Define Facebook Lite's Goal: Target Users, North-Star Metric and Guardrails
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Analytics & Experimentation
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager on Facebook Lite, the lightweight version of the Facebook app that Meta offers alongside the main app. What should Facebook Lite's goal be? Explain why the product exists, which people it is meant to serve, and how the team would know whether it is meeting that goal.
```hint Begin with why Lite exists
A goal that would fit the main Facebook app just as well is too generic. Work out which limits on people's phones and connections the lighter app is built around, and let those limits shape both the goal and the way you measure it.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Is the goal for Facebook Lite on its own, or for Lite as one part of Meta's family of apps? In particular, when a Lite user upgrades their phone and moves to the main app, should the Lite team count that as a loss?
- Which users are in scope: people in markets with entry-level Android phones and slow, costly mobile data, or also people in well-connected markets who pick Lite to save storage or battery?
- Are we defining Lite's long-term mission, or the goal the team should own for the coming year?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- The constraints Lite is designed around (low-end devices, little storage, slow or intermittent networks, expensive data) and the user segments that live with them.
- A goal statement specific to Lite that connects those users' needs to Meta's mission and business.
- A north-star metric with a precise definition and a reason it beats alternatives such as raw daily actives or time spent.
- Input metrics on reach, performance and data efficiency, segmented by device class, network type and market.
- Guardrails and trade-offs, including cannibalization of the main app, data cost to users, ad load and app size.
### Follow-up Questions
- Over a quarter, Lite's daily actives in one country grow while the main app's daily actives there fall by about the same amount. Is that good news for Meta?
- A team proposes adding autoplay short-form video to Lite because it lifts time spent. How would you evaluate the proposal against the goal you set?
- As cheaper capable phones and faster networks spread in Lite's core markets, how should its goal change?
Overview: A product manager interview prompt about Meta's lightweight Facebook app. Candidates define what Facebook Lite is for and whom it serves, then turn that goal into a north-star metric, input metrics and guardrails such as data cost, performance on low-end phones and cannibalization of the main app.