FB mission: To bring people closer to each other and provide a space for free and open communication

Clarifications:

1. Is it one of the products under Meta’s ecosystem like Facebook, IG, Messenger, Whatsapp?

2. Do you want the access point within FB like FB watch,  marketplace? Or should it be an independent app?

3. Is it for US only? Let’s assume that product has a separate app targeted for US markets.

4. What is the Clubhouse app at a high-level? (Let’s assume that the interviewer responds that it’s voice-based app where people network and interact in real-time using audio instead of texts)

5. What is the goal of the product? We’ll assume the product goal is to create a network of people who can share their ideas freely via real-time voice communications, thereby giving an authentic and personal touch to their interactions. This further fosters the sense of belonging to the community (inline with FB’s mission)

User groups:

1. Creators who host and moderate LIVE events (these are vetted individuals in different areas)

2. Interactors who dial-in the LIVE events and proactively engage in them (i.e general population using the app)

Use Cases:

Creators:

Use Case	Priority
Create a profile	P1
Create LIVE sessions for the topics in their area	P1
Host LIVE sessions	P1
Create a circle of followers	P1
Discover followers on the app using FB’s social graph	P2
Host 1-on-1 private paid sessions	P2

Interactors:

Use Case	Priority
Create a profile	P1
Dial-in the LIVE events on the topics of interest	P1
Create a network of friends	P1
Discover friends on the app using FB’s social graph	P1
Discover curated content based on the user’s event history and network’s followings	P2
Earn badges by donating to creators	P2
Ask for 1-on-1 private interactions with creators	P2
Become a creator/create your own channel	P2
Perform a voice-based content search	P1
Referral	P1

For the present scope, let’s consider only P1

Potential solutions:

		Solutions	Impact on bsuiness
Creator	Create a profile	1.  A profile page with pic, bio, languages spoken, link to  personal web page, # of followers, associated channel (e.g. science, technology, food etc)	H
		2. Profile pic should be click-able with audio recording of the user’s intent and purpose on the app	M
		3. Profile page should display the upcoming LIVE events hosted by creator within next 30 days	H
	Create LIVE sessions	1. An integrated calendar tool to schedule event(s) within a channel with brief  topic description	H
		2. The event should appear on User’s profile page and Interactor’s listings within associated categories channel	H
	Host LIVE events	1. Start the voice-based event for the topic, moderate it, let users chime in by waving hands, mute others	H
	Create a circle of followers	The profile page will display a link to follow the creator	H
Interactors	Create a profile	1.  User should be able to sign-up with email address/phone number	H
		2. Section on ‘About me’ and pre-defined list of channels to follow: science, technology, food, travel, books etc.	H
		3. Allow the app to access user’s microphone	H
	Dial-in the LIVE events on the topics of interest	1. User should see all ongoing and upcoming event listings within each channel followed	H
		2. Enable a clickable link on the event  to accept it	M
		3. Show accepted events in ‘notifications’ sections of User’s profile	M
		4. Enable a user to dial-in LIVE events by clicking on it, and chime in by waving hands	H
	Create a network of friends	Users should be able to see others in a channel and send/accept friend requests	H
	Discover friends on the app using FB’s social graph	Show ‘People you may know’ in the notification section by leveraging the User’s network on FB & IG associated with the same email account	M
	Perform a voice-based content search	Enable users to perform voice-based search for content, channels, creator etc.	M
	Referral	Enable a share icon for the events to share the link on whatsapp, FB and IG messenger	H

1. Ground myself in FB’s mission and understand why we may want to build this.

2. Business Objective

3. Once I have understood that, stakeholders > user segments > pain-points > how might I solve the problem > MVP

1st) FB’s mission is all about connecting people and thereby making a world feel like a community. If we think of Clubhouse, the intent of the product is for creators to host events that are audio based for peole to join in and discuss and listen to. This also serves as a networking tool for professionals. The good thing here is, since hte tool has taken off, we arleady know there is a product market fit in general but on the flip side we have to overcome competition. This type of product in my eyes fits in well with FB blue app since that’s what the blue app is all about. + Since fB blue app is more used by adults and younger people are more Instagram inclined and adults typically gear towards this type of audio content to connect with others, it fits into FB portfolio well.

2) Business Objective: Considering this is a new product I would want to focus on Engagement since a positive signal on this reveals true value delivered. However, considering existing competition, we may also want to consider Adoption. In the end though, per Investory Report we have a downtick on MAP so we do need to ensure we not only gain users but don’t chrun and we gain Engagement from them and ultimately REtain them since that’s when we have reached Product – Market fit for FB itself.

3) Stakeholders:

a) Creators of content

   b) Consumers of content (Consumers have adopted Clubhouse already and hence to overcome compeitition we should optimize product for them. + True engagement can be increased from optimizing for ocnsumers since for ever created content we have tons of consumers).

c) Advertisers (ultimately FB is a digital ads product)

d) FB (secondary stakeholder) –> f a, b, c gains value Meta gains value

e) Meta (tirtiary stakeholder) –> if a, b, c, d gains value Meta gains value

4) User Segments:

Let’s narrow to thinking about specific type of users.

  b1) Consumers who may have little time, a lot of time

b2) Consumers who are students who wnat to learn only specific topics related to the course they are taking, or Consumers who are professionals and want to learn material in general

b3) Teens (have less focus and need other motivational aspects to consume such prodcut), Elderly (who are geting bored and definitely find value but may need help with using technology)

Consumers who have lot of time have plenty ways they can learn things such as watching long video content on Youtube or Google search, etc. Also, professionals have little time on hand and may have more use of a product like such since they can listen to things while on the go (transit or whatever) and may also have other needs as it relates to connecting via audio (other than phone calls). Teens are too busy in their school lives and are zoned into school and nothing else otherwise and Elderly may not want to use tech, may not be able to use tech due to inability to learn something as foreign as modern cell phones or eye sight or hearing issues.

Pain-points:

Prioritization -> (Frequency, Severity, Alignment w/ BO and social graph)

1. I don’t want to have to listen to many webinar events to gain knowledge on specific topic. I just want to learn something extremely quickly. (H, H, H, H)

2. I don’t want ot have to search for content (I don’t have time nor patience for it). -> (L, L, L, L) –> professionals generally type in topic like I typed Product Management and join to bunch of Clubhouses if you will and then when event is going to happen they just see what’s happenig and decide to join or not. So they aren’t really spending much time to search.

3. I don’t knnow what I don’t know (meaning I don’t know what other content I should learn or waht type of subjects / webinars on subjects I should look out for to be more knowledgable). -> (M, M, M, M) –> Usually professionals know what they need to learn since they face things at work and in life through conversations with others that help them realize what else they should learn about.

Solutions:

Prioritization (Value add to user, Implementation difficulty, Alignment w/ Social gRaph and Engagement as BO)

1) Searchable transcript of calls: search for specific things and product will comb through multitude of webinars and recommend which ones and sections (specific minutes that they should listen to) and provide transcripts with highlights of sections they care about. (H, H, H, H)

2) Expert On-call: Enable posting a topic that he/she needs help with and requesting for someone knowledge to call them for quick few minutes. Anyone in the community sees it and is willing to help immediately. It means I get help with little time and immediately. (H, L, H, H)

3) Content / Topic suggestion so creators can create one. Along with, provide word cloud of topics by subject so I see other topics that I may also want to learn about and express my interest in. (H, H, L, L)

Issue with #2 is too many requests could flow in and all users may get annoyed with numerous requests coming in. We may need to think of Notification features (turn off / on) while implemetning this. Will think further when we are defininig product requirements on this.

Wrap up.