Facebook Product Design: Finding a Doctor Through Friend and Community Referrals
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
As a product manager at Facebook, you are asked to build a doctor referral program on the platform. Decide what kind of referral it supports and for whom, explain what Facebook brings that other ways of finding a doctor lack, and lay out the first version and how you would know it is working.
```hint Start from how people choose a doctor today
Think about where people turn when they need a new doctor and what makes a recommendation feel trustworthy. Then ask which of those inputs Facebook already holds, which it would have to build, and which it should stay away from.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Does "referral" mean people recommending doctors to friends and neighbors, doctors referring patients to specialists, or practices rewarding patients who bring in new ones?
- Should the program live inside the Facebook app, in Feed, Groups and Pages, or be a separate product?
- Which country comes first, given that insurance networks and health privacy rules differ by market?
- Is the scope routine care, such as a primary care doctor or a pediatrician, or also specialists and sensitive areas such as mental health?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A clear definition of the referral program and why Facebook is a good place for it.
- Segmentation of people looking for a doctor and of the other sides involved, such as recommenders and practices, with a justified focus.
- Pain points of the chosen users and a prioritized first version with stated trade-offs.
- Success metrics that reflect people actually reaching a doctor, plus guardrails for privacy, fake recommendations and medical misinformation.
- Risks specific to health care, including sensitive data, regulatory and ethical limits, liability and uneven access.
### Follow-up Questions
- Asking friends for a doctor can reveal a health condition. How would you design the request so people feel safe using it?
- How would you stop practices from flooding the program with fake recommendations?
- Should doctors and clinics be allowed to advertise next to these requests? Defend your answer.
Overview: A product design question about using Facebook to build a doctor referral program that helps people find a trusted doctor. It tests how you define the program, use Facebook's network, Groups and Pages, scope a first version, and handle health privacy, fake recommendations and success metrics.