Meta
The growth brief
Use Instagram's scale without weakening its experience.
As a Software Engineer on the Instagram Feed team, I led product development, engineering execution, and data analysis for multiple integrations between Instagram and Threads. The work targeted user acquisition, engagement, and content creation.
Threads launched in July 2023 and needed to rapidly grow its user base and content volume. Instagram created a powerful distribution path, but only if every integration remained useful to Instagram users and measurable at global scale.
The strategy
Three interventions, one growth loop.
Each intervention reduced a different source of friction between discovering Threads, joining it, and contributing original content.
Content supply
Crossposting from Instagram Feed
I developed and launched a composer flow that lets people share content to Instagram and Threads at the same time, lowering the cost of contributing to Threads.
Engineering work
- Added new UI affordances to the Instagram post composer.
- Coordinated Instagram and Threads posting pipelines.
- Handled failed posts, partial failures, and format differences.
- Instrumented cross-platform content performance.
- Primary outcome
- +510K daily original posts
- Supporting lift
- +11% top-line original posts and +185K eWAU
User acquisition
Onboarding inside Instagram Feed
I led a flow that surfaces Threads content and sign-up prompts during high-intent moments when people are already engaged with social content.
Product development
- Identified placements within the feed algorithm.
- Ran multiple experiments to optimize conversion.
- Personalized prompts using behavior and friend graph signals.
- Protected Instagram guardrail metrics throughout rollout.
- Primary outcome
- +40% onboarded users, or +320K per day
- Supporting lift
- +50K new daily active users
Activation
Navigation that encourages exploration
I changed the destination for a Thread opened from Instagram Feed. The selected post stayed pinned at the top of the Threads main feed instead of opening in a permalink view.
Why it worked
Preserving the tapped post maintained context while placing the broader Threads feed directly underneath it, creating a natural path to deeper engagement.
- Engagement lift
- +2.12% eDAU and +1.34% eWAU
- Content lift
- +1.74% post impressions
Measured impact
Growth across supply, acquisition, and engagement.
+510K
daily original posts
Crossposting also increased top-line original posts by 11% and Threads eWAU by 185K.
+40%
onboarded users
The onboarding flow also added 50K new daily active users.
+320K
new users per day
Additional people onboarded through the Instagram Feed flow.
Engineering approach
Built for iteration without losing control.
The system paired native iOS architecture with server-driven controls and measurement from the first implementation decision.
Native architecture
Swift handled the primary implementation, with Objective-C at legacy integration points.
- Protocol-oriented component composition
- Dependency injection for testability
- Feature flags for gradual rollout
- Comprehensive analytics instrumentation
Cross-platform control
PHP/Hack services kept behavior consistent across iOS and Android.
- Unified API contracts
- Server-driven UI for rapid iteration
- Centralized experiment configuration
Measurement by design
Every feature began with explicit success criteria and guardrails.
- Pre-defined success metrics
- A/B testing with statistical rigor
- Real-time rollout dashboards
- Post-launch analysis for iteration
What carried forward
Four principles from shipping at this scale.
Start with measurement.
Defining success metrics upfront created clarity and made rapid iteration possible.
Work across the whole system.
Results depended on tight coordination across mobile, backend, design, product, and data science.
Small interaction changes can compound.
The navigation change was relatively simple technically and still improved engagement meaningfully.
Protect the core experience.
Guardrail metrics kept Threads growth from coming at the expense of Instagram.
Continue exploring