Metrics question
You're on the team for Instagram, and Stories engagement is doing well, but post engagement is going down. What would you do?
- Meta
- Metrics
- Medium
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What this question tests
Tests diagnosing a divergence between two related engagement metrics, distinguishing a genuine substitution effect from an independent decline.
How to approach it
- Clarify both metrics precisely: define Stories engagement (views, replies, taps-through) and post engagement (likes, comments, shares) and confirm the timeframe of the divergence.
- Form the substitution hypothesis first: Stories' ephemeral, low-effort format may be cannibalizing attention that used to go to feed posts, a natural trade-off as Stories usage grows.
- Check whether total time spent on Instagram is flat or growing: if flat, it supports substitution; if total time is also dropping, posts have an independent problem.
- Segment post engagement drop: by content type (photo vs carousel vs video) and by creator type (friends vs public figures/brands), since the drop might be concentrated.
- Check for feed algorithm or ranking changes shipped around the same time that could independently suppress post visibility.
- Propose next steps: if substitution, this may be an acceptable trade-off since total engagement is preserved; if not, investigate the feed ranking or content-supply side directly.
What a strong answer includes
- Frames the core question correctly as substitution versus independent decline, rather than treating the two metrics as unrelated.
- Proposes checking total time spent as the deciding test, a specific, verifiable next step.
- Segments the post engagement drop by content and creator type before concluding a single cause.
- Recognizes that if this is substitution, it may not even be a problem worth 'fixing,' showing business judgment, not just a reflex to intervene.
Common mistakes
- Treating the post engagement drop as an isolated problem without considering it might be explained by Stories' growth.
- Jumping to a fix without first testing whether total platform engagement is actually declining.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you design a test to confirm substitution versus independent decline?
- Would you intervene if this turned out to be pure substitution? Why or why not?
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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