How would you evaluate the success of Reactions on Facebook? | Facebook PM Interview
Facebook PM Interview: Product Metric Question and Answer - How would you evaluate the success of Reactions on Facebook?
Let’s get started with the solution -
Interview Tip: Always remember to follow the framework. Jumping right into defining metrics is not the best way to answer this type of questions.
Framework to follow:
Describe the Product. (P)
Describe the Feature. (F)
Describe how that feature is adding value to the user. (V)
Define the Goal you want to achieve (G)
Describe User Journey (J)
Metrics for each step of the User Journey (M)
Evaluate and Prioritize the Metrics. (E)
Summarize your answer (S)
(PF-VGJ-MES) -> Mnemonic to help you remember the steps & their order.
So, following the framework mentioned above,
We will first talk about - What Facebook is, What it does, its Goals?
Then we will go into discussing Reactions - What they are? Who uses them? and Why would people use them at all?
How do Reactions add value to the users?
Next, I would define the Goal that we want to achieve.
Followed by, walking through the User Journey for Facebook Reactions.
Next, we will discuss, Metrics for each step of the User Journey.
Followed by Evaluation and Prioritization of the Metrics.
Lastly, I will summarise my answer.
Tip: Before jumping into the next part, make sure the interviewer is in sync with your approach.
Describe the Product
Facebook is a social media platform that mainly focuses on letting users share parts of their life using images, texts, videos, stay connected with friends and family, and to discover, share and express what’s matter to them. It also has multiple other elements like the messenger, marketplace, groups, games jobs but for today's discussion, we will focus only on the basic Facebook feed.
Describe the Feature
Facebook Reactions are an improvement over the Likes feature where users can express their exact emotions such as love, sadness, anger, and amusement for a post.
They look like small emojis that you can react to a post. So, instead of just a basic thumbs up, you get to react to a range of emotions.
They allow users a faster and more efficient way to express complex emotions without spending the time to write the comment.
How do Reactions add value to the users?
Why do we have Reactions?
Because Like button limits the range of emotions that someone can express while engaging with content on their Feed.
For ‘People who use Reactions’ :
It reduces mental fatigue - You don’t have to put in as much effort as commenting and could focus more on content.
It saves you time. Hence, you can engage more with content.
Gives them freedom of expression.
For ‘People who get the Reactions’ :
Gives better feedback on how posts are being accepted.
More people can engage with the content now.
Goal:
Facebook’s Goal would be to create the best social media experience for users and allow users to express themselves and engage in the best way possible.
Therefore, I would measure the success of Facebook Reactions to improve Engagement on the platform.
Facebook needs users to spend more time on the platform, as an increase in engagement would also lead to an increase in ad revenue for Facebook.
Tip: Check with the interviewer if he/she is okay with this goal.
User Journey for Facebook Reactions:
Users will become aware of this feature while looking at posts on Facebook. When they want to show emotion, it will trigger the use for the feature, and based on the post they would click on a particular emotion that best describes their feeling.
Users may see similar posts based on the usage of this feature which would lead to more engagement and more revenue for Facebook.
Metrics for each step of the User Journey:
Awareness and Activation:
These metrics will evaluate if a user is aware of this feature and know how to use it.
Number of new users using this feature.
% of users who used only Like and now Like & React.
Engagement:
Has the user ever felt the need to use the feature?
% increase in the number of clicks on the reaction by users (high % would mean more users are using it)
Number of Reactions used per day (Total and individual reaction count).
Do these reactions help in Engagement?
% users that use reaction after viewing a post (image, text, video). (Indicates feature success)
Number of users who scroll further after using reactions.
Number of users using reactions on a Daily/Monthly/Quarterly basis.
Number of users sharing a post after reacting to it.
Number of reactions used per user - Daily/Monthly/Quarterly (This will help identify the repeat usage of this feature)
% Reactions used out of overall engagement on a post (Likes, Reactions, Comments) - by user groups(to check how much percentage of users are using the feature)
Monetization:
Are these reactions generating money for Facebook?
Type of posts that get most reactions (This will help Facebook personalize posts for each user by understanding user likes)
% of users who scroll further after using reactions (This will help understand if users are getting retained on the platform for some more time after using reactions. The more time they spent on the platform the more sponsored ads Facebook can show to the user).
CTR / Conversion rate on posts/links. (Sponsered posts)
Evaluate & Prioritize your Metrics:
The goal is to use these metrics to increase engagement on Facebook.
The metrics I would implement and monitor are in the following priority:
Percentage (%) users that use reactions after viewing a post (image, text, video).
Total number of users using reactions on a Daily/Monthly/Quarterly basis.
Reactions most used on a Daily/Monthly/Quarterly basis. (Total and individual reaction count).
Number of users sharing a post after reacting to it.
Number of users that scroll further after using reactions.
Summary:
So, to measure the success of FB reactions in increasing engagement, I will first split all metrics to see which are relevant to this phase of the user journey.
Based on the ease of implementation, I will implement the metrics and monitor them on a daily basis. An increase in these metrics will indicate a positive success, whereas a dip in the metrics would indicate more analysis needs to be done to improve the reactions so that they engage users.
If it is a feature, this approach feels good, But when it is product whole the approach changes?