Scaling can become an obsession in early stage startups, where moving fast doesn't always go hand in hand with making time to invest in big bets. In this talk, Marco and Miriam will cover how their growth team at Facebook uses a design process and strategy to create a healthy balance between growing business while taking on riskier ideas. You will understand how growth teams within Facebook operate; dig into their process for exploring risky ideas and surfacing insights from a multi-disciplinary team. Finally, you'll explore some of the key considerations for balancing roadmap work with riskier ideas.

1. Miriam Thomas and Marco Sousa
Making Time for
Big Bets in a
Growth Team

4. Risky projects don't
have to tank your
metrics.

6. Classic Facebook on web Classic Workplace on web

7. NEW Facebook on web NEW Workplace on web

8. 2011
Work Groups
inside Facebook
2015
Facebook at Work
Beta
(fork of Facebook)
2016
Workplace
(Launch)
2019
Workplace
Redesign
How Did We Get Here?

13. 0s 60s
%
bounce
30s
Bounce Rate

19. We needed a big bet

20. Come up with ideas

21. Estimate reach vs impact

22. Iteration and
experimentation

29. Connect
People
20 %
Productivity
Tool
Intranet
Leadership
comms
Not Sure
Selection Distribution

32. Identified Bundles
Making Company
Announcements
Broadcast communication
from a leader in an
organization across the whole
team.
1
Managing Projects
and Tasks
Helping a team track a
project.
2
Team Collaboration
Helping a team share ideas
and connect with each other.
3

33. Show Educational Videos

35. Now
Goal
Getting There Faster
Later
Iterative
Process
BIG BET
BIG BET
This Year

36. Now
Goal
Getting There Faster
Later
Iterative
Process
BIG BET
BIG BET
This Year

37. Small Experiments Day

38. Make a Big List of Small Ideas

39. Designers Prep Ideas

40. Build Together as a Team

41. Do Demos and Celebrate

42. Run Experiments and Measure

43. Review Results Together

44. Small Experiments Day
Make a Big List of Small Ideas
Designers Prep Ideas
Build Together as a Team
Do Demos and Celebrate
Run Experiments and Measure
Review Results Together

45. Activity
Write down one small thing that could
improve the experience for people.
Criteria: Buildable in a couple of hours.

46. Share with a neighbor
2 minutes total

48. What do you want to do here?

49. 50% picked a video and were successful

50. The control group was also
successful with no video.

51. People who want help and
people who want to be left
alone.

52. 🥺

53. 🥳➕🥺

54. It's more important to learn
from an experiment than to
ship it.

55. Give people a choice.

58. Enable progress even if
the big ideas fail.

59. Questions Before a Big Bet
High Risk and High Reward?Willing to hold ideas loosely?Is there a design ally?

60. Questions During a Big Bet
Right Priorities?
Need a small experiments
day?
Culture that rewards
learning?
Are we building a better
experience?

61. Take on a Risky Project
Find the Big Issues
Fix the Baseline Before Optimizing
Make Time for Big Ideas

62. Make big shifts in your product
strategy supported by small
wins along the way.

63. https://bit.ly/2m1CWWm
Template

64. Thank You.
miriamthomas@fb.com
marcodesousa@fb.com
Questions? Resources
https://bit.ly/2m1CWWm