Product Design for Meta Portal: An App Built Around Its Auto-Framing Camera

Portal is Meta's line of smart displays for video calling, with a wide-angle camera that automatically pans and zooms to keep people in frame. Design an app for Portal that makes use of this camera. ```hint Start from what only this camera can do List what Portal's camera can do that a phone or laptop camera cannot, given where the device sits in the home, and look for a household need that depends on exactly those traits. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the app a first-party Meta experience on Portal, or one built by an outside developer with the capabilities Portal exposes? - Which device should we assume: a tabletop display in the kitchen or living room, or the version that sits on top of a TV? - Is the aim to get more households to buy a Portal, or to make existing owners use it more often? - May the app store or analyze video beyond a live session, or must it work under strict limits such as nothing leaving the device? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for the app tied to Portal's role in the home and Meta's reasons for selling the device. - A chosen user segment and the camera-specific pain points it faces today. - Ideas that depend on Portal's hands-free, auto-framing camera, prioritized into a clear first version. - Privacy and trust design for a camera in a shared room, including what is processed on the device. - Success metrics with guardrails, and a cheap way to test the idea before building it. ### Follow-up Questions - A parent asks how they can be sure the camera is not watching when the app is idle. What does the product show or guarantee? - Your first version has a strong first week, then usage halves. How do you work out why? - Which parts of your design would run on the device and which in the cloud, and why?