You are the PM of Instagram app. The MAU has been constant but DAU has declined. What will you do?

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You are the PM of Instagram app. The MAU has been constant but DAU has declined. What will you do?

Asked at Meta (Facebook) over a year ago

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J

Jay

Silver PM

Aug 11, 2020

To answer this problem solving question:

First I would describe my understanding of instagram - It is a social media mobile app which lets us share media with our friends and connections on Instagram. It gives us the option to use filters on photos, tag locations, follow business, follow celebrities and we can add follow people we like, like their posts and comment on the same.

DAU - Daily active users( People who are engaged on newsfeed, post stories, like and comment everyday)

MAU - Monthly active users ( People who are not engaged in instagram every single day but are casual users)

I would like to clarify some things about the drop in users. So we are seeing a drop in the Daily active user and not in the monthly active user count. Hence we can assume that daily active users are slowly becoming monthly active users or we can call it casual user.

Before diving deep into the issue let's filter out some of the basic information to better understand the root cause of the issue.

Is the drop seen significantly in a particular geography ?
Is the drop in a specific platform ( IOS/android/windows) ?
Is the drop from a specific age group ?
Do we see any other demographic patterns in the DAU drop ?
Do people open the app but we dont see any usage ?

Interviewer says it is a global drop and no specific platforms or patterns are noticed

Now we are going to split this into two nodes : Internal and External

Internal node is where we the issue has originated from within Facebook

External node is if it originated because of external factors

First let us examine a couple of external factors that could have impacted this drop

A new competitor has risen and people have started to explore the new app and are not as engaged with Instagram as they used to be.
Because of Pandemic people have moved towards a new entertainment app like tiktok.

Now we are going to look at some of the internal factors that could have influenced the drop in DAU

Change in the metrics of how DAU and MAU are measured
Newsfeed algorithm changed which started showing non relevant posts and had a negative effect on the interest factor
Issues with the A/B testing which made the internal team add or change an existing feature
New feature or change in existing feature introduced to our core users instead of the casual user
Existing bug in the app that makes the app shut immediately down after opening
Feed has been loading slowly which has caused inpatience amongst people

Interviewer wants to eliminate that there was any external factor that influenced the drop in any way

Since external factors are going to be eliminated let us look at the internal factors

ProblemsSolutions

Change in the metrics of how DAU and MAU are measured.	Contact the engineering team or Devops and check if there was a recent change in metrics was implemented for DAU and MAU
Newsfeed algorithm changed which started showing non relevant posts and had a negative effect on the interest factor	Check with Data science and Engineering team to see if there was a new algorithm that was introduced into the feed
Issues with the A/B testing which made the internal team add or change an existing feature	Check to see if there was AA testing done before AB and look at the metrics to see for anything odd
New feature or change in existing feature introduced to our core users instead of the casual user	Was there a new feature that has affected the other features in instagram
Existing bug in the app that makes the app shut immediately down after opening	Ask the testing team if they are aware of any existing bugs
Feed has been loading slowly which has caused inpatience amongst people	Do we have a different feed loading time for low and high band mobiles and is there any issues with it

Once we go through all these metrics we would be able to identify what the root cause is. Fix the issue and do an AB testing to see the DAU metrics goes up.

17 likes | 1 feedback

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Lokesh Kumar R

Platinum PM

Jun 27, 2021

This was one amazing take on the quesion.

Things you did well:

You followed a precise structure throughout and made it easier to follow.
A great work in analysing the issue
The solutions mentioned were reasonable

Areas of Improvement:

Always checking the definition of Metrics with the Interviewer is important. DAU could be defined as users opening and interacting with atleast 1 post. It could also be Users opening the app and staying in the app for 1 min. the process and the assumption will change depending on the definition
It is highly pratical to check the internal reasons over external one when there are no proper reason as to which could be an issue. To decide clearly on which bucket to prefer, one can ask question like "Was the change a gradual one or a Sudden one". If the answer was "Sudden one", It is highly possible that the issue is with Internal Bucket and a gradual change means an external one like competition.

2

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Leonardo Fernandes · Answer 1 · 2021-12-29T23:33:12+0000

1) Clarifications

- We are talking about Instagram, a social media platform where people can share photos, videos, and react to others' content. Is my understanding correct?

