Prioritize Research for Instagram Teens

Company Context

Meta operates products at global scale, with Instagram serving hundreds of millions of daily users and competing for attention, creator activity, and long-term retention. The company invests heavily in user experience research to guide product decisions, especially in high-sensitivity segments such as teens.

Problem

Instagram leadership is considering three possible investments for teen users in the next half: stronger anti-bullying controls in DMs, improved content discovery for new creators in Reels, and tools that help teens manage time spent in-app. Research capacity is limited: your team can deeply study only 2 of the 3 areas this quarter.

Existing signals are mixed. Internal data shows teen 90-day retention has declined from 61% to 57% over two quarters. Reports of negative social experiences in teen surveys rose from 12% to 16%. Reels consumption among teens is growing, but creator posting frequency for new teen creators is down 9% quarter-over-quarter. Policy, legal, and public trust teams are also paying close attention to teen well-being.

Deliverables

1. Explain how you would prioritize the research questions across these three areas based on product impact.
2. Define the criteria you would use to judge impact, urgency, and decision value.
3. Identify the primary user segments and jobs-to-be-done you would focus on first.
4. Recommend a research plan for the top priorities, including methods, sequencing, and expected decisions informed.
5. Describe the trade-offs of deprioritizing the third area for this quarter.

Constraints

• Research team: 2 UXR leads, 1 quantitative researcher, 6 weeks total
• Only enough budget for 20 in-depth interviews and 1 survey wave across US, Brazil, and India
• Product leadership needs a recommendation before next half planning
• Any recommendation involving teens must account for safety, policy, and reputational risk