 * 4 / 4  = 12
 
The reason for giving the solution 3 the scores are:
  • Reach will be lower as content creators won't be happy with their insights being shared with others even if it is anonymous.
  • The impact will be medium to high because with the given insights directly from the consumers will be of immense help for people to create the aptest content
  • Confidence is medium
  • Effort will be lower as we already do have insights created. We just need to share with other creators anonymous.
NET SCORE:1 * 3 * 3 / 2 = 4.5
 
From the prioritizing table, it is clear that I would want to go with Solution 2.
 
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Things you did well 

  • Structure: Great structure of the answer. It's easy to follow and see that you are familiar with answering product improvement questions 
  • 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 
  • 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 
  • Out of the box ideas: Good list of solutions, which speaks to your ability to brainstorm various ideas 
  • Metrics of Success: Good set of metrics to measure the success of your product improvement 

Areas of Improvement 

  • Goal : I would consider choosing a goal at the beginning (e.g. more time spent on newsfeed or more engagement with the newsfeed)  
  • Metrics: If there is time, suggest a metric that helps you measure the success of your product improvement 
  • Describe your prioritized solution in more detail: After selecting your solution, describe in more detail how you're going to build your product
Good answer overall. I enjoyed reading your answer. Well done! 
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