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How to answer Metrics questions
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before I jump into describing metrics, I'd first like to go through a few steps to clarify the problem, identify goals and user journeys.
Clarifying questions to bound the problem:
1. Should I assume that this is back in time, when posts was first launched? Or now, as a mature feature? Assume : now as a mature feature
2. Do you have anything specific in mind when you say 'success' or do you wish me to define it myself? Assume: define it myself
3. Do you have any specific platform in ming(Eg. web, mobile etc.) Assume: all platforms
4. Do you have any specific user segment or geography in mind? Assume: all users
5. Any specific type of post - status post, marketplace post, video or image posts? Assume : all posts
To make sure we are on the same page - FB posts allows FB users to share their thoughts via text, image or video on the FB platform. Posts can be shared by regular users or brand/celebrity pages. Posts have various privacy settings which allow user to define who sees them. User journey:
User logs into fb on web or mobile-> finds the posts UI-> types something and optionally includes an image or video and submits.
Alternative journey is to read and respond to a post -> User logs into FB->finds a list of posts from network and liked pages and 'likes', 'reacts' or 'comments' or ignores each post
Why did we build this feature? FB mission is to empower people to build community and bring everyone closer. We can divide users into 3 groups - business pages and organizations, individuals, and celebrities and each user group has different goals:
1. Individuals - engage with network. Back and forth communication on a post
2. Business and organizations - Build community and establish a communication channel with customers. Build brand.
3. Celebritis - a way to reach out to their fans
A common theme among all user types is engagement. I'll use that as a common goal for all user types.
At this point everyone already knows about posts, it is top of the page as soon as you visit FB. So awareness is not really an issue. I'd like to focus on metrics for engagement - acquisition, activation and retention as key metric categories to define success.
Metrics:
Key question that metrics should answer:
1. Do new users post?
2. How long after sign up do new users post?
3. Do posts by new users get likes, reactions and comments?
4. Avg number of posts by user
5. Do users post consistently over time
6. Do people who post stay longer on fb?
7. How often to users post?
8. Do people who post stay longer on FB?
9. Do people who post regularly engage with all other FB features?
Metrics:
1. Avg. number of days to first post over time and by user segment and post type
2. Avg. number of like/reactions/comments per post over time and by user segment and post type
3. Avg. number of posts per user over time and user segment
4. DAU, MAU as % of all users over time
5. Number of active minutes on FB for DAU, MAU
6. probability of a posts MAU/DAU to be a MAU/DAU for other features
While all the above metrics are important, the most important in my opinion is #5 as a determinant of success of posts on FB. It means that people who post frequently are deeply engaged with FB and use it regularly and for a long time.
Also, #1, #2, and #3 may be fairly constant as posts is now mature feature. But initially at launch I'd prioritize these features as getting people to post asap will be important for intial success.
Clarifying questions to bound the problem:
1. Should I assume that this is back in time, when posts was first launched? Or now, as a mature feature? Assume : now as a mature feature
2. Do you have anything specific in mind when you say 'success' or do you wish me to define it myself? Assume: define it myself
3. Do you have any specific platform in ming(Eg. web, mobile etc.) Assume: all platforms
4. Do you have any specific user segment or geography in mind? Assume: all users
5. Any specific type of post - status post, marketplace post, video or image posts? Assume : all posts
To make sure we are on the same page - FB posts allows FB users to share their thoughts via text, image or video on the FB platform. Posts can be shared by regular users or brand/celebrity pages. Posts have various privacy settings which allow user to define who sees them. User journey:
User logs into fb on web or mobile-> finds the posts UI-> types something and optionally includes an image or video and submits.
Alternative journey is to read and respond to a post -> User logs into FB->finds a list of posts from network and liked pages and 'likes', 'reacts' or 'comments' or ignores each post
Why did we build this feature? FB mission is to empower people to build community and bring everyone closer. We can divide users into 3 groups - business pages and organizations, individuals, and celebrities and each user group has different goals:
1. Individuals - engage with network. Back and forth communication on a post
2. Business and organizations - Build community and establish a communication channel with customers. Build brand.
3. Celebritis - a way to reach out to their fans
A common theme among all user types is engagement. I'll use that as a common goal for all user types.
