How could Facebook build a feature to help people find roommates?

Introduction

Facebook's potential feature to help people find roommates is an intriguing product design challenge. This feature could leverage Facebook's vast user base and existing social graph to create a more trustworthy and efficient roommate-finding experience. I'll outline my approach to designing this feature, focusing on user needs, market opportunities, and potential solutions.

Clarify Questions (3 minutes)

• Is this feature intended for Facebook's main app or a standalone application?

• Why it matters: This impacts the integration strategy and user acquisition approach.
• Hypothetical answer: Let's assume it's for the main Facebook app.
• Impact: We'll focus on integrating with existing Facebook features and user behavior.

• Are we targeting a specific geographic market or demographic?

• Why it matters: Housing needs and regulations vary significantly by location and age group.
• Hypothetical answer: Let's focus on urban areas in the United States, targeting young adults (18-35).
• Impact: We'll tailor our solution to address the unique challenges of this market and demographic.

• What's the primary goal: user growth, engagement, or monetization?

• Why it matters: This will guide our prioritization of features and success metrics.
• Hypothetical answer: Let's prioritize user engagement, with monetization as a secondary goal.
• Impact: We'll focus on creating a sticky, valuable experience that keeps users coming back.

Propose the Goal

Given Facebook's focus on connecting people and building communities, I believe the goal is to create a trustworthy, efficient platform for finding compatible roommates while increasing user engagement on Facebook. Does this align with your vision?

Define the Scope

For this product design challenge, let's focus on developing a roommate-finding feature within the Facebook app, targeting young adults in urban U.S. markets. We'll prioritize user engagement and trust-building mechanisms.

Based on these assumptions, let's move forward with our solution.

Step 2

Why build this? (5 minutes)

Analyze Macro Trends and Opportunities

Several macro trends support the development of a roommate-finding feature:

1. Urbanization: More people are moving to cities, increasing demand for shared housing.
2. Rising housing costs: Especially in urban areas, making roommates a necessity for many.
3. Delayed marriage and family formation: Young adults are living with roommates for longer periods.
4. Remote work flexibility: Allowing people to consider a wider range of living situations.

These trends create a significant opportunity for Facebook to address a growing need among its user base.

Competitor Analysis

Existing solutions include:

• Craigslist: Wide reach but lacks trust and safety features.
• Roomster: Dedicated platform but smaller user base and less verification.
• Roomi: Mobile-first approach with some safety features.

Facebook's strengths:

• Massive user base and existing social graph
• Rich user data for better matching
• Built-in identity verification and mutual friend connections

Weaknesses:

• Not currently associated with housing searches
• Potential privacy concerns

Case study: Airbnb's success in leveraging trust and community for short-term rentals shows the potential for a social network-based approach to housing.

Value Chain Analysis

In the roommate-finding industry, key steps include:

1. User profile creation
2. Listing creation/search
3. Matching and filtering
4. Communication
5. Verification and trust-building
6. Decision-making and agreement

Facebook is well-positioned to improve steps 1, 3, 4, and 5, offering a significant competitive advantage in creating a more trustworthy and efficient process.

Step 3

User Segments (5 minutes)

Key stakeholders in the roommate-finding ecosystem:

1. Renters seeking roommates
2. Property owners/managers
3. Universities/colleges (for student housing)
4. Local housing authorities

We'll focus on renters seeking roommates, as they align best with our goal and Facebook's strengths.

Sub-segments of renters seeking roommates:

1. Young professionals (22-30)
2. College students (18-22)
3. Recent graduates (22-25)
4. Mid-career movers (30-35)

Prioritization Table:

Explanation:

• Young professionals score highest due to their large population, high engagement potential, and better monetization prospects.
• College students have high engagement but lower monetization potential.
• Recent graduates and mid-career movers have similar overall scores but for different reasons.

We'll focus on young professionals as our primary user segment due to their high overall score and alignment with Facebook's user base.

