Pan Wang

Teens' Decline

Instagram had struggled with retainning and engaging teenagers. Against this background, I designed & launched a global survey with Instagram new users in 2022 to size top barriers for teens to join Instagram.

I played a key role in orchestrating the entire project, including deployment of the survey, data processing & analyses using SQL and RStudio and socialization of the findings.

Challenges

A few challenges emerged during communications of key findings to stakeholders:

• How to interpret the relative role & importance of parent gatekeeping and lack of reason (to use Instagram), both of which were top reported barriers based on teens' responses to the survey? Resolved by a POV triangulating survey findings and market data.
• What did 'having nothing to share on Instagram', the top driver for feeling no reason to use Instagram, actually mean? Resolved by follow-up interviews with select respondents, conducted in partnership with a qualitative researcher.

Impact

The findings have driven a few net new product initiatives and marketing campaings that aimed to encourage teens' willingness to share authentically on Instagram.

Video Search

Intentional video consumption, primarily from video search, is critical for effective delivery of in-stream video ads. Hence Facebook wanted to optimize frequency and successes of video search on the platform. In response, I initiated & conducted a diary study in 2020, comparing search experiences on Facebook and YouTube in two distinct markets, the US and Mexico. Major research questions:

• What caused the gap between Facebook and Youtube in video search? Specifically, ranking or inventory?
• Why did Facebook see a big difference in video search engagment between the US and Mexico, despite identical UI/UX?

Challenges

Although I initially focused on supporting creators' experience and was not part of the video search team, I assumed a leading role in this project. This involved pitching the project to the search team, managing research vendors, conducting data analyses, and sharing findings with stakeholders.

Impact

This study provided not only tactical suggestions for UI/UX of video search in the short term (e.g. parity between WWW and mobile devices), but also strategic recommendations for the team to work towards in the long term (e.g. trending search, acquisition of how-to content).

Intentional Churn

Meta aimed to migrate account deactivations and deletions (DnD) on both Facebook and Instagram into accounts center (AC), a centralized hub for managing account settings across Meta's apps. This transition would bring substantial changes to the DnD flow, particularly its entry point for users.

To explore potential improvements to the DnD flow, I initiated a side project in 2021, focused on analyzing log data of the DnD funnel, with consultancy support from data scientists. The goal was to identify areas for optimization, particularly in content design.

Challenges

One of the main challenges encountered was the sensitive nature of DnD settings and their direct impact on growth metrics like DAU and MAU. Hence access to DnD data required additional rounds of privacy reviews for permissions, and precise interpretation of the data was essential.

Implications

While the data did indicate opportunities to optimize the content of the DnD flow, the team decided to delay content changes until after the migration of DnD into the AC and the associated changes to entry points were completed. Socialization of this study would resume following the migration.

Market Differences

Senior leaders at Instagram sought to understand the variability in teen user growth across developed markets (DM). In response, I led in-depth reviews of multiple surveys & log data, collaborating closely with data scientists and senior UXRs to deliver insights through the lens of jobs to be done (JTBD).

Challenges

Despite the project's scope and complexity, I was tasked with delivering results within a tight timeframe of four weeks. During this period, I managed to analyze data of two company-level brand tracker surveys for 6 markets from thest past 9 quarters, and triangulated it with parallel log data. My proactive engagement with cross-functional partners, including market researchers, DS, DE, and product teams such as Reels and Messages, was also instrumental in driving the project forward.

Impact

The project yielded clear insights into the pursuit of market-specific strategies for Instagram. I presented these insights to directors within the organization, contributing to strategic decision-making.