An engineer suggests showing suggested Buy/Sell Groups on users’ newsfeed instead of the People You May Know section. How do you determine if that is a good idea or not?
Google- Luis Neilson
Context
First let’s establish a common understanding of what the FB Newsfeed is and how users use it. The FB Newsfeed is the first thing users see on the homepage of Facebook. It is a continuous stream of the most relevant content in the form of posts from around the platform.
To further frame this, Facebook’s mission statement is to bring the world closer together and give people the power to build community. The Newsfeed helps further this mssion by giving making it easier for users to discover and consume content from around their community.
Goals
As mentioned above the Newsfeed is the first thing users see when they log in and its there for a reason. The goal of the Newsfeed is to serve as one of the primary ways users to consume and engage with content on the platform. In order to monitor the success of the Newsfeed overall we could monitor the average amount of time spent on the Newsfeeder per user. Secondarily, we could examine the average number of posts viewed and the average number of interactions with posts per Newsfeed session.
Now that we have a better understanding of what purpose the Newsfeed serves, let’s look at the individual goal of the two different options we are debating:
- Buy / Sell Groups -> Help users buy and sell goods directly with members of their local community
- People You May Know -> Help users connect with others and expand their network
Tradeoffs
Both of our above two options aim to add value for users, but do it in different ways. Let’s explore their differences further by listing out some potential tradeoffs with each one:
People You May Know
- Pros
- Users will have stronger networks
- More engagement & retention down the line as the newly connected users interact with each other
- Cons
- Suggestions may be bad (recommend an ex or an inactive account)
- Users may have already added everyone they know / care about
- Decrease time spent on the timeline, users don’t like recommendations or click on profile and get taken away from timeline
Buy / Sell Groups
- Pros
- More group members, more potential buyers & sellers, more engagement within the group
- Potential for new connections online and IRL
- Users more likely to explore FB marketplace as wel
- Cons
- Safety concerns of strangers meeting in person
- People aren’t always looking to shop or purchase second hand
- Buy / Sell group suggestions may not be what the users interested in
Immediate Solution
If we needed to make a decision ASAP we could perform an A/B test where half of the time in the Newsfeed slot we show PYMK and the other half of the time we show Buy / Sell Groups. We could then monitor the following metrics to help quantify some of the tradeoffs described above:
- Average session length
- Average amount of time spent on the Newsfeed
- PYMK:
- Average number of suggested profile clicks
- Average number of friend requests sent
- Average number of friend requests accepted
- Buy / Sell Groups:
- Average number of group clicks aka views
- Average number of groups joined
- Average number of messages sent by users in the newly joined group
Complex Solution
I don’t think we need to or should take a hamfisted approach where we only show one or the other all of the time. Ultimately not all Friend Suggestions and Buy / Sell Groups are equal so we need to build a model for deciding which to show based upon how well of a match they are for a given user. Our models would take into account inputs like the following when trying decide which to show:
- # of Friends: If the user already has 1,000+ friends on the platform they probably have a strong enough network already and PYMK may not be as of much value, conversely users with a small number of friends would find more value in it
- Strength of the Friend Suggestions: Whether or not suggestion is very likely someone the user knows
- Activity Levels of the PYMK: If the people we are suggesting aren’t very active on Facebook then there will be less opportunity for mutual interaction and engagement down the line
- Affinity between the User & the Buy / Sell Group: If the user isn’t interested in the goods being sold or is no longer living near that area they aren’t going to join, conversely they may be really into say Pokemon Trading Cards and join right away
- Activity Level of the Buy / Sell Group: If the group doesn’t have a lot of members or activity then the user isn’t going to be inclined to join and won’t get as much value out of it if they do join
- Penchance for using FB to Buy or Sell goods: If the user has been active in other Buy / Sell Groups or used FB Marketplace before then suggesting Buy / Sell Groups to them would probably be a value add
We could then perform an A/B test comparing the existing selection process vs our model’s suggestions. I would expect to see a lift in in the metrics mentioned above like average number of friend requests sent and # of Buy / Sell Groups joined.
Summary
The Newsfeed makes it easy for users to discover and consume content from around their community. The Newsfeed itself is primarily focused on keeping users engaged, but in terms of the two options we are considering Buy / Sell Groups are focused on helping users exchange goods and PYMK is focused on helping users expand their network. Ultimately, we should build a model, based upon a number of factors listed above, to prioritize what gets shown based upon the likelihood of a succcesful outcome like a friend request being sent or a Buy / Sell Group being joined. We could then perform an A/B test with our model against the current state of affairs and expect to see a lift in the KPI’s listed above.