Interview Questions › Metrics

Define success for a whiteboard inside video calls

Zoom added a collaborative whiteboard that participants can open during a meeting. How would you measure its success?

Context

The whiteboard is free for all paid plans. The company hopes it helps retain business customers.

Clarifying questions to ask first

• Is this about engagement or reducing churn to competitors?
• Do we care about board reuse after the meeting?

How to approach it

1. Clarify business goal: retention of paid accounts
2. Adoption, depth and repeat use
3. Link to account retention, not just usage

Framework: Goal of the product -> Users and value exchange -> North Star -> Supporting metrics by funnel stage -> Guardrails and counter-metrics -> Decision or target

Sample answer

• Share of team meetings (3+ people) that open a whiteboard
• Accounts with whiteboard use in 3 of the last 4 weeks
• Renewal rate of using vs similar non-using accounts

1. 6% of team meetings open the whiteboard
2. Half of boards are never opened again after the meeting
3. Accounts using it weekly renew at 94% vs 89% for similar accounts

North Star: accounts with repeat weekly whiteboard use, because the goal is retention. Supporting: share of team meetings using it and boards reopened later. Watch renewal rate versus matched accounts, with the caveat that correlation is not causation.

What interviewers look for

• Meetings using whiteboard
• Repeat usage
• Paid account retention