By MAU and DAU you mean Monthly Active Users and Daily Actives Users, right? How do you define those? People who log at least once a day and month?
We are focusing on the entire platform in a general way, and not on any particular feature, correct?
Is this decline gradual or sudden? If it's gradual, for how long?
Is it happening for a particular geographic location or user segment (people or businesses)?
Has it affected all devices or is it specific to mobile or web for instance?

Let's assume that the decline is gradual, specific to businesses and web devices.

--> The info about MAU being constant gives me a hint that it might be a problem of engagement caused by user behavior. I will keep it on my mind as I continue to investigate.

2) Exploration

Internal
- Bugs/Crashes: I am not considering since the drop is gradual
- Have we released something new to businesses over this time?
  - Yes, we have enabled APIs for third-parties platforms where businesses can manage their Instagram communications over those platforms.
- Okay, and we have not changed anything on the algorithm that could potentially worsen the user experience, right?
  - No, we have not. I mean, we constantly launch and test new things, but it's unlikely to cause such a drop.
External
- Seasonality: Is it correlated with seasonality or not?
- Competitors: Although it's a weak assumption, it could happen (MAU continues constant, a competitor might affect it as well).

3) Hypothesis

I believe I have my hypothesis which is related to user behavior. So, just to RECAP and keep on the same page.

The decline has happened on web devices, and is specific to businesses. Recently, the team has launched new APIs that enable businesses to communicate with clients using Instagram through other softwares.
Looking at the business users, basically they log in to make posts, react to other posts, and answer clients. They might also spend some time on Ads Manager.
My hypothesis is that some businesses are not logging in everyday because they are answering their customers on Instagram over their softwares.
To investigate it further, I would look into some metrics:
- What type of businesses are part of those DAU?
- Out of those businesses, how are they used to spending time on Instagram? (newsfeed, messaging, etc)
- Are their SLA to answer customers changed?
- Has avg session time decreased as well?
- Has engagement metrics decreased (reactions, comments, shares, etc)?
- Has their posting strategies changed? (number of posts, frequency, etc)

4) Actions

If we launched an APIs to facilitate management of communication, we certainly expected a decrease in usage of the app, thus DAU. Is it true? If it is true and it's expected, there's no action here. We are willing to accept the trade-off.
If we want to increase de DAU anyway, we can
- Build and share daily reports about actions taken
- Work on notifications and/or reminders to those customers

Prateek Srivastava · Answer 2 · 2024-09-23T16:21:12+0000

To answer the question at hand, I will begin by asking clarifying questions:

What is the trend in DAU drop?
Is there any specific demographic group where this drop was observed?
Is the drop observed among mobile or web users?
If mobile users, is the drop in DAU among users of Android or Iphone?

Assumptions:

The drop occurs across irrespective of web or mobile.
The drop is observed across all demographic groups.
The drop in DAU is steady.

The point to note is that MAU is constant but DAU keeps declining. MAU is # unique users in a month. If the MAU is constant and DAU is dropping, it means that the number of daily unique users keeps dropping towards the end of month. The hypothesis here is that the drop in DAU despite constant MAU is on account of skewed (front loaded pattern) usage pattern across the month. This decling could be on account of internal and external factors.

Possible reasons:

Internal
1. Server side outages toward later part of the month.
2. Drop in the quality of content posted by creators in the later part of the month.
External
1. Big bang events in the start of the month - podcast, celebrity launches, releases etc.
2. Competitor platform comes up with interesting content towards the later part of the month because of which users tend to move from Insta to the other app.

Clarifications

1. instagram = ppl share photos, ppl share videos, ppl watch photos or videos shared by friends, ppl watch photos or videos shared by pages that they follow. they recently are trying to move to videos more.

2. mau = monthly active users = how many ppl logged into app atleast once a month and uses it for greater than a min

3. dau = how many ppl logged into app atleast once in a day and uses it for greater than a min. this means that daily, something is stopping users from logging in or using the app for greater than a min

considering this is a problem, what's the goal of this problem? find out the Root cause, why its happening ?

Lets find out the root cause.

