How would you measure the success of Quora's answer upvoting system?

Introduction

Measuring the success of Quora's answer upvoting system is crucial for understanding user engagement and content quality on the platform. To approach this product success metrics problem effectively, I will follow a simple product success metric framework. I'll cover core metrics, supporting indicators, and risk factors while considering all key stakeholders.

Step 1

Product Context

Quora's answer upvoting system is a core feature of the platform that allows users to indicate the quality and usefulness of answers to questions. Users can upvote answers they find helpful, informative, or well-written. This system serves multiple purposes:

1. Content quality: It helps surface the best answers to the top of the page.
2. User engagement: It encourages users to participate and contribute high-quality content.
3. Reputation building: It allows users to build credibility within the community.

Key stakeholders include:

• Users (both askers and answerers)
• Content moderators
• Quora's product and engineering teams
• Advertisers

User flow:

1. User reads a question and its answers
2. User evaluates the quality of each answer
3. User clicks the upvote button for answers they find valuable
4. The answer's vote count increases, potentially affecting its position on the page

The upvoting system is central to Quora's broader strategy of creating a high-quality knowledge-sharing platform. It helps differentiate Quora from other Q&A sites by emphasizing quality over quantity.

Compared to competitors like Reddit or Stack Overflow, Quora's system is simpler, focusing solely on upvotes rather than both upvotes and downvotes. This approach aims to encourage more positive interactions and reduce potential negativity.

In terms of product lifecycle, the upvoting system is in the maturity stage. It's a well-established feature that users are familiar with, but there may be opportunities for refinement and optimization.