Explain the strategic case for adding disappearing Stories to the main Facebook app
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are interviewing for a product manager role at Meta. Facebook added Stories to its main app: full-screen photos and short videos, shown in a row at the top of the app, that disappear after 24 hours. Explain why Facebook built it. Cover the needs it meets for people who share and for people who watch, the competitive and business reasons behind it, the costs the company accepted, and how you would judge whether the decision worked.
```hint Look at sharing on Facebook itself
Competitors are only part of the picture. Ask what was happening to everyday sharing among friends on Facebook, why permanent, ranked feed posts might hold people back, and what a format that vanishes changes for both the poster and the viewer.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Should the answer focus on Stories inside the main Facebook app, or also on Meta bringing the format to Messenger and WhatsApp at around the same time?
- Do you want the reasoning as it would have looked at launch, or an assessment of the decision with hindsight?
- Which goal should carry the most weight: friend-to-friend sharing, daily visits, holding on to younger users, or advertising revenue?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Context on the Stories format and the market when Facebook added it, including what Meta had already learned from its other apps.
- The separate needs of people who post and people who watch, and why permanent, ranked feed posts did not meet them.
- Competitive and business reasons tied to Facebook's mission and goals, covering users, rivals and advertising.
- The costs and risks Facebook accepted by adding a second sharing format next to the feed.
- Metrics that would show whether the bet worked, with guardrails for the feed and for revenue.
### Follow-up Questions
- Instagram already had a fast-growing Stories product. Why not leave the format there and keep the Facebook app centered on the feed?
- Suppose that in the first months few people post Facebook Stories and most users see an empty row at the top of the app. What would you change first?
- What evidence would convince you that adding Stories to Facebook was a mistake?
Overview: A product strategy question for Meta product manager candidates: explain why Facebook added the disappearing Stories format to its main app. It tests reasoning about the needs of people who post and people who watch, competition, business goals, the costs of the move, and how to judge whether it paid off.