Step 4

Pain Points (5 minutes)

For young professionals seeking roommates, key pain points include:

1. Trust and safety concerns

   • User quote: "I'm worried about living with a stranger I met online."
   • Potential metric: Number of reported safety incidents per 1000 matches

2. Difficulty in assessing compatibility

   • User quote: "It's hard to know if we'll get along just from a brief online interaction."
   • Potential metric: Percentage of successful roommate matches lasting > 6 months

3. Inefficient communication and coordination

   • User quote: "Scheduling viewings and interviews with potential roommates is a hassle."
   • Potential metric: Average time from initial contact to signed agreement

4. Lack of verified information

   • User quote: "I can't tell if the person or the apartment is really as described."
   • Potential metric: Percentage of profiles with verified information

Step 5

Prioritization of Pain Points (3 minutes)

Based on this analysis, we'll focus on addressing the top two pain points:

1. Trust and safety concerns
2. Lack of verified information

Reasoning: Trust and safety are paramount in shared living situations, and Facebook is uniquely positioned to address this with its existing identity verification and social graph. Verified information closely relates to trust and can significantly improve the user experience. While compatibility assessment is important, it's more subjective and challenging to solve definitively. Improving communication can be addressed as a secondary feature.

Step 6

Solution (10 minutes)

Here are five potential solutions to address our prioritized pain points:

1. TrustCircle: Leverage Facebook's social graph to show mutual friends and connections with potential roommates. Include a "vouching" system where mutual friends can endorse users as good roommates.

2. VerifyMe: Implement a multi-step verification process including phone number, email, and optional government ID verification. Display verification badges on user profiles.

3. RoommateScore: Develop an AI-driven compatibility score based on shared interests, mutual friends, and lifestyle preferences from Facebook data.

4. SafeSpace: Create a secure in-app messaging and video chat system for roommate communication, with the ability to easily share and verify housing-related documents.

5. Moonshot: AR Roomie: Use augmented reality to allow users to virtually "live" with potential roommates for a day, simulating shared spaces and daily routines.

Prioritization Table:

Explanations:

• TrustCircle: High reach and impact, leveraging Facebook's core strengths
• VerifyMe: Strong alignment and relatively low effort, but slightly lower reach
• RoommateScore: Good impact but higher effort due to AI development
• SafeSpace: Solid all-around but doesn't stand out in any category
• AR Roomie: High impact and innovation, but very high effort and lower reach

Based on this analysis, we'll focus on implementing TrustCircle as our primary solution.

User Flow for TrustCircle:

1. User accesses the roommate-finding feature in Facebook app
2. User creates or views a roommate listing
3. When viewing potential roommates, user sees mutual friends highlighted
4. User can request "vouches" from mutual friends
5. Mutual friends receive notification to vouch for the user
6. Vouches appear on the user's profile, building trust

Potential challenges:

1. Ensuring user privacy while sharing relevant information
2. Encouraging users to vouch responsibly
3. Handling situations where users have few or no mutual connections

Step 7

Success Metrics (5 minutes)

User Metrics:

1. Monthly Active Users (MAU) of the roommate-finding feature
2. User satisfaction score (survey-based)
3. Time to successful match (from feature use to signed roommate agreement)

Product Metrics:

1. Number of verified profiles / Total profiles
2. Average number of vouches per user
3. Conversion rate (listing views to successful matches)

Leading Indicators:

1. Feature adoption rate among target demographic
2. Engagement rate (return visits to the feature)
3. Number of messages sent between potential roommates

These metrics align with our initial goal of increasing user engagement while addressing the key pain points of trust and verification. The MAU and engagement rate will indicate overall adoption, while the verification and vouching metrics will show how well we're addressing trust concerns. Time to successful match and conversion rate will demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution in helping users find roommates.

Summary

We've designed a roommate-finding feature for Facebook targeting young professionals in urban U.S. markets. By focusing on trust and verification, our TrustCircle solution leverages Facebook's social graph to create a more reliable roommate-finding experience. This aligns with Facebook's strategy of building meaningful connections and communities.

Key innovative aspects include the vouching system and the integration of Facebook's existing social data to build trust. We'll measure success through user engagement, verification rates, and matching efficiency.

Next steps would include prototyping the TrustCircle feature, conducting user testing, and exploring partnerships with housing providers to expand the listing database.

Expand Your Perspective

• How might this feature evolve as co-living and digital nomad lifestyles become more prevalent?

• What lessons can we learn from trust-building mechanisms in other industries, such as peer-to-peer lending or online dating?

• How could we scale this feature to accommodate different cultural norms and housing practices in international markets?

Related Topics

• Product Strategy: Expanding Facebook's ecosystem into housing and lifestyle services

• Technical Considerations: Implementing secure document sharing and verification systems

• Business Model: Potential monetization strategies for a roommate-finding feature

• User Privacy: Balancing social data utilization with user control and consent

• Community Building: Leveraging roommate connections to create local Facebook groups and events