Lead Product Designer Facebook Groups

Group Experts

Connecting experts to the communities that need them, and giving group admins the tools to find them.

My Role Lead Product Designer Strategy, UX, Visual ID, Research

Duration 12 weeks Launch: 2021

Industry Social Media Facebook

Key Outcome 50% opt in during phase 1 Launched as part of Facebook's Expert initiative · 2021

The Challenge

Facebook had millions of interest-based communities but no way to connect the right experts to the groups that needed them. Experts didn't know where to find relevant groups, and admins had no way to identify or recruit qualified people. The value exchange between both sides was completely invisible.

The Solution

Built a 0→1 system that let experts signal their expertise and opt into discovery, while giving group admins the tools to find and invite the right people - creating a two-sided connection that didn't exist before.

Designing the experience

This wasn't a single flow - it required designing across two distinct user sides, each with different motivations, mental models, and entry points.

Expert education & opt-in

Experts needed to understand why this was worth their time before committing. Identified users see a targeted prompt in their newsfeed explaining the value, then complete a short application - selecting their expertise topics to become discoverable by group admins.

Mobile Consumer experience

Contextual entry point

A newsfeed card surfaces to relevant users at the right moment, explaining the value before asking for anything.

Lightweight application

A short opt-in flow - just expertise topics and a brief description - low friction, high signal for admins.

Admin discovery + invite

Once experts opt in, admins needed a simple way to find and invite the right people to their groups - filtered by topic relevance so the right matches actually happen.

Mobile B2B-adjacent tools

Topic-based search

Admins search by topic to surface relevant experts, reducing guesswork and cold outreach.

Direct invite flow

One tap to invite, keeping the workflow fast and reducing drop-off between discovery and action.

How we got there

Building a 0→1 experience across multiple Facebook products meant there was no existing playbook to follow. Every decision - from entry points to application structure - required cross-functional alignment and multiple rounds of iteration before we had something worth shipping.

0→1 Product Design Cross-functional Collaboration Mobile

Cross-product coordination

This experience touched Profile, Newsfeed, Groups, and Privacy, requiring alignment across multiple teams on entry points, patterns, and system changes before a single screen was finalized.

From ideas to MVP

Worked through flow charts, wireframes, and different opt-in approaches before landing on the lightest version that still collected enough signal to make expert matching meaningful.

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