Facebook · Strategy · Senior · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Facebook bet on video?

Facebook is a social network where people connect with friends, groups, pages, and events, and discover content shared by others. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

strategy
product sense
prioritization
ecosystem thinking
judgment

The situation

The head of the Facebook app asks you for a recommendation on how aggressively Facebook should invest in video over the next two years. Video consumption on the internet is rising fast, competitors built around video are gaining attention, and advertisers and creators are starting to follow that time. Inside Facebook, one group argues this is a major platform shift and the company should move quickly before user habits harden elsewhere. Another group argues that Facebook's strongest reasons to use the product are social connection, coordination, groups, and events, and that copying a rival's format may not fit how people actually use Facebook. Why now, leadership needs to set product priorities and resource levels for the next planning cycle. The hard part is that the trend toward video looks real, but the timing, the right format, and the risk to Facebook's core experience are unclear. You need to recommend how big a bet Facebook should make, where to place that bet, and how to learn fast without drifting away from what makes Facebook valuable.

What to produce

A two page strategy memo.

Your answer must

State a clear recommendation on how much Facebook should invest in video over the next 24 months, after evaluating at least three strategic options.
Explain the main user jobs for Facebook and compare them with the user context that makes a video first rival successful.
Describe where video does and does not fit inside Facebook's product experience, including implications for core uses such as groups or events.
Provide a sequencing plan that separates exploration from scale, with explicit triggers for doubling down, holding steady, or pulling back.
Define at least four success signals, including one user value metric, one ecosystem metric, and one health or tradeoff metric.
Identify the biggest second order risks to feed quality, creators, advertisers, or Facebook's core identity, and give mitigations.

Constraints

Do not assume a major acquisition, a new standalone company, or exclusive premium content deals.
Your recommendation must fit within Facebook's existing app and current family of core social surfaces.
Protect core social use cases, especially friend updates, groups, and events, from material degradation.
Focus on a 24 month planning horizon.

Format

Use sections titled decision, user context, options, recommendation, sequencing, metrics, and risks.

How Facebook actually played it

Analyzes Facebook's pivot to video as a strategic decision case, asking how much to bet on a trend you are sure about but cannot time. It argues that copying YouTube's format ignored why people use Facebook, and recommends keeping a discovery budget instead of an all-in bet.

Being right about the trend is not the same as being right about the format
Check whether a rival's success depends on a context you do not share
Reserve exploration budget instead of betting everything at once

Built from Decision-making Question: Facebook's Video vs Events Strategy by Ajitesh, Tough Tongue AI (PM Interview Prep Weekly).