You are a PM for Instagram & are creating a retention dashboard. What metrics will you track?

As a product manager at Instagram, building a retention dashboard would involve defining a) our goals followed by b) metrics to track those goals. These might include daily active users, monthly active users, retention rate, churn rate, and user engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares.

Before we deep dive into the solutions, we will consider that Instagram has 3 types of audiences - a) users who consume content b) publishers in the form of influencers or content creators and c) businesses which use Instagram to promote their product/service.

An ideal user journey for consumption on Instagram is to open the app and browse/engage through the personalised feed. As per the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework, users are essentially hiring Instagram to a) get entertained b) reduce boredom c) discover insightful content and d) be updated on what's happening in their friend/family circle.

An ideal user journey for creators/businesses on Instagram is to open the app and upload media. As per the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework, users are essentially hiring Instagram to a) share their experiences b) get validation c) build an audience d) engage that audience and e) promote their product or services.

Certain metrics such as Net Promoter Score (a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty) or Customer Satisfaction Score are lagging indicators which will not help us identify the problems early and hence are non-actionable.

Instead metrics such as a) Daily Active Users (the number of unique users who engage with the app on a daily basis) b) Monthly Active Users (the number of unique users who engage with the app on a monthly basis) c) Return Rate - the percentage of users who return to the app within a given period of time d) Engagement Rate (the percentage of users who engage with the app, measured by likes, comments, and shares) per session e) Average Revenue Per User f) Lifetime Value of Users will provide meaningful and leading indications of anything gone wrong.

Next, we will drill down these metrics into retention by cohort - retention rate of users grouped by a) acquisition source b) demographics c) location d) feature - posts/stories/reels e) media type - images/videos f) time of joining the platform and g) category of content.

Specific dashboard for each of these cohorts will be as :

1. Acquisition Source :

i) PlayStore/Appstore - a) engagement rate b) return rate

ii) Paid Ads - a) engagement rate b) return rate

iii) Referrals - a) engagement rate b) return rate

2. Demographics

i) Age - a) engagement rate b) return rate

ii) Income - a) engagement rate b) return rate

iii) Gender - a) engagement rate b) return rate

3. Location

i) Country Level - a) engagement rate b) return rate

ii) City Level - a) engagement rate b) return rate

4. Features

i) Story - a) tap forward rate b) tap back rate c) replies per 1k impressions d) reactions per 1k impressions

ii) Posts - a) likes b) comments c) shares

iii) Reels - a) views b) percentage completion c) time spent

5. Media Type

i) Images - a) impressions

ii) Videos - a) percentage completion

6. Time of joining platform

i) Monthly cohorts - a) engagement rate b) return rate

7. Category of content

i) Sports & Fitness - a) engagement rate b) return rate

ii) Beauty - a) engagement rate b) return rate

iii) Home Decor - a) engagement rate b) return rate

By drilling into these specific cohorts, we will be able to identify the specific use cases & issues and solve for these.