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Facebook is running a test where they hide the like/comment/share bar of each Newsfeed post in the ellipses menu (3 dots in the corner) to increase the density of the feed. What metrics do you expect to move? How do you decide to fully roll out the feature?

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category Metrics category Analytical Thinking companyMeta (Facebook)
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Facebook aims at bringing the world closer and help people form a bigger community everyday. The Newsfeed page hosts the posts from friends and the pages followed along with some sponsored ads. The Like, Comment, and share options are ways to interact with the post. 

With the above understanding, I would like to move ahead and clarify a few things before listing metrics that might move.

Clarifications:

  1.  What I understand by "Increasing the density" is that we are trying to maximize the posts viewed without scrollling by saving screen space. Am I right? Yes, this is what we mean by it.
  2. Where are we trying to deploy this change? Mobiles, Desktops, Mobile-Web application? Mobiles as huge traffic comes from there.
  3. What is our goal behind the test? Increase Revenue (I assume this to be the more reasonable goal which would make FB execute the above test) 
Though the test is aimed at improving Revenue, We need to look at other goals and how performance is varying here as well. Since FB is a mature product, It is important to keep a tab on Engagement and Retention along with the goal behind the experiment.
 
With the above understanding of the situation and the goal, I would like to move next to the user actions experiencing while surfing the news feed.
User Journey: The user journey listed is for users especially in News Feed page and not other sections like Messenger, Marketplace.
  • Opens FB in mobile
  • Lands on to NewsFeed Page
  • Surfs through posts
  • Interacts with them (interacting here includes Reacting, Sharing,Commenting, and as well as Reporting)
  • Exits FB or Goes to other sections 
Engagement Metrics (per user)
  1. # of times FB app is opened per day.
  2. Time spent surfing in Newsfeed page per day
  3. # of likes shared per session 
  4. # of comments per session
  5. # of shares per session
                     -Capturing 2nd metric shows how engaged the users are in a whole. So I would prioritize this from the Engagement Segment.
Retention Metrics (Per User)
  1. MAU, WAU
  2. Average time spent per week surfing in NewsFeed
  3.  # of Likes WoW
  4. # of comments WoW
  5. # of shares WoW

                     -The last 3 metrics shows how meaningful the community and interactions are at FB. So I would prioritize this from the Retention Segment.

Revenue Metrics (Per user)

  1. #of sponsered ads per session
  2. Click through rate
  3. Avg revenue generated per session 
  4. Avg revenue per month
                     -Through 4, the first 3 metrics can be captured as well. So I would prioritize this from the Revenue Segment.
These are the metrics that I will look into and expect to move. 
 
Of these metrics, if the Avg Revenue per month increases along with increase in the Time spent surfing NewsFeed per day and # of Likes, Comment per user WoW, the feature can be rolled out fully. However if there is a drop in the Retention and Engagement metrics, then it is more advisable on not to roll out fully. `
 
Summary:
When such a test is performed, the major metrics to look into will be the Engagement and Retention along with the metrics related to Goal. Of the prioritized metrics if the Avg Revenue per month increases along with increase in the Time spent surfing NewsFeed per day and # of Likes, Comment per user WoW, the feature can be rolled out fully.
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badge Silver PM

Thanks for sharing this structured answer! Something to think about is my hypothesis is that hiding the like/comment/share bar is more likely to cause a decrease overtime in these interactions, in particular likes and shares (comments have an alternative entry point as a text bar right under the post). This is because we are introducting an extra click on the ellipses for user to find the interactions. This added frictions will eventually prompt less users to like/comment/share, therefore dropping engagement levels WoW, and as secondary effect, decreasing the relevance of the content presented to users as well as revenue (less targeted ads) because we are collecting less signals on what people find interesting.

I thought this could be a nice addition at the end of your answer to add more color to your metrics and build a hypothesis.

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