Video is a new venture for Facebook. But, to get creators to invest, we need to empower them to get paid in return. This is where our suite of monetization products come in. Only one issue, they aren't really a suite yet.
There are various monetization methods that Facebook has for creators. From running ads in content, to allowing users to pay for a monthly subscription to fund their favorite content, to partnering creators with brands directly on platform. However, none of these products work together.
The messaging and value is fragmented. All monetization products interface with the user on different surfaces, insights exist in different places, and notifications are definitely not centralized.
This is where the platform team comes in.
After spending quite a bit of time working for the ads product, I was able to work my way into being the sole designer on this platform team. I have a deep love of internet video, and I want to try my hardest to encourage these creators to keep doing what they love. Diversification of monetization strategy is key. Creators can make plenty of money on any single product, however, true financial security comes in the form of multiple monetization methods. This is why I wanted to be on this team. To make it easy, and straightforward to utilize all of our offering from a single place.
While many of our initiatives are still in the works and under wraps, our first project is finally making its way to market; Monetization Overview (affectionately known as monetization home among the team). A single surface, a single home base, to understand how your accounts are performing across all monetization methods. The goal of this surface was to be a one stop shop for creators to get a high-level pulse on how their business was performing.
We started with user research to identify key pain-points from our users. To no surprise, they were all irritated with the page-jumping required as soon as they log in. We asked them to walk through their everyday workflows, and took notes to identify pieces that could be improved.
In addition to a pulse-check, creators also wanted education. Facebook's social nature makes it a very different beast than the existing video platforms (ie YouTube), and users wanted to know the best ways to be successful. We identified these two issues as a starting ground for our V0.
Though this surface is still in its initial rollout, we are already gathering data and feedback for our next, more advanced version. This sole project has already highlighted many internal pinch points when it comes to creating a platformized surface. Just because you build it, does not mean cross-functional teams will use it, no matter how much they told you they needed it.
Moving forward we are aspiring to work even closer with these various teams. Getting emotional buy-in from these stakeholders is essential to making a cross-platform surface successful. If teams feel involved in the design process, they being to feel ownership over the surface themselves, and thus more excited about building into it.
In addition, we are seeking ways to add value to the surface auxiliary from these teams to ensure we can provide as much value to the user as possible while these teams scale up to support it.
The Monetization Platform team is new, and our ambitions are big. Centralizing all of these great products is essential to make them truly usable. This spans far beyond our Monetization Overview surface, and I'm eager to write more as these initiatives become public.