Telegram Product Ideas: Up to Three New Features and One Full Launch Plan

Imagine you are the product manager for Telegram, the messaging app, and you have to decide which new features to build. Propose no more than three new features and explain how you arrived at them. Then choose one of them and lay out its full journey, from the first idea through launch to judging whether it succeeded. ### Clarifying Questions - Is the main goal to win new users, deepen engagement among current users, or grow revenue, for example through the paid subscription? - Should the features focus on personal chats, on large groups and channels, or on the developers and businesses that build bots on the platform? - Which markets and devices matter most, given how many countries and kinds of phones Telegram's users span? - Are there privacy lines the features must not cross, such as reading message content on the server? ### Part 1 — Choose up to three features and show your reasoning List your features, three at most. For each one, say which users it serves and which problem it solves, then explain the process that led you there: how you generated options and why these beat the ideas you dropped. ```hint Segments before features Telegram mixes one-to-one chats, very large groups, broadcast channels and bots, so different users run into very different problems. Pick the users first, find the pains the current app leaves unsolved, and only then turn to features. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A segmentation of Telegram's users and a reasoned choice of whom to serve. - Pain points rooted in how those users actually use the app, with a check that each proposed feature does not already exist. - Clear prioritization criteria applied to a longer list of ideas. ### Part 2 — Take one feature from idea to measured launch Choose one of your features and map its whole journey: confirming the problem is real, defining the first version, building and testing it, rolling it out, and deciding whether it worked. ```hint Decide what success means first Define the result that would make the feature a success before you plan the rollout. That definition should shape the experiment and each launch stage rather than being added at the end. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - How the problem is validated with data and user research before anything is built. - A scoped first version with its trade-offs, and a staged rollout. - A primary success metric, supporting metrics and guardrails, plus how the experiment is designed and read. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Features that fit Telegram specifically, including its large communities, channels, bots and privacy reputation, rather than generic messaging ideas. - A traceable line from segment to pain point to feature to metric. - Honest trade-offs, including privacy, spam and abuse, and effects on other users such as channel owners. - Feasibility across the markets, networks and devices the app serves. ### Follow-up Questions - Your feature lifts engagement, but spam reports rise. How do you decide whether to roll it out further? - Would you put the feature in the paid subscription or give it to everyone, and how would that change your launch plan? - How would you build the feature without weakening users' trust in how Telegram handles their messages?