Product sense: helping Facebook users remember and celebrate friends' birthdays

Facebook wants a product built around birthdays. Design it: decide who it is for and which problem it solves, propose what to build first, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Two sides of every birthday The person having the birthday and the friends who want to mark it have different problems. Start from what already happens around birthdays on Facebook today and where it falls short. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should this be a standalone app, or can it live inside the main Facebook app and Messenger? - Is the main goal closer friendships, more engagement, or a revenue stream such as gifting or fundraising? - Can the product use the birthday people list on their profiles and their friend graph? - Are teenagers in scope, given the extra care their personal data needs? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for the product that fits Meta's mission, and an honest look at the birthday features Facebook already has - A chosen segment, birthday-specific pain points for it, and a reason for the choice - Solutions that go beyond a reminder, with a prioritized first version - A success metric tied to meaningful celebration, with guardrails such as notification fatigue and opt-outs - Privacy and safety risks: birthdates as personal data, minors, deceased users and people who do not want attention ### Follow-up Questions - Birthdays come once a year per friend. How would you justify a standalone app rather than a feature, and what would make people open it? - How would you keep greetings from turning into low-effort posts the birthday person ignores? - If gifting were in scope, how would you decide whether Meta should take a cut?