You are the PM for privacy and security at Meta (Facebook). What goal would you set and how would you measure success?
- Matthew Shun
Step 1 – Understand the privacy and Security ProductÂ
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Set of features which prevent oversharing of personal information of user
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Sharing when user does not want it to be shared
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Sharing when the cost of information share is less than the business benefit it entails
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Partner with the user to keep them abreast of when and where the data is being shared
Do we have a list of features included? If not, I would presume it would include
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Disclaimer / notices
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User preferences
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Communication outside the platform
Step 2- How does it fit into the facebook mission ?
Facebook’s mission is to connect people, enable them to create communities and express themselves.
How Privacy and security helps
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Increasing user trust and confidence that the information is secured and under the control of the user themselves.
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Indirect impact on users’ motivation and openness to participate in making new connections and sharing information.
Vision for the product and focus area
Vision:Â Improve user trust and confidence in the platform so that they can participate in making of new connections and share information
Focus Area – Three potential areas of focus
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Acquisition & Activations |
Engagement & Retention |
Monetization |
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Privacy and security |
Good to have |
In Focus |
N/A |
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Facebook platform |
Good to have |
In Focus |
Good to have |
Metrics to measure the impact in focus area
How would people interact / Use the privacy & security feature
User Journey
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Discovery
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Initiation
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Update themselves with controls and checks which Facebook has implemented
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Interact and provide proactive inputs where possible (say setting up the preferences)
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Completion
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Are aware of all the latest initiatives / policies
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Save / complete the proactive inputs
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Feedback
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Feel one way or the other about the controls provided and convey the same
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Metrics
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Discovery |
# of people who are aware of the privacy and security controls |
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# of users who have a privacy or security related query |
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Initiation & completion |
# of visits to the privacy and security resources |
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# of users who are confidently aware of last set of changes made by facebook |
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# of users who have visited and setup/edited privacy and security preferences |
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Feedback |
CSAT , NPS score |
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# of users who have expressed negative opinion about the security and privacy |
Let us think about the impact it will have on the usage of facebook and its product. Ideally, a robust privacy and security solution will increase user trust and increase engagement with the product
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Breadth |
DAU, MAU |
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New sign ups |
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Depth |
Average/ weighted engagement with facebook product per user per day |
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Frequency |
Time between two logins |
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Value |
CSAT score , feedback |
– Too much focus may not be the best thing
– Think of it as insurance, you got it but wish you will never use it
Hence the feedback metrics may be good one to focus onÂ
North star metric
Given the nature of product, I would like to focus on the following metrics
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Product Level |
# of users who have expressed negative opinion about the security and privacy |
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Platform level |
Average/ weighted engagement with facebook product per user per day + DAU |
Risks and contra metricsÂ
Platform engagement could be impacted by multitude of factors other than privacy
Contra metric
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Benchmark against the competition – # of complaints received by facebook vs # of complaints received by a competition (Google) on public forums

Meta