Events
Pivot to online events
Year
2020-2022
Type of Project
Product Strategy & Design
My Role
Lead Product Designer, Events
Pandemic pivot to platform growth
Objective
I led Facebook Events through a pandemic pivot and rebuilt the event system around online attendance and faster creation. When in-person gatherings stopped, the product had little to offer. People still needed to come together—for cooking classes, trivia nights, fitness sessions, and birthdays. The pandemic didn't change that need; it just meant we had to help them do it safely while sheltering in place.
Strategy
Through rapid iteration and leadership alignment, I spun up Online Events in weeks. I built an experience for hosting online events and scaled it to all event verticals, including classes. I coordinated with Messenger and Rooms for on-platform hosting, and met users where they were with Zoom integration. I streamlined creation to be as easy as calling a friend with Lightweight Events. I redesigned the Events tab to feature online events and improve discoverability, then brought online events to Groups and Feed.
Outcome
Event participation grew 35%—and the metrics sustained post-pandemic. Online Events gave people something meaningful to do during lockdowns, and the format stuck around after in-person returned. Event creation grew 25.5% with time-to-create cut by 50%, activating the casual creator segment that had been abandoned. Discovery improvements drove a 5.5% DAU lift in Communities, with group event attendees 5x more likely to participate daily. The team hit goals early and earned additional headcount.
Solutions
Crisis Response
Online events launch
Leadership alignment
Live streaming leverage
Compressed timeline
Product Architecture
Universal event primitive
New event creation flow
Polling for coordination
Draft saving
Systems Design
Groups integration
Feed ranking partnership
Cross-org alignment
Events tab redesign
More Projects