Data Informed, Not Data Driven

At Facebook, analytics play a critical role in informing design decisions, but internally there's a wariness of the idea of design by numbers.

In this talk we'll hear about three primary ways Facebook uses quantitative data:
• Optimizing small but important interactions
• Finding pain points in existing work flows
• Setting high level success metrics for large projects

Some things are difficult, or maybe even impossible, to quantify. Currently, the design team works to optimize for both the user and the network, and though these two are not mutually exclusive they are not always perfectly inline.

We'll hear Facebook's take on how they think they should improve their ability to quantify some of the less tangible data points, like brand perception and long term network value. Those analytics can begin to perform as counter metrics so that they can begin to rely less heavily on instinct, which is important but sometimes fallible.