Project Background
Meta's Reels team is preparing a Q3 launch of a new creator onboarding flow in the Facebook app intended to improve first-week creator activation. You are the lead User Experience Researcher embedded with a cross-functional squad of 11 people (1 PM, 1 UXR, 1 data scientist, 6 engineers, 1 content designer, 1 product designer). Leadership wants a research-backed go/no-go recommendation in 6 weeks because the launch is tied to a creator growth target for the half.
Key Stakeholders
The PM wants fast directional input to keep engineering on schedule. The design lead wants deeper qualitative evidence before shipping. The data science partner believes only large-scale in-product experiments should influence launch decisions and is openly challenging the validity of your proposed mixed-methods plan. The Director of Product has asked for a single recommendation with clear risks and launch conditions.
Constraints
- Timeline: 6 weeks to produce a launch recommendation
- Budget: $45,000 for participant incentives and vendor support
- Research scope: 24 moderated interviews, 1 diary study with 12 creators, and analysis of existing Facebook Reels behavioral data
- Launch dependency: engineering code freeze begins in Week 7
- No new large-scale A/B test can be run before the decision deadline due to instrumentation backlog
Complications
- After Week 2, the data science partner argues your sample is too small and recommends pausing all qual work until experimentation is available.
- Sales and partnerships leadership asks to include professional creators from Brazil and India, which would require translation support and reduce time for synthesis.
- Two of the highest-priority creator segments have low recruiting yield, putting the interview schedule at risk.
Your Task
- Create a 6-week execution plan for delivering a credible launch recommendation despite the methodology challenge.
- Define how you would align stakeholders on what evidence is sufficient for launch versus post-launch validation.
- Propose trade-offs if you must choose between broader market coverage and deeper insight quality.
- Identify the top risks to timeline and decision quality, with mitigation steps.
- Specify the final deliverables you would present to the Director of Product.
