Improving Instagram Direct Messages for a Chosen User Segment: Product Design Case

You are the PM for direct messages (DMs) on Instagram. How would you redesign the feature? ```hint Pick whose inbox is failing People use DMs for very different jobs: chatting and sharing posts with friends, creators fielding messages from fans and brands, and customers contacting businesses. Decide which group the current experience serves worst before you propose anything. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is a specific problem driving the redesign, such as declining messaging activity or rising spam complaints, or is this an open-ended improvement exercise? - Which conversations are in scope: chats between friends, messages that creators receive from fans and brands, or customers messaging businesses? - Which goal matters most: more conversations and sharing, retention, safety, or value for creators and businesses? - Are we limited to the Instagram app, or can the redesign involve Meta's other messaging products? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for the redesign tied to the role DMs play on Instagram, such as private sharing, staying in touch and creator or business conversations - A deliberate choice of one user segment, with reasons, among the groups that rely on DMs - Specific pain points for that segment, ranked by how often they occur and how much they hurt - Solutions that address those pain points, prioritized into a first release and later phases - Success metrics and guardrails, plus risks such as misclassified messages, scams, teen safety and privacy ### Follow-up Questions - If your design sorts or labels incoming messages automatically, how do you limit the damage when a genuine message is misfiled? - How would you run an experiment when the effect of a change depends on both the sender and the recipient of a message? - How would your design change if leadership asked you to prioritize teen safety instead?