Launch Goals and Success Metrics for Hashtags on Instagram

Instagram is about to add hashtags for the first time. Assume they work the way they do on other social apps: a person posting can add words or phrases that start with the `#` symbol, and anyone can tap a tag to see public posts that use it. As the product manager for the launch, what goals would you set, and how would you measure whether the launch achieves them? ```hint Two sides of every tag A hashtag is added by the person posting but used by people browsing. Work out what each side, and Instagram as a business, should gain from the launch before choosing the single number you would track. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Before this launch, how do people find posts beyond the accounts they follow, and where in the app would hashtag pages live? - Will a hashtag page show every public post with the tag in time order, or a ranked selection, and how are posts from private accounts handled? - Is there any revenue expectation at launch, such as brand campaigns built on hashtags, or is the launch judged on engagement alone? - What time horizon should the goals cover: the first weeks after launch or the first year? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Why Instagram would add hashtags: the problem they solve for people posting and people browsing, and how that serves Instagram's mission. - Goals for posters, viewers and Instagram, with one primary goal chosen and defended. - A north-star metric plus input metrics for tagging, browsing tag pages and acting on what is found. - Guardrails for spam, harmful content, feed quality and cannibalization of time spent with friends' posts. - How to attribute results to the launch despite network effects, and how the goals change after launch. ### Follow-up Questions - A few weeks after launch, popular hashtags fill with spam and unrelated posts. Which metric would reveal it first, and what would you change? - How would you design an experiment when posts tagged by one group of users appear on hashtag pages that everyone can see? - Once brands start running campaigns with hashtags, how should the goals change?