Company Context

Meta operates products used by billions of people globally, with strong communication surfaces across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Meta AI. The company is exploring whether a purpose-built mobile device experience could better serve accessibility-first users and deepen engagement across its ecosystem.

Problem

You are the PM responsible for defining a phone experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Today, mainstream smartphones offer fragmented accessibility features, but they are often buried in settings, inconsistent across apps, and not designed around deaf users' primary communication needs. Research from accessibility interviews suggests three recurring pain points: real-time communication breaks down in voice-first situations, environmental awareness is limited when important sounds are missed, and many users must rely on multiple third-party apps for captions, transcription, and sign-language-friendly messaging.

Meta leadership does not want a niche hardware science project. They want a product concept that could launch within 12 months by combining existing smartphone capabilities with Meta surfaces such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Ray-Ban Meta integrations where relevant. The goal is to create a coherent, accessibility-first phone experience rather than a generic phone with a few add-on features.

Deliverables

1. Define the target user segment(s) within the deaf and hard-of-hearing population, and explain who you would prioritize first.
2. Identify the most important user needs and jobs-to-be-done this phone should solve.
3. Propose the product vision and the MVP feature set for a first launch.
4. Explain key trade-offs, including what you would explicitly not build in v1.
5. Define success metrics and how you would evaluate whether the product has achieved product-market fit.

Constraints

• MVP must launch within 12 months.
• Assume a fixed cross-functional team: 8 engineers, 2 designers, 1 researcher, and shared accessibility/legal support.
• You may leverage Meta apps and on-device AI, but cannot assume breakthrough hardware that does not already exist in modern smartphones.
• The solution must work across a range of communication contexts: one-to-one conversations, group settings, emergency alerts, and asynchronous messaging.
• Privacy is critical: audio processing and transcription features must meet a high trust bar.