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User Data

Adam Brinckerhoff

    “The board is finally satisfied with our user numbers,” Warren began. “Now, they want us to double down on increasing the average time spent on our platform per day.”
    Until recently, Warren and I were on the same tier of the org chart. Then he got promoted and I didn’t, so now he was my boss. I didn’t mind, though. In my opinion, he was basically a glorified whipping boy for the board. Plus, I liked my job as the director of external projects.
    “Are they giving us a specific task list, or are we operating from a clean slate?” I asked.
    “Clean slate. They just want their numbers. They don’t care how we get them.”
    “Then I guess that gives us partial creative freedom,” I said with a grin.
    Warren furrowed his brow, either missing my joke or just ignoring it. “Let’s get to work,” he said blankly. He never had much of a sense of humor.
    We spent the next week brainstorming in a conference room. I came up with most of the ideas and Warren refined them. Occasionally we’d invite a specialist from my team to join us to discuss a particular feature, but most of the time it was just the two of us. We had always worked well together, and we didn’t need anyone else slowing us down.
    User retention fell into two categories. First, we wanted to make our platform more addicting for longer stretches of time. As a social media company, that usually meant the usual messages, pictures, and videos. But we had also branched out into games, news, and other features that were still under our app’s umbrella. The second type of work was more indirect. We called them “external projects,” and that was my specialty.
    While users were on our site, we needed to decrease outside distractions that might pull them away. Dinner was a big target. Most users logged on right after work, unless they were already sneaking a peak during their shift. If we made food easier, then they would dine in front of their screens and stay connected until bedtime.
    The project we settled on was a multi-faceted effort to convince popular restaurants to convert to delivery-only. It required a large up-front investment, but the board gave us nearly unlimited resources so we felt like it was just a matter of time and pressure. Plus, we already had our own delivery service, run by an autonomous car fleet.
    First, we would push deep discounts on both users and restaurants. Then, we’d buy the dining room section of each restaurant’s floorplan. With delivery sales up and real estate offers that were well above market value, it was a no brainer for restaurant managers. Once we changed user meal habits, our short-term investment would have never-ending gains.
    The other intangible factors that naturally worked in our favor were the cultural communication norms. Namely, everyone only talked online. The postal service was long defunct. Customer service departments stopped taking phone calls. Even the government’s interaction with the general public had transitioned exclusively to online chats, a move that they spun as better for the environment. So, meeting at a restaurant for dinner was becoming increasingly archaic.
    Over the next few months, my team wrote new code and closed property deals. I thought it was good work, and the early stats were promising. More importantly, I thought Warren (and the board by extension) would be pleased when I presented our efforts at our upcoming status meeting.

***

    “This is great. Nice work.” Despite his words, I could tell Warren was barely paying attention as I finished my slides.
    “Thanks. Do you have any feedback? Tweaks? Additions?” I responded, trying to regain his focus.
    “No, no, no... but I would like your help with something. While your team has been working on that project, I’ve been mocking up a similar feature. I sent a teaser to the board, and they’re really excited about its potential.” He switched from my presentation to a new slide showing a sample conversation on our dating app:

    Jack: Hey, how are you? I enjoyed chatting with you the other day.
    Jill: Yeah, me too. You’re really funny. And cute too :)
    Jack: Aww, thanks. That pic is a little old, but it’s close enough!
    Jill: Yeah, who actually uses current pics?! Hahaha
    X
    Jack: Anyway, want to grab coffee tomorrow?

    “So, this is your standard online flirting,” Warren continued. “Both people have a little fun. No harm. No foul.”
    “Okay... but what does the X mean?”
    “Ah yes, that’s the feature at work. Jack sends the message, but Jill doesn’t get it. Our bot scans the content of the text, and then reroutes it.”
    “Reroutes? You mean cancels,” I said, skeptically.
    “Sure. Technically. But that’s not the point. The point is that Jill doesn’t want to get coffee, she just wants to flirt. And Jack is just asking her out because he thinks he should. More importantly, any relationship that would potentially result from this “coffee” is highly unlikely to lead to a serious relationship. So, our algorithm saves both of them the trouble.”
    “And keeps them on our platform.”
    “Right. Initially, they might feel a little bit slighted. But after Jack’s message is flagged, we’ll quickly send them separate, personalized redirections. New dating connections. Game invitations. Whatever.”
    Three thoughts suddenly came cascading through my brain. First, the project that I had been working on was all a set up. Warren was using restaurants to prepare me for this next step, so I would help him execute it. Second, this was too far. We weren’t nudging users back to our app anymore, we were altering their relationships for our benefit. And third, I couldn’t do anything about it. I was sure that Warren was already testing the feature, probably on employee devices. If I tried to report him to the government, they wouldn’t get it. Now what?
    “So,” Warren said, looking back at me. “What do you think? Be honest.”

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