WhatsApp product health: choose a core metric set, then plan how to lift one metric

WhatsApp is Meta's messaging app for text, voice notes, voice and video calls, group chats and status updates. You are asked to evaluate it through metrics: first name the six metrics you consider most important for WhatsApp and justify each one, then choose one of those six and describe three things you would do to improve it. ### Clarifying Questions - Should the metrics cover the consumer app only, or also WhatsApp Business and the paid messaging platform that larger businesses use to reach customers? - Are the metrics meant to describe the health of the whole product, or the goals of one team such as calling, groups or Status? - Is revenue in scope, or should the set focus on user value and leave monetization aside? ### Part 1 — Six key metrics Name the six metrics that best describe how WhatsApp is doing. Define each one precisely, and explain what it tells you and what it can miss. ```hint Let the goal pick the metrics Start from what WhatsApp is for and how people get value from it. Then check that your six do not all count activity in the same way: a messaging product can look busy while being slow, unreliable or full of spam. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A stated product goal that the metrics follow from. - Precise definitions, including what counts as an active user and the time window. - Coverage of distinct facets such as reach, depth of communication, calling or groups, reliability and trust. - The blind spot of each metric and how another metric in the set compensates for it. ### Part 2 — Improve one metric Choose one of your six metrics, explain why it is the right one to work on, and propose three concrete things you would do to move it. ```hint Break the metric into drivers Split the chosen metric into the factors that produce it, and aim each of your three ideas at a different driver and a specific group of users. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A reasoned choice of metric tied to WhatsApp's core value. - A decomposition of the metric into drivers. - Three distinct ideas, each linked to a driver, a user problem and an expected effect. - How you would test the ideas and which guardrails you would watch. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Metrics and ideas consistently anchored in WhatsApp's purpose of private, reliable everyday communication. - A balanced set rather than six counts of the same activity. - Awareness of WhatsApp's constraints: end-to-end encryption limits what can be analyzed on servers, and the product is already mature in many markets. - Ideas that would move the chosen metric measurably without hurting trust, privacy or notification health. ### Follow-up Questions - After your change, messages per user rise while daily active users stay flat. How do you decide whether the change worked? - Messaging has strong network effects: a feature given to one user changes what their contacts experience. How would you design the experiment for your ideas? - Which of your six metrics would you treat as a guardrail rather than a goal, and why?