At this point everyone already knows about posts, it is top of the page as soon as you visit FB. So awareness is not really an issue. I'd like to focus on metrics for engagement - acquisition, activation and retention as key metric categories to define success.
Metrics:
Key question that metrics should answer:
1. Do new users post?
2. How long after sign up do new users post?
3. Do posts by new users get likes, reactions and comments?
4. Avg number of posts by user
5. Do users post consistently over time
6. Do people who post stay longer on fb?
7. How often to users post?
8. Do people who post stay longer on FB?
9. Do people who post regularly engage with all other FB features?
Metrics:
1. Avg. number of days to first post over time and by user segment and post type
2. Avg. number of like/reactions/comments per post over time and by user segment and post type
3. Avg. number of posts per user over time and user segment
4. DAU, MAU as % of all users over time
5. Number of active minutes on FB for DAU, MAU
6. probability of a posts MAU/DAU to be a MAU/DAU for other features
While all the above metrics are important, the most important in my opinion is #5 as a determinant of success of posts on FB. It means that people who post frequently are deeply engaged with FB and use it regularly and for a long time.
Also, #1, #2, and #3 may be fairly constant as posts is now mature feature. But initially at launch I'd prioritize these features as getting people to post asap will be important for intial success.
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Lokesh Kumar R
Platinum PM
Platinum PM
The way I would love to approach such an interesting question is by first of all understanding the context of the situation, Then would love to discuss more the feature details. With all that being understood, I'll go talking about what could be the best goal for the feature/product at the present stage and finally come up with metrics with which Success can be analyzed and discuss some tradeoff if any.
Understanding Context:
By Facebook Post Feature, posts from which medium are we focussing? Mobile Platform is our concern for this case.
What goal do we have at this current quarter? That is something as a PM you'll have to discuss.
Facebook Post Feature:
It is the feature that helps people post "what's on their mind" to their own timeline with additional options such as control over post visibility, the addition of photos, videos, or gifs, or Tagging people and so on.
Goal:
With billions of users using FB daily through their mobiles, it is safe to assume that the product is mature in its life cycle and thus Acquisition is something that we might not wanna consider. So with that being crossed out of the option, the next most important for any product in the engagement. So, it'll be more suitable to go with engagement as the goal.
One important thing to note here is that engagement differs entirely for Content Creators and Consumers. For this context, I would like to consider both the engagement for our Metrics.
User Journey:
- The user opens the app and lands himself/herself in the NewsFeed.
- For content creators, the next step is to type in their content, be it text, or media file, and then edit it to his/her personal needs-like changing the privacy options, tagging people, location, and other possible things. Finally posts the content.
- For content consumers, the next step is to interact with various posts in their feed. Be it liking, commenting, or sharing.
Metrics:
Content Creators:
- # of clicks on "What's on Your Mind?"
- # of unsuccessful posts- Meaning # of posts attempts to create that did not get posted finally.
- # of Posts per day- per day is chosen as, the newer the content every day, the more it is there for consumers to consume.
- # of likes per post category- Categories being split on topic, sentimentality, hashtags.
Content Consumers
- # of likes, # of comments, # of shares per user per day.
- # of Tags per user- The reason for checking on the tags separately is because, the easier the user is able to establish some connect, they're going to tag something.
- Bounce Rate from Newsfeed without any meaningful interaction.
- # of likes per post category- Categories being split on the topic, sentimentality, etc.
Prioritization:
Content Creators:
- # of unsuccessful posts/#of clicks on "What's on your mind"
The reason to go with this is that, It'll help us know where the user is facing difficulty while posting
Content Consumers:
- Bounce Rate from Newsfeed without any meaningful interaction.
The reason to go with this is that It'll show how well the posts are curated. The more apt it is the longer the user will be online.
Tradeoffs:
Though the metric chosen for the Content Creators is meaningful and gives a quantitative number, It misses the qualitative sense with that. As our goal is engagement, we would want meaningful and connectable posts that are needed and not some namesake posts. To have a sense of the qualitative feel, we may want to look at # of likes per category.
While for the second one, it covers every aspect that'll be needed to effectively measure the engagement.
With this, I'll like to summarize what I've done so far. the goal chosen was "Engagement" and the selected metrics are
Content Creators -# of unsuccessful posts/#of clicks on "What's on your mind"
Content Consumers-Bounce Rate from Newsfeed without any meaningful interaction.
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