Meta Product Sense: Helping People Summon Urgent Assistance in a Crisis

You are a product manager at Meta. Design a product that lets people ask for help when they are in an emergency. Decide which kind of emergency and which people the product serves, where in Meta's apps or devices it lives, and who receives the request for help. ```hint Decide who answers the call Before listing features, settle whether help comes from official emergency services, from people the user already knows, or from people nearby, because each choice changes the risks Meta takes on and what the product can promise. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which emergencies are in scope: personal medical or safety situations, large-scale disasters, or mental-health crises, which each need different responders? - Should the product connect people to official emergency services, alert friends and family, or both, given that rules for emergency calling differ by country? - Which surfaces can it use: WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, or Meta's smart glasses? - Is there a target market, for example countries where official emergency response is slow or hard to reach? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear choice of emergency type and user segment, justified by Meta's specific strengths such as close-contact messaging, the social graph and global reach - The pain points of someone asking for help under stress, such as being unable to speak, unlock the phone or describe where they are - A prioritized solution with a concrete first version and an end-to-end flow, including how the person learns that help is on the way - Success metrics with guardrails for false alarms, abuse and privacy, and a responsible way to test a safety-critical feature - Emergency-specific risks: delivery reliability, liability and false reassurance, and misuse by abusive partners or stalkers ### Follow-up Questions - How would you stop an abusive partner from using this product to track or control the person it is meant to protect? - An alert fails to reach anyone during a real emergency and the story reaches the press. What do you do in the first 48 hours, and what do you change in the product? - Would you build a direct connection to emergency dispatch centers? What would have to be true first?