Allen Chong
02Behavioral Design · Engagement & Retention · Onboarding

Solving a two-sided cold start problem, from day one

Using targeted UXR to diagnose why new communities stagnated after launch. Crafting behavioral nudges and social scaffolding to drive first-week engagement for both admins and members.

Role

I was the sole content designer on this effort. I partnered with a UXR team to run a targeted study where participants created and joined communities for a month, then came in for in-person interviews and iterative prototype testing. I shaped both the research synthesis and the solutions we tested, working across Product and Design to ship them.

Community onboarding and engagement features
Challenge

When Messenger Communities launched, the focus was on creation. But after the initial invite blast, many communities went quiet. Admins didn’t know how to start the conversation, and members didn’t know what to do once they arrived. We were seeing a double-sided cold start problem that threatened the product’s long-term retention.

Solutions
01

Dynamic invite banner for admins

To address the blank-slate problem admins faced after creation, I designed an invite banner with dynamic content and a progress bar that surfaced data showing a direct correlation between early member count and community longevity. Rather than just prompting admins to invite people, it gave them a concrete, motivating reason to act.

Average member count: 2.7 → 5.3

Active participation stabilized at ~28%

Invite banner showing a new community with 0 members
Invite banner showing a new community with 5 members
02

Customizable welcome banner

I designed a lightweight but high-visibility welcome banner that gave admins a tool to greet members and set the tone from day one. Deliberately low-effort to customize, high-impact for members entering an unfamiliar space.

Per-user message sends: 1.9 → 5.1 in the first week

Component later adopted across Messenger and integrated into the design system

New community welcome banner shown to all members on entry
03

Reducing member cold start

Working with the product and design team, I helped shape three interconnected solutions to reduce friction for new members: making the admin welcome banner visible to all members on entry; introducing a pinned Main chat and customizable chat sections to reduce ambiguity; and adding text previews and participant info to each chat, giving members social proof to feel confident enough to participate.

User feedback:

“If this wasn’t here, I wouldn’t know what we’re supposed to do.”

“If I know one of my friends is in the chat, that would make me want to join more.”

New community home screen showing member experience with pinned chat and social cues
Outcome
  • Average member count: 2.7 → 5.3
  • Per-user message sends: 1.9 → 5.1 in first week
  • Active participation stabilized at ~28%
  • Welcome banner component organically adopted across Messenger; integrated into design system

“If this wasn’t here, I wouldn’t know what we’re supposed to do.”

“If I know one of my friends is in the chat, that would make me want to join more.”

Methods & Disciplines

Behavioral Design

Engagement & Retention

Onboarding

Cross-functional Collaboration

Design Systems

Progressive Disclosure

Rapid Prototyping

Scaffolding

User Research

UX Writing