If you were asked to build a movie product for Facebook, what would you do? My answer wasn't a feature. It was a complete teardown of the platform.
The Diagnosis
I don't use Facebook anymore. That's not an attack. That's a data point.
For years, it was the center of my social world. Now, like for so many people in my generation, it feels like a relic. The feed is a chaotic mix of distant relatives, intrusive ads, and memories from a life I no longer live.
The platform feels like it needs CPR. It's trying to be everything. A marketplace. A gaming hub. A news source. A dating app. In doing so, it has lost its soul.
The Drift
Year Facebook launched
2004
Built to connect people
you already knew
Year the model peaked
2010
When the news feed
was still relevant
What people want now
Tribe
Deep, interest-based
community. Not nostalgia.
The Strategic Pivot
My solution is not to add another layer to a broken model. It is to perform a strategic demolition and rebuild Facebook from the ground up around its single most valuable, yet underutilized, asset: Groups.
We will kill the traditional News Feed. It is dead.
The new Facebook will be a Groups-First platform. A discovery engine for communities. When a user opens the app, they will not see what their aunt posted. They will see a vibrant, personalized feed of content from the interest-based groups they have joined. Their hubs.
The Old Facebook
A passive social archive.
The UX designer trying to break into the industry logs on to see high school photos. The filmmaker logs on to see political arguments. A digital scrapbook of a life they no longer live.
The New Facebook
An active utility.
The UX designer logs on to see the latest discussion in her "Junior UX Collective" group. The filmmaker logs on to get feedback on her script from the "Indie Filmmakers Lab" group. A launchpad for what's next.
The Reframe
This pivot transforms Facebook from a passive social archive into an active utility for personal and professional growth. It makes the platform essential again.
01 — Groups-first feed
02 — Inside a group
03 — Discover communities
Concept Groups-first feed — posts from your tribe, not your high school class
The Movie Product
Back to the original prompt. How would I build a movie product for Facebook?
I wouldn't. Not as a standalone feature. That would be another bolt-on distraction. Instead, the movie experience becomes a natural extension of the new Groups-first ecosystem. We empower the community.
01 — Filmmaker Groups
Members share scripts, post casting calls, get feedback on rough cuts, and host live Q&A sessions with directors using a built-in live-streaming feature. The work happens here.
02 — Cinephile Groups
A group dedicated to "Classic French Cinema" curates watchlists, hosts virtual watch parties, and facilitates deep discussions. The community is the algorithm.
The Ecosystem
This Groups-First model elegantly solves Facebook's other identity crises.
Marketplace
From garage sale to curated trust.
Stops being a chaotic, untrustworthy garage sale. Becomes a series of curated, interest-based marketplaces. The "Vintage Camera Enthusiasts" group has its own marketplace for trusted members. The "Mid-Century Modern Furniture" group becomes the best place online to find a specific Eames chair.
Gaming
A direct shot at Discord.
Each gaming group gets its own built-in voice channels, streaming tools, and event calendars. Facebook stops being where you happen to share game clips and becomes where you actually game with people.
The Business Case
This isn't just about making the platform feel better. It's about building a stronger business.
By focusing on deep, interest-based engagement, you dramatically increase time spent on platform and daily active users. The two metrics that drive ad revenue.
This model fundamentally upgrades Facebook's ad business. Instead of targeting users based on broad demographics and inferred interests, advertisers reach hyper-specific, high-intent communities.
A company selling high-end camera lenses can advertise directly within the "Vintage Camera Enthusiasts" group. This level of contextual relevance makes the ads more valuable to the user and exponentially more effective for the advertiser. Facebook can command a premium price for its ad inventory.
New KPIs
01 — KPI
The pulse of the new platform. How quickly are new tribes forming?
02 — KPI
Comments, posts, live views, depth of participation. Not vanity metrics.
03 — KPI
The number of active groups a user belongs to becomes the strongest predictor of long-term retention.
The Shift
We stop measuring "likes" on a photo. We start measuring whether a community is alive. Because that's the only metric that compounds.
It needs to stop trying to be a digital scrapbook of our past and start being a launchpad for our future. By re-architecting the entire platform around the human need for community, connection, and growth, Facebook can be revived. It can stop being a place we visit out of obligation and become a place we can't imagine living without.
— Donna Louissaint · Brand & Product Strategist
Turning Square from a transaction tool into a lifelong business partner.