Interview Question: Meta PM for verified accounts

Why would we build this?

What goals would we set for this product?

What would be our success metrics?

1. Assumptions

Organizations, people and brands can verified. IG and FB.

Have to pay to do it; $30 and get it forever

Celebs get for free

Only one verified account per verified entity

2. Product Rationale

Company Mission: Build the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible

Why does this exist?

  • (core today) Impersonation accounts - for well known entities
    • Increase trust, ad revenue
    • Not get sued
  • (future use case) Fake account - a mechanism to provide authenticity for real accounts
    • Stalking
    • Fake personas
    • Misinformation
    • →increase trust, human connection with real people not fake personas
  • Hard to build engagement if users can't trust content

Weaknesses/Threats

  • Hinder people that want anonymity
  • Multi-brand personas (e.g., people with a finsta for different types of content such as meme account vs friend account vs news account)

3. Entities

Casual users

Famous public entities (People, Brands / companies)

Influencers

Large incognito accounts

Posts / Views

4. Objectives

1. Improve user and public entity trust by reducing exposure to fake / impersonated accounts

2. Further increase trust and positive ecosystem health by expanding usage to micro influencers or people with public accounts

Help validate smaller influencers by providing them with a blue check, which has the status of being a famous person

Reduce unsafe behavior or stalking

Monetize verifications

Improve engagement from and for famous accounts

Health

  • Make it easy for people to get verified
  • Ensure accuracy

5. Potential Metrics

Customer Journey

  • Apply for a verification
    • # of applications
    • % of well known applicants that have applied
  • Get verified
    • Time to complete checks
    • % of applications that get approved (correctly)
    • Precision / recall of verification
    • % of well known entities that have the verification
    • # of verified accounts
  • Post
    • # of posts from verified accounts
  • View
    • # of views from posts from verified accounts
    • Engagement before and after verification (Clicks, views, follows, comments, likes)
    • # of reports a fake account or post

Health

  • Trust - qualitative surveys

Monetization

  • Revenue
  • $ / verification

6. North Star Metric

# of views from posts from verified accounts

7. Leading indicators / Secondary Success Metrics

# of verified accounts

% of well-known entities that have the verification

Reduce # of views from posts from fake/impersonated accounts

8. Health / Guardrail Metrics

% of well known entities, posts that have the verification

Engagement before and after verification (Clicks, views, follows, comments, likes) for famous entities, influencers, large incognito accounts

% of people who start verification process that complete it

Customer surveys

9. Tradeoff questions

How do you think about focusing more on public entities that post the most vs those that don't?

Pros: Most impact on total content that is on the content

Cons: If posting a lot, it becomes more obvious; so not as much of a problem

Would you implement a rule requiring all users with 10K+ followers to get verified?

Pros: Help increase trust for accounts that will have biggest potential

Cons:

  • Short term - impact DAUs
  • Followers might use platform less
  • No anonymous accounts - limits free speech and content from being produced