Diagnosing an Instagram daily active user decline while monthly actives stay flat

You are a product manager at Meta. Instagram's daily active users (DAU) are falling, while monthly active users (MAU) have stayed flat. How would you find the cause and fix it? ```hint Read the ratio first Before listing causes, work out what it means for a monthly audience of the same size to show up on fewer days. That tells you which kinds of explanation to check first. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - How large is the DAU decline, and did it appear suddenly or build over several weeks? - How is an active user defined for both metrics (any app open, or a meaningful action such as viewing content), and has that definition or its logging changed recently? - Is the decline worldwide, or concentrated on a platform (iOS, Android, web), in a region or in an app version? - Over what window has MAU been flat, and how do both metrics compare with the same weeks last year? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A correct reading of the DAU and MAU relationship: visit frequency, not reach, is falling, and MAU lags because it is a trailing window - Ruling out data and logging problems, and seasonal or external causes, before product causes - Segmenting the decline by platform, region, user cohort, entry point and surface to localize it - Testable hypotheses about recent changes such as releases, ranking, notifications and content supply - A fix matched to the root cause, a way to confirm it worked, and guardrails against chasing DAU at any cost ### Follow-up Questions - You trace the decline to a cut in push notification volume that the team made to reduce complaints. Would you reverse it? - Leadership asks whether a lower DAU with a flat MAU is actually a problem. How do you answer? - The decline is concentrated among users who joined in the last few months. What does that change about your diagnosis?