Metrics question
How would you evaluate the success of Instagram Stories?
Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.
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What this question tests
Ability to build a metric framework for an ephemeral, high-frequency content format.
How to approach it
- Clarify Stories' goal: lower-pressure, frequent sharing that keeps users returning multiple times a day.
- Define a creation metric: percent of active users posting a story weekly, and stories posted per active user.
- Define a consumption metric: story completion rate (percent of story watched through) and viewers per story.
- Define a health metric: story reply rate, since replies indicate the format is driving genuine connection, not passive viewing.
- Set a guardrail: skip rate and drop-off point within a story, to catch declining content quality early.
- Tie these to a broader outcome: whether Stories increases overall app open frequency versus cannibalizing feed posting.
What a strong answer includes
- Separates creation-side and consumption-side metrics clearly, since Stories needs both to sustain itself.
- Names reply rate as a quality signal beyond simple view count, capturing genuine engagement.
- Gives an illustrative benchmark, e.g. 70% completion rate with a 5% reply rate, marked as an assumption.
- Flags cannibalization of regular feed posts as a real risk worth tracking explicitly.
Common mistakes
- Measuring only views without any creation-side or quality signal.
- Ignoring whether Stories cannibalizes other posting behavior on the platform.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you know if Stories is cannibalizing regular posts?
- What would you do if view counts were high but reply rate was low?
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- You launched a new signup flow to encourage new users to add more profile information. A/B test results indicate that the % of people that added more information increased by 8%. However, 7 day retention decreased by 2%. What do you do?Google · Metrics · Hard
- Define the metrics for YouTube search.Google · Metrics · Medium
- You are the PM of Instagram app. The MAU has been constant but DAU has declined. What will you do?Meta · Metrics · Medium
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 2: Data fluency: SQL, logs, and reading the truth yourself
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop