Meta Product Sense: Helping Facebook Users Choose a Trusted Local Dentist
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Someone needs to find a dentist. How would you use Facebook to help them do it?
Treat this as a product problem: decide whom you are solving for, what makes choosing a dentist hard today, what Facebook is in a position to offer, and what you would build or change first.
```hint What Facebook has that a search box does not
Choosing a dentist is a trust decision. Think about which signals people rely on when they pick one, and which of those Facebook is unusually well placed to provide.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Should I design a new feature, or show how existing Facebook surfaces such as business Pages, Groups and posts to friends could serve this need, or both?
- What matters most here: value for the person looking for a dentist, more activity from local businesses on Facebook, or ad revenue from dental practices?
- Is the need routine, such as finding a regular dentist after a move, or urgent, such as a toothache that needs care today?
- Which market do we start in, given that insurance and how people pay for dental care vary by country?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Who is looking for a dentist and why, with a reasoned focus on one group.
- The factors in choosing a dentist (trust, location, insurance, availability, cost, care for children or nervous patients) and where today's options fall short.
- Solutions that use what is distinctive about Facebook (recommendations from friends and neighbors, local Groups, business Pages, messaging), prioritized into a first version with trade-offs.
- Success metrics based on people contacting or booking a dentist they are happy with, plus guardrails for fake recommendations, the privacy of health information and ad quality.
- The dental practices' side of the product and the cold-start problem in areas with few recommendations.
### Follow-up Questions
- Dental care is health information. What would you avoid showing friends about someone's search, and how?
- How would you keep paid placements from dental practices from crowding out the recommendations people trust most?
- If this works, how would you decide whether to extend it to other local services, and what would have to change?
Overview: A Meta product design question about helping people find a dentist through Facebook. It tests understanding how people choose a trusted local provider, using Facebook's social and community strengths, prioritizing a first version, and defining metrics with privacy and review-integrity guardrails.