Investigation

Multiple reasons come to my mind after clarifications. But before i investigate i want to narrow down the problem.

is this for overall instagram app ? yes
across regions? or one region?: one region, USA
mobile app? yes
has this been a gradual one over a few weeks or sudden over a few days ? gradual over a few weeks.

Now, i have a few suspects,

Internal:

1. were there any new features that were released in the US? yes , ok !

2. i want to check if the funnel is fine, after releasing the features. -> yes, all the funnel is fine. (funnel = user clicking the app on phone, app opens, user sees the feed and stories immediately, user scrolls for more content on feed, no timeouts during this, its all smooth?)

3. as part of feature release, I want to check if Instagram changed the content algorithm and if the content is not engaging for the audience. is there any drop in engagement since the time this is released? no, engagement has been the same by the audience

4. the by default app state is login, any automatic signouts thats happening when the user clicks the app? nope

5. as part of the feature release, was there any A-B testing going on? nope

i think i ruled out all the internal factors, now i want to shift the focus to any external factors.

External:

1. any change in user behavior or user trend? (like for travel, pre and post covid there was a clear shift in user behavior) no

2. any change in the market trends? new products in market ? (like tiktok releasing new features or fb releasing metaverse or snap releasing new features) yes, there are new features released by them. ok !

3. any change in the marketing channels or links that gets users to instagram ? no, users usually prefer to click the app directly from the phone

4. any bad PR that's happening about instagram ? not really, its been decent

After going through all the reasons, I feel the competitors launched a few features which caused the dau to go down. our users are now more interested in using their apps & features instead of ours.

Action:

My hypothesis is that, if we release features similar to our competitors and test them with a control group and variant group, we can see how the results are, and take the necessary actions after that.

Ram pulipati · Answer 4 · 2022-08-17T23:57:35+0000

Clarifications

1. instagram = ppl share photos, ppl share videos, ppl watch photos or videos shared by friends, ppl watch photos or videos shared by pages that they follow. they recently are trying to move to videos more.

2. mau = monthly active users = how many ppl logged into app atleast once a month and uses it for greater than a min

3. dau = how many ppl logged into app atleast once in a day and uses it for greater than a min. this means that daily, something is stopping users from logging in or using the app for greater than a min

considering this is a problem, what's the goal of this problem? find out the Root cause, why its happening ?

Lets find out the root cause.

Investigation

It could be because of multiple reasons, and multiple reasons come to my mind after clarifications. But before i investigate i want to narrow down the problem.

is this for overall instagram app ? yes
across regions? or one region?: one region, USA
mobile app? yes
has this been a gradual one over a few weeks or sudden over a few days ? gradual over a few weeks.

Now, i have a few suspects,

Internal:

1. were there any new features that were released in the US? yes , ok !

2. i want to check if the funnel is fine, after releasing the features. -> yes, all the funnel is fine. (funnel = user clicking the app on phone, app opens, user sees the feed and stories immediately, user scrolls for more content on feed, no timeouts during this, its all smooth?)

3. I want to check if Instagram changed the content algorithm and if the content is not engaging for the audience. is there any drop in engagement since the time this is released? no, engagement has been the same by the audience

4. the by default app state is login, any automatic signouts thats happening when the user clicks the app? nope

External:

1. any change in user behavior or user trend ? (like for travel, pre and post covid there was a clear shift in user behavior) no

2. any change in the market trends? new products in market ? (like tiktok releasing new features or fb releasing metaverse or snap releasing new features) yes, there are new features released by them. ok !

3. any change in the marketing channels or links that gets users to instagram ? no, users usually prefer to click the app directly from the phone

4. any bad PR that's happening about instagram ? not really, its been decent

After going through all the reasons, I feel the competitors launched a few features which caused the dau to go down. our users are now more interested in using their apps & features instead of ours.

Action:

My hypothesis is that, if we release features similar to our competitors and test them with a control group and variant group, we can see how the results are, and take the necessary actions after that.

Santhosh Kumar · Answer 5 · 2021-11-09T05:53:04+0000

Approach:

1. Understand the prompt better

2. Brainstorm the potential root causes

Clarification questions:

Candidate: Is this problem specific to a particular region or platform or demopgraphics group. Else it is the problem across the board?

Interviewer: It is the problem across all users on the mobile app platform

Candidate: When did we start to observe the drop in the DAU?

Interviewer: Last month

Candidate: Anyone that logs in the session during a month is counted as a MAU and anyone that logs in the session during a day is counted as a DAU. Is that correct?

Interviewer: Correct

Based on the clarification questions, my understanding is that on average same of people log-in each month but people are logging in less frequestly, resulting in lower DAU

Root causes within the Instagram's sphere of control

1. System outages during some days in a month; it would affect the daily usage but not the month usage

2. New version of the app was released that customers had to update the app to continue to use instagram; not all users will update their app immediately, thus it would affect the DAU but users will eventually in few days hence not impacting the MAU much

3. Recent product changes that caused confusion or that limited engagement; it could have led to temporary drop in usage affecting the DAU not MAU

4. Decreased the push notifications frequency; it will affect the DAU not the MAU

Root causes outside the Instagram's sphere of control

1. App store/Play store rules changes leading to lower visibility of the app; Instagram took a while to respond to changes hence it caused transient drop in app download affecting the DAU not the MAU

2. Bad PR leading to users reducing their frequency of usage; it would lead to temporary drop in usage

3. Major sport tournament such as football world cup or olypmics or superbowl; it would have led to temporary drop in usage affecting the DAU not MAU

4. Competitors released a new feature that became a huge hit; eventually the interest would wear out, affecting only temporary usage (DAU)

5. Major hit movies or TV series released; negatively affecting the usage for few days

6. Seasonal factors such as lower usage during the weekdays compared to weekends; week days users tend to lower than weekends

productmanager1644 · Answer 6 · 2021-01-23T02:27:55+0000

CLARIFY:
1. Is the metrics change specific to a channel (mobile, desktop, tablet)? No
2. Is the metrics change specific to a region? No - global.
3. Is the metrics change specific to a type of user (ex. net new user, long term user, user with specific type of profile: public v. private, etc.)? No
4. How long has this issue occured? Assume last month.
5. Is the DAU drop isolated to a specific time (ex. today, last week, etc.)? For example, DAU could have been increasing this month but suddenly dropped, allowing for the MAU to be constant but the DAU to drop. Assume recent.
6. Are metrics being measured in a different way?
POTENTIAL CAUSES: There are two types of causes to explore: external and internal.
1. EXTERNAL CAUSES: Assume the answer is no to all.
  1. Big Event: Was there a big event (ex. event in News, etc.) that distracted users from logging into Instagram?
  2. Network Outage: Was there a network outage in a big area that could have caused a drop?
  3. External Competitor: Did an external competitor launch or release a new feature that may have taken DAU from Instagram?
  4. Bad Press: Did Instagram receive bad press that would have caused DAU to drop (ex. data security issue, etc.)?
  5. External Metrics Software: Was there a change to the metrics software that prevents the metrics from being tracked accurately?
2. INTERNAL CAUSES:
  1. Hardware: Were there any issues with hardware (ex. server problems) that may have caused drop? No.
  2. UI Changes: Were there any UI changes that made it harder for users to login or made the app less user friendly causing fewer DAU? No.
  3. Software Update: Were there any software updates recently? Yes.
HYPOTHESIS: Given that there was a recent software update, I believe the software update is affecting the DAU to drop.
ACTIONS: I'd like to better understand how the software update has affected DAU to drop.
1. I want to understand what the software update did. What features of Instagram did it change? Are they causing less user engagement (i.e. users don't like the layout, features, etc.)? I'd review heat maps and metrics of the features updated and compare them to previous days / months. If the features are bigger changes, I'd conduct customer research to understand what aspects we should update / change in the next release, etc.
2. How long was it beween the software update and the drop in DAU? Check with the metrics team to understand the timelines.
3. Is the software update causing a bad connection with the metrics software that prevents the DAU from being measured (i.e. DAU is still up but the metrics aren't being tracked)? Check with engineering.
4. Are there bugs in the software preventing users from logging in (assuming that's how DAU is measured)? Check with engineering to code check.
SUMMARY: I suspect that the recent software update is causing the recent drop in DAU, although MAU is constant. I'd have a better understanding of what specifically went wrong after I get further answers to my questions / actions listed. Once I have a definitive understanding of the issue, I will action accordingly (ex. work with engineering to fix any bug, etc.).