A case study : Phased approach to driving Reels production on Facebook

I joined Meta as a product manager for Music in 2022 with a goal of engaging young adults on the platform using premium music videos. As a music enthusiast myself, I was excited about the prospect of working on a fun product serving billions of users across the world, with an opportunity to partner with one of the finest artists in the music industry. 

However, in another world, seismic shifts were happening in the social media industry. TikTok was emerging as a strong competitor, with short form videos(SFV) becoming viral with young adults. We quickly realized that Premium music videos is not the right strategy to draw young adults on platform, our strategy had to shift and this led to my reincarnation as product manager for Reels with a goal of driving Reels production on Facebook (FB).

In this article, I will share the phased  approach we took to driving reels production on FB, learnings gained along the way with inflection points to create a thriving reels ecosystem that engages billions of people across the world.

Before the short form videos (SFV) revolution, FB content inventory primarily consisted of photo posts and long form video content. We didn’t have sufficient reel inventory on the platform which meant there were no audiences & in absence of audiences creators didn’t feel motivated to produce reels content on FB. To get around this cold start problem, we had to find ways to seed initial Reels content on FB.

Inflection point: “We realized, in order to create a sustainable reels ecosystem on FB, we had to reduce our reliance on cross-posted content & bonus programs; instead focus on driving organic production, that happens natively on FB”

As we went to white board with a brand new problem, in order to come up with a solid game plan -  it was important to break down our user base into segments, prioritize a segment based on opportunity size and then deeply understand the needs of that niche segment. Based on data & user experience research (UXR) analysis, we uncovered that our biggest opportunity lies with content creators who are already active on the platform producing other content formats (photo posts, long form videos, stories etc.) vs activating new creators on FB. User experience research (UXR) identified lack of expertise & friction in producing reels content as the biggest pain point for this segment. This made sense, as this segment was used to producing stories/photos/long form content that required a very different muscle & skill than short form videos. We had to find ways to help this segment overcome the hump and onboard them to Reels.

Inflection point: “We cared not just about driving reels production but quality reels production. To accomplish this, we had to deepen our focus to understand unique needs of bigger creators and drive quality production with this segment”

Back on the drawing board yet again, we conducted user experience research (UXR) to understand the motivations of bigger creators. We learnt that this segment was already producing reels on other platforms like IG, TikTok and used pro-editing tools like Canva, Capcut to edit reels. Their primary motivation for producing content on FB was to get more eyeballs aka more reach & engagement for their content; however despite being hugely successful on other platforms they didn’t find  similar success for their content on FB. In order to drive reels production from these bigger creators, we had to show them the ROI for their content on FB, and hence became our  imminent focus.

Based on learnings above, we are now working on growing adoption of our tools by investing in upsells and further improving usability. We also established a long term holdout to observe effects of our work over an extended time period. While the impact this work will unlock remains to be seen but as it stands today, approx 140 million Reels are produced on FB and as we celebrate the success of FB Reels, I remind myself that this is just a milestone in our ongoing journey. User behaviors will continue to shift, and new trends will continue to emerge, and when that happens, as product managers we should be nimble in adapting & pivoting if needed.

The question on everyone's mind: what's next? Will there be a Stage 4? Probably and I am certain AI will play a significant role in shaping the future stages for Reels. I hope you learned a thing or two from my experience working on a company priority, alongside some of the best minds at Meta!