Reddit · Product sense · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

Should Reddit Gate Search Visitors?

Reddit is an online network of user run communities where people post, discuss, and vote on links, text, images, and answers. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Product sense
Trade off analysis
Metrics
Experiment design
Prioritization

The situation

You are a PM responsible for Reddit's logged out web experience. Leadership has asked for a recommendation on a growing acquisition tension. Many people land on Reddit from external search when they want a specific answer, first hand opinions, or discussion from a community. At the same time, Reddit cares about getting visitors to create accounts, log in, and begin a habit that can be monetized and retained over time. Parts of the current experience are optimized for that conversion goal. Some leaders believe stronger prompts to log in protect long term value and help personalize the product faster. Others worry that a visitor who came for one answer may leave if the site feels interrupted, slow, or hard to explore, which could hurt first impressions and reduce how often Reddit is discovered through search. The decision matters now because search discovery is an important top of funnel path, and Reddit needs a clearer point of view on whether the logged out experience should primarily drive immediate account creation or immediate user value.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product strategy memo.

Your answer must

Identify the main user segments in this problem and choose the primary segment you would optimize for first, including their job to be done.
Define success metrics and guardrails that cover visitor value, search discovery, account creation or login, and content health.
Present at least 2 credible product directions plus your recommendation, with explicit tradeoffs for each.
Describe an experiment or rollout plan that can separate short term conversion effects from longer term growth or retention effects.
Name the biggest risks to your recommendation and how you would mitigate them, including moderation, policy, and SEO concerns.

Constraints

Focus on web visitors arriving from external search, not on redesigning the core experience for logged in regular users.
Do not assume a major rebuild of Reddit's community model, ranking systems, or business model in the next quarter.
Your proposal must preserve moderation and policy needs, including cases where some content should not be fully open or easily amplified.
You must account for the tradeoff between immediate signup pressure and broader top of funnel growth.

Format

Use short sections with headers such as users, problem, options, recommendation, metrics, and risks.

How Reddit actually played it

Explains how Reddit stopped forcing login prompts on search visitors and improved performance and discovery, since many people were adding Reddit to queries to find trusted answers. It argues the anti login wall choice created a stronger growth channel.

Do not gate value for visitors who came for an answer
Fix speed and discovery for new users first
Search traffic can become a durable growth loop

Built from Steve Huffman Called Reddit a “Dystopian Craigslist.” Then He Stopped Forcing People to Log In. by James Bickerton (Your Product Sucks).