Romantic matchmaking on Instagram: target users, MVP scope and success metrics
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager on Instagram, and the company wants to add a dating feature to the app. Design it: decide what the feature is for and whom it serves, what the first version would include and how you would know it is working.
```hint Start from what Instagram already has
Instagram already holds people's photos and videos, the accounts and topics they follow, and private messaging. Ask which of these could make dating here better than on a standalone dating app, and which could make it more awkward or less safe.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What does the company most want from the feature: bringing people who are not on Instagram into the app, giving light users a reason to come back, or serving single adults who already use it heavily?
- Must taking part be opt-in, with a dating profile kept apart from the main account, or may the feature draw on a person's existing posts, follows and messages?
- Should the design build on the dating product Meta already offers in the Facebook app, or stand on its own?
- Which market launches first, given that age rules and attitudes toward online dating differ widely between countries?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A clear goal for the feature and a reason Instagram, specifically, can do dating differently from existing dating apps.
- A chosen segment of potential daters, with pain points specific to dating on or off Instagram.
- Solutions that build on Instagram's content and social graph, prioritized into a first version with the trade-offs stated.
- Privacy, consent and safety: keeping dating activity away from followers, protecting minors, preventing harassment and scams, and the risk to Instagram's brand.
- Success metrics centered on matches that become real conversations, with guardrails.
### Follow-up Questions
- A teammate proposes suggesting matches automatically by analyzing everyone's posts and interactions, without asking them to sign up. Would you ship that? Why or why not?
- How would you keep someone's dating activity hidden from their followers, coworkers and family, and what should happen if one of them would otherwise be shown as a match?
- Most dates happen away from the app. How would you find out whether the feature leads to people actually meeting?
Overview: A product sense prompt asking you to add a dating experience to Instagram, from choosing the goal and target users to scoping a first version and defining success metrics. It tests segmentation, use of Instagram's existing strengths, privacy and safety judgment, and metric design for a two-sided matching product.