Choosing a North-Star Metric and Guardrails for Instagram Live

You are a product manager at Meta. How would you judge whether Instagram Live, the feature for broadcasting video in real time, is succeeding? Lay out the metrics you would track and the one you would put first. ```hint Two sides, one moment A broadcast only creates value if people show up while it is happening. Measure the people going live, the people watching, and how well the two meet before you pick one headline number. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Are we judging the long-term health of a mature feature, or reading out a recent change to it? - Who will see these metrics: the Live team's weekly dashboard or a monthly leadership review? - Should replays watched after a broadcast ends count toward Live's success, or only real-time viewing? - Are paid features inside Live, such as badges, part of the definition of success here? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The goal of Live within Instagram and what real-time video offers that Reels, Stories and Feed posts do not - Both sides of the product, broadcasters and viewers, with the steps of each journey and the moment they meet - A funnel of precisely defined metrics, including what counts as a view, spanning reach, engagement, retention and quality - One north-star metric with its rationale, the metrics paired with it, and guardrails for cannibalization, notification fatigue and safety - Segments such as audience size and use case that keep large creators from masking everyone else ### Follow-up Questions - Live viewing time climbs sharply, but total time spent on Instagram stays flat. How do you read that, and what would you check? - Most first-time broadcasters draw almost no viewers. Which metric shows it, and what would you change in the product? - How would you measure whether going live makes creators more active elsewhere on Instagram, or less?