How would you improve Instagram?
How would you improve Instagram?
Product Management, UX, Startups, and more — freshly curated by Zeda.io.
Hello, all you product-loving folks! 🥰
Welcome to this week's edition of Product Café, your weekend cup of coffee for everything product management, startups, and more. ☕
Assuming that many of you are Instagram users, you've probably witnessed the Instagram story glitch this week. Let me shed some light on this for those who are not aware of it.
Instagram appears to have an issue preventing users from directly seeing new Instagram Stories. According to many posts across social media networks, IG Stories were playing from the beginning, regardless of whether the user has viewed them. No one wants that déjà vu moment. This got me thinking 🤔 about Instagram's features and how many users who have recommended various improvements over time.
We did some digging and of course, we had to share it with you. Are any of these recommendations something you’d like to see? Check it out!
👉Using Machine Learning to edit your stories
It’s hard to deny that Instagram is an amazing platform to get your daily dose of memes. But that also means many of us waste too much time editing and making memes from our stories. IG could use machine learning to make this process faster and easier for the user. ML could be used to figure out what the user loves to share as a tale on a regular basis.
👉Gamifying the process of creating Instagram Stories
I am not sure about you, but I use Instagram stories far less now as compared to2-3 years ago. That’s why I think this next feature recommendation could be a change maker. When users post a story on Instagram, Instagram can offer some sort of incentive. A progress bar, badges, or even streaks might be used to represent these prizes. Streaks, for example, can cause users to return to Instagram and post on a regular basis merely to keep their streak going. The concept of ‘sunk cost' can be applied here, referring to the fact that after users have invested time and effort into developing a streak and this would make them far more likely to return and engage with the platform in order to ensure that their efforts thus far have not gone to waste. This method can also be used to view, share, and respond to stories.
👉Allowing Gen-Z to collaborate to create a story
Instead of merely generating a story by capturing a video or photograph on their own, another recommendation was to design a way for Gen-Z to work with a group of friends within close circles. As a user, you can begin writing a story and then pass it on to a friend to record and add to it. This contribution could be a new shot, video, or even stickers. The goal is to make people feel like they aren't alone in their efforts. To put it another way, this may be similar to Google Docs, except for Instagram Stories, which users can share with their closest friends.
👉AR feature
Another super cool feature I came across in the recommendations was how Instagram could design a 'Wish I was there' feature in the event of a pandemic. This would mean creating a new story by superimposing a person's image (from previous images/posts) over existing/popular photos of a location. For example, if I wanted to go to some beach place this fall but couldn't because of the pandemic and lockdowns in my area, I could tell a story about how I could be lying on a beach sipping margaritas on a party ship, and so on.
You can read more about it here:
- https://productcoalition.com/how-would-you-improve-instagram-as-a-product-manager-4231954f1e8f
- https://www.tryexponent.com/questions/43/improve-instagram-stories#
Lenny launched a Podcast🎙
Our beloved Product Specialist, Lenny Rachitsky (author of Lenny’s Newsletter) has made the announcement of the commencement of his own podcast, where he interviews world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable & tactical advice to help you build, launch, and scale your product.
We are super excited about it. You have to check it out!
What if the life of a PM was a Spotify Playlist?🎶
That’s all folks! Have something you want to share? Put them in the comments below and we’ll get back to you soon.
See you again next week! 🥂
It’s hard to explain what a Product Manager does, we get it. But you know what’s not that hard? Sharing this newsletter with your friends and colleagues!
1] Have an influencer marketplace, one where any individual can get paid, regardless of following, for their services. It would be opt-in, enabling those that would like to get paid for their services, housed in an internal Instagram marketplace. In addition to opt-in, these creators would have to be labeled as of that, a 'Creator Profile.' In order to receive a creator's services, an Instagram account must be have a Business Profile, ideally, with the proper category.
2] Age ranges (only ranges) are color-coded. The purpose of this color-coded system would allow supervision for underage (according to parents, not Instagram policy), vulnerable populations, and those that have guardians. In particular, this color-coded system would have a supervision folder, one that is controlled by a guardian, in which those messages go directly to that guardian without the user (the one receiving the message(s)) does not receive a notification.
3] More of an interest, not a suggestion, but the ability to have soft-verifications, similar to the gray checkmark seen on Meta. The purpose of this will enable those that are being served in civil suits to receive actual service of papers via verification and a read receipt. Currently, one cannot be served on any digital platform other than that of an appropriate eFile within our Court system.
4] A soft verification could allow for the possibility for political campaigns, and state representatives to identify what local community needs are. More so, candidates and politicians alike can incorporate polling and upvoting features, those that can vote (story polls, post polls, and so forth), must be a constituent of a said political campaign, or government body (local, state, and federal).