WhatsApp India Product Strategy: One Objective, Prioritized Bets and Quarterly Plan

Lay out a one-year product roadmap for WhatsApp in India: what the year should achieve, which bets get it there, and in what order. ```hint Pick the year's job first WhatsApp is already the default messenger for much of India, so more chatting is not the obvious goal. Decide what the next twelve months must change, and let that choice decide what makes the roadmap and what is cut. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the year's main goal usage growth, revenue from businesses and payments, or user trust and safety, or is that my call? - Am I planning for the whole WhatsApp experience in India or for one area, such as business messaging or payments? - Should I assume a fixed team that forces hard cuts, or room to staff new initiatives? - Should regulation, such as privacy and intermediary rules, be treated as a fixed constraint or as something the roadmap must actively plan for? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - An objective for the year grounded in WhatsApp's position in India and why it matters now - Segments of Indian users and businesses that differ by place, language, device, connectivity and business size - A few strategic pillars with prioritized initiatives, dependencies and explicit cuts - A quarter-by-quarter sequence with a goal metric, input metrics and guardrails - India-specific risks: scams and misinformation, regulation, payments competition and low-end devices ### Follow-up Questions - Halfway through the year, in-chat payments are flat while business conversations are growing fast. What do you change? - How would you stop business and marketing messages from making personal chats feel like a spam channel? - If the team shrank by a third, which initiative would you protect first, and why?