I partnered with Product leadership to pivot our community strategy from direct messaging to collaborative curation. By architecting a shared cookbook utility, we leveraged social investment theory to drive a +4.3% global retention lift across