Product Design: Design an Audio Product for Meta
Meta Product Design Interview : Designing the Future of Social Audio at Meta
How to Answer Product Design Questions?
Here is a step-by-step framework, you should follow while answering Product Design interview questions during your interview:
0. Pay close attention to the keywords in the question.
1. Describe the Product. (P)
2. Ask clarifying Questions to trim down the scope of the question. (Q)
3. Define the Goal you want to achieve. (G)
4. List the User Segments and select one segment to focus on. (U)
5. List and prioritize the Pain Points for that segment. (P)
6. List out your Solutions to solve those pain points. (S)
7. Evaluate all the solutions and prioritize them. (E)
8. Define Metrics to measure the performance of the solutions. (M)
9. At the end, Summarize your answer (S)
Let’s get started with the solution (remember to follow the framework),
Step 1: Describe the Product
Once you are clear with the question, start by explaining your understanding of the product. Cover the following things about the product,
What does the product do?
Who uses it?
How are they using it?
What pain point is it solving for the users?
Meta has built the infrastructure for digital connection — photos, videos, chats, reels, avatars. But one sense has been left slightly underplayed in its core offerings: audio.
With the global rise of podcasts, voice notes, social audio rooms, and spatial sound experiences in AR/VR, audio is no longer just about listening — it's about bonding, reacting, and co-experiencing.
Today’s audio is solitary. Meta’s mission is about community. That’s a misalignment begging for a solution.
Let’s flip the script:
🎯 What if Meta could turn audio into a new kind of social glue?
One that lets friends listen to a podcast together in real-time, clip their favorite moment from a creator’s new episode and send it as a Story, or even immerse themselves in a spatially rich listening session inside Meta Quest?
Meta isn’t just a social network — it’s a social infrastructure. And audio is the next building block.
Step 2: Ask clarifying questions
Before we dive headfirst into wireframes and wild ideas, let’s trim the ambiguity. Asking the right questions up front saves weeks (and millions) down the line.
Here are the clarifying questions we’d ask to define the boundaries of our solution:
Q) What type of audio content are we focusing on? Music, podcasts, or both?
A) Focus on spoken-word content (podcasts, conversations, live audio), since it's a growing segment and aligns with Meta’s mission of community and connection. Music is often licensing-heavy and already saturated.
Q) Are we targeting listeners, creators, or both sides of the ecosystem?
A) Its upto you to decide.
Q) Should the product be live (synchronous), on-demand (asynchronous), or hybrid?
A) Let’s explore hybrid. On-demand audio fits user habits (e.g., podcast listening), while live sessions offer community engagement and potential virality (like social audio rooms).
Q) Which Meta platforms should we design for—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Meta Quest (VR)?
A) Its upto you to decide.
Q) Should the product be mobile-first, VR-first, or cross-platform?
A) Mobile-first (iOS and Android), as that’s where most users consume audio today. However, we’ll consider how to extend the experience into VR (Meta Quest) in the future for immersion.
Q) Are we designing for the US market or globally?
A) Let’s begin with the US to reduce complexity and tailor the experience to a high-consumption market. Global rollout can follow once product-market fit is validated.
Q) What is the primary goal of the product—user engagement, community building, or monetization?
A) Its upto you to decide.
Q) Are we building a standalone product or integrating audio into existing Meta surfaces?
A) Integration into existing Meta products.
Step 3. Define the Goal you want to achieve
If Meta’s mission is to bring the world closer together, then our audio product must go beyond passive listening. The goal isn’t to become “another Spotify.”
The goal is to make listening more social, more immersive, and more connective.
Our Core Goal:
Turn audio from a passive solo activity into a dynamic, shared social experience — seamlessly embedded into Meta’s ecosystem.
This isn’t just about engagement metrics. It’s about designing a format that naturally extends Meta’s strength: social interactions.
We’ll measure success by:
Increased average listening session duration.
Step 4: List the User Segments and choose one segment to focus on
To design an impactful audio product, we must resist the temptation to build for everyone. Instead, let’s find the highest-leverage user segment — the one where needs are sharp, habits are strong, and Meta’s ecosystem can create outsized value.
Here’s how we segment the market:
Listeners (Demand Side)
Teens & Young Adults (13–30) → Core Focus
Mid-career professionals (31–45)
Older listeners (45+)
We can slice listeners by content type too:
Podcast addicts
Music-first users
Wellness & ambient audio fans
Social audio room regulars
Creators (Supply Side)
Independent podcasters
Influencers building audio-first content
Brands using podcasts for marketing
Publishers & media orgs
Chosen Focus: Gen Z & Millennials (13–30) who are active podcast consumers
Why?
86% of Gen Z listens to audio daily — that’s 16+ hours per week on average.
They’re highly social — sharing memes, stories, reels, and more.
Meta already has their attention on Instagram and Messenger.
They crave connection with creators, but also their peers — audio can bridge both.
Step 5: List & Prioritize Their Pain Points
Now that we know who we’re designing for, let’s step into their shoes. What frustrates these users about their current audio experience.
Here are the top pain points ranked by intensity + impact:
Podcast listeners struggle to discover new, relevant shows without manually searching, as most recommendation engines rely on generic popularity instead of personal interests, moods, or listening history, leading to stale or irrelevant content.
There is no native way to save, highlight, or revisit specific moments within long podcast episodes, forcing users to either re-listen manually or forget key takeaways, which reduces long-term value and engagement.
Listeners find it difficult to share specific clips or quotes from audio episodes with friends or on social platforms, resulting in lower social virality and missed opportunities to express personal identity through content.
Gen Z users, accustomed to short-form, visual content, lose interest in lengthy podcast episodes due to lack of segmentation, visual cues, or dynamic pacing, leading to high drop-off rates midway through episodes.
Audio platforms often lack real-time interaction features, making podcast consumption feel like a passive, isolated activity rather than an engaging, community-driven experience.
There is no simple, cross-platform solution for co-listening with friends, meaning users who want to enjoy a podcast together must coordinate manually or use third-party hacks, disrupting social bonding around audio content.
Listeners experience frustration when switching devices mid-episode (e.g., from phone to laptop), as most platforms don’t support seamless cross-device syncing, creating friction in multi-context audio consumption.
Users face difficulty in building or following personalized playlists or themed podcast journeys, as most apps focus on individual episodes or creators rather than allowing curated listening paths around a topic or goal.