First I’d ask a few clarifying question to define a boundry for the problem statement such as:

1. Do you have  specific FB product in mind – eg. FB.com, Instagram, whatsapp, messenger, occulus etc? Assume: Whatsapp as it has a potential to grow and monetize

2. Do you have a specific geography  in mind or feature targeted to the whole world?  Assume it’s targeting the whole world.

3. Do you have a platform in mind – web or mobile? Assume: mobile as it is the largest userbase

4. Do you have a specific goal in mind for the feature? ssume: Goal is to monetize as Whatsapp is widely used and engagement has a natural hook of users wanting to communicate with their riends and family.

Summary: We want to launch a feature to monetize whatsapp.

Then I’d like to identify some user segments who already use this service:

1. Personal use  –  People who  use  it  as a communication tool to chat/call their friends and family

2a. Professional use – communicate with teammates

2b. People who sell stuff  or service eg. Wedding decorators, bakers, independent massage therapists, jewellers etc. Independent contractors not large companies. This behavior on whatsapp is  prevalent outside US in countries like India.  Personal experience of planning own wedding.

I’ll choose the 2b. People who sell stuff as this group provides the highest potential to monetize.

I’ll go through the user journey to identify some pain points. I’ll choose the specific case of a wedding decorator here to flesh out the user journey.

1. Sarah has a new client who would like to plan their wedding. Sarah was referred to them by their friends

2. Clients call to discuss and ask for options

3, Sarah sends them a menu of options and price points

4. Clients choose an option

5. Sarah works with them to decorate, clients get married

6. sarah gets paid

(obviously shortened in the interest of time!)

Pain points:

1. Discovery – how do people find out about Sarah?  WOM? Yelp?

2. How do people choose Sarah? How do they know she is good? Reviews somewhere?

3. How does Sarah share her ‘menu’ of services?

4. How do clients evaluate service? Make a choice? How does Sarah share sample images? sending same images again and again may not be ideal

5. How do clients make the payment? Wire? Credit card?

6. exchanging documents?

I’d like to evaluate these pain points with the lens of impact on user and availability of similar feature  in the market.

I think #1 and #2 are kind of solved in the real world. People go to yelp or angie’s list type of local marketplace to find such service providers. They also have reviews to help people choose. While #3 is possible to achieve through a personal website, not everyone has the knowhow to do so and can be a potential obstacle to business success. We could also innovate here with some AR type of features to really differentiate. #3 and #4 are  kind of related. Sarah will have to understand client tastes and propose a design for their wedding. Clients have to be able to visualize in their location and choose. I also think adding in the ability to digitally sign contract and make payments would make the feature valuable as a one stop shop for Sarah to manage her business. Impact could be  high as she  can quickly share designs and convert leads to potential paying customers. She could really focus on her core business of creating new designs and trust whatsapp to take care of payments and other support functions. For FB, we  could charge a fee to maintain her designs, digital signatures and payments.

Solutions:

1. Develop a ‘business profile’ that allows sarah to upload her previous desings and create a menu for the clients to see her previous work.

2. Once they choose Sarah, she could create a customized wizard to understand client needs. We could innovte here and allow her to offer a image stream for the clients to swipe left or right to explain what they like.

3. Based on their selections Sarah could create a custom design and share on whataspp. Sarah could also get feedback on chat

4.Once finalized, Sarah could create a digital document for the clients to sign electronically describing payment terms and such

5. Create a ‘digital wallet’ or payment account for Sarah where she can accept payment

Since we are launching a brand new feature, it’s important to find product-market fit, so I’ll prioritize solutions 1,2,3, 5.

Success metrics for me :

1. # of sign ups

2. # of payments

Summarizing our new product : We will help monetize whats app through service fees for independent business owners by building a way to showcase, facilitate selection and completing payments.

Looking at it critically – Gaining stakeholder approvals could be challenging as FB typically makes money via ads and providing free services. Also, discovery is very important step, so we may have to evaluate again if including it in some way such as a short link from yelp or angie’s list might be increase value.

When I think about Facebook, I instantly think about the huge user base this company has as it has successfully achieved 2 billion users and is very much on its path to bring the world closer together.

During these unprecedented times, social network dependency has increased by a remarkable percentage so launching a feature that would allow users to feel more connected in virtual space, as they cannot in the physical world, will help us to get instant adoption and user engagement.

Let’s talk about the user groups:

1. Teenagers and college students (11yrs old – 25yrs old)

2. Professionals (26yrs old – 50yrs old)

3. Experienced people( 50yrs old+)

I would like to build a feature for professionals as I believe they are the ones who are used to going out and partying and taking part in a lot of social gatherings and due to COVID-19, they are now bound to their homes and are away from their social groups.

Now, talking about their pain points:

1. They are unable to play any sports or games together that they used to before

2. They are unable to have movie/play experience together

3. They are unable to have a good social gathering with everyone due to imposed restrictions

Out of these 3 pain points, I would like to tackle the last pain point as I believe a lot of companies are working towards finding a solution to this other than just a video call feature and if Facebook comes up with something innovative and new, it will have a higher adoption rate. The other two pain points can be handled by online games and Netflix party like features that allow users to come together to spend some time playing games or watching movies/series.

So, talking about the pain point of a social gathering, here are my solutions:

1. Facebook Party– Since COVID-19 has hit us, people have stopped going out and partying which used to be a common social gathering. So, a video call feature allows people to talk to each other and doesn’t provide much in the party area. My suggestion is to have a party feature in the app that will allow the host to select a DJ Playlist, a party filter that can be either a disco light or the lightings as found in clubs and invite the guests for the scheduled time period. As soon as the user joins, the filter and the song are activated and the screen shows the video of all the guests in the random orders in the main screen so that it actually feels like a party and not just people doing party over a video call. This feature can also be extended and have an actual DJ play at the host’s party for some cost. This will allow Facebook to monetize this feature.

2. Facebook AR emoji– Like Facebook introduced a bit emoji for every user, similarly it can have people upload their 360-degree image and facebook can convert that into an AR item that further their friends/family can use it as a filter in their pictures or videos. This will allow the users to be a part of the pictures or videos that they would miss otherwise.

3. Facebook VR– Due to this COVID-19, people have canceled their travel plans indefinitely and this has hugely impacted the travel industry. So, Facebook can collaborate with these travel industries and allow a VR experience for people. So, Facebook can allow the host to invite their friends and family to have a VR tour experience together using this feature. This feature will allow all the guests and the host to be on a call with the same VR clip so that everyone is visiting the same place at once as you do it in the physical world.

Given the timeline, if we want something to be quick and easy to create then my suggestion would be to go ahead with Facebook Party feature as it would be something that people would like and enjoy thus providing us with high adoption and user engagement. But, if we are given some time and we want to bring an innovative solution to the app then my suggestion will be to go for Facebook VR as traveling might not be very popular for a while so virtual traveling could take its place and allow the travel companies to provide the premium travel experience at home with the family. The Facebook AR solution might be time taking and it would be difficult to create a perfect AR of a living being so, for now, we can discard that idea.