Meta Verified Badge Program: Choosing a North-Star Metric, Inputs and Guardrails

You are a product manager at Meta and own verified accounts: the badge on Meta's apps, such as Facebook and Instagram, that shows an account really belongs to the person or business it represents. How would you define goals for verified accounts, and how would you measure whether the product is succeeding? Explain what the product should achieve and for whom, which metrics you would track, and how you would set targets for them. ```hint Decide whose success it is Verification creates value for two groups: the accounts that get verified, and the people who see the badge and decide whether to trust, follow or buy from them. Decide which of these the goal centers on, and whether revenue is part of it, before you list any metric. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "verified accounts" mean the paid verification subscription for creators and businesses, or verification in general, including notable public figures who never paid? - Should I focus on creators, businesses or both, and on one app or all of them? - For this planning period, does leadership care most about adoption, retention of verified accounts, revenue, or trust across the platform? - Is this a newly launched product that needs its first goals, or an established one whose goals we are revisiting? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A product goal tied to Meta's mission and to the value verification gives both verified accounts and the people who encounter them - A clear choice of segment and goal, with reasons the alternatives were set aside - One north-star metric that reflects value delivered, supported by input metrics along the verification journey - Guardrails that protect platform trust, such as impersonation, scams run from verified accounts and what the badge signals to users - How targets are set, and how the effect of verification is separated from the fact that already-active accounts are the ones that choose to verify ### Follow-up Questions - Verified subscriptions are growing, but so are reports of scams run from verified accounts. What do you do? - How would you show that the badge makes people more willing to engage with or buy from an account, rather than verified accounts simply being more active to begin with? - Leadership asks for verification to become a meaningful revenue line next year. How do your goals and metrics change?