Product Sense Case: A Social Lending Experience Built Into Facebook

Design a product that lets people borrow money from, and lend money to, other people on Facebook. Explain who the product is for and which of their problems it solves, what the first version would include and what it would leave out, and how you would tell whether it is succeeding. ```hint Start from Facebook's advantage Facebook knows who people are and how they are connected. Think about which kinds of borrowing that makes safer, which kinds it makes riskier, and what the product should do when a loan is not paid back. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the product for money moving between people who already know each other, a marketplace that connects borrowers with lenders they have never met, or loans that Facebook offers itself through a regulated partner? - What does Meta most want from it: more use of its payment features, a new source of revenue, or access to credit for people that banks serve poorly? - Which countries are in scope? Habits around informal lending and the rules for consumer credit differ widely between markets. - Is Meta prepared to take credit risk or hold the licenses that lending may require, or must the product stay clear of acting as a lender? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal that fits Meta's mission and business, and a reasoned choice of lending model and target users. - Specific pain points for both the borrower and the lender, including the social awkwardness money creates between people who know each other. - A prioritized first version that builds on Facebook's strengths (real identities, the friend graph, Messenger, existing payments) with explicit scope cuts. - Success metrics centered on loans that are actually repaid, with guardrails for fraud, scams, relationship harm and complaints. - Risks from regulation, scams through hijacked accounts, privacy of financial data and damage to Meta's reputation, each with a mitigation. ### Follow-up Questions - A borrower stops repaying a loan from a cousin, and the cousin asks Facebook to step in. What does the product do, and what does it refuse to do? - Scammers who take over accounts often message the owner's friends asking for urgent money. How does your design avoid making that easier? - Would you ever use a person's connections or activity on Facebook to decide whether they can borrow? Why or why not?