Metrics question
You are the PM who launched Instagram videos. What would be the goals and what would be the success metrics?
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What this question tests
Ability to define launch goals and a matching success metric framework for a new content format.
How to approach it
- State the strategic goal: keep users on Instagram longer and compete with the rising popularity of short video, especially against Snapchat and later TikTok.
- Define the primary goal as increasing time spent and content creation, since video is more engaging but harder to produce than photos.
- Propose leading metrics: percent of posts that are video, video completion rate, and creator adoption rate.
- Propose lagging metrics: overall session time and day 7 retention for users who post or watch video.
- Add a guardrail: app performance and load time should not degrade as heavier video content increases.
- Set a review checkpoint, for example 90 days post launch, to judge whether video adoption justifies further investment.
What a strong answer includes
- Separates leading indicators (adoption, completion rate) from lagging business outcomes (session time, retention), which is how real launch reviews work.
- Names the actual competitive context, rising short video competition, as the strategic reason behind the launch.
- Gives an illustrative number, e.g. assumes targeting 10 percent of posts being video within 90 days of launch.
- Adds a technical guardrail, load time, which is a real risk when shipping heavier media formats.
Common mistakes
- Listing metrics with no distinction between leading adoption signals and lagging business outcomes.
- Not connecting the launch to the competitive context that motivated it.
- Ignoring technical guardrails like app performance when adding heavier content types.
Likely follow-up questions
- What would you do if adoption was high but retention did not improve?
- How would you encourage more creators to post video?
- What technical risks would you watch for at launch?
More metrics questions
- How would you measure the success of Facebook Likes?Meta · Metrics · Medium
- How would you measure improvements made to Facebook messenger?Meta · Metrics · Easy
- Imagine you are the PM in charge of Reactions on Facebook - the new way to interact with posts by using “love”, “haha”, “wow”, “sad”, and “angry” reactions. What would success look like in terms of number of non-like reactions per post at launch and how do you come up with this? Would this number differ by reaction? Why or why not?Meta · Metrics · Hard
- 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
More questions from these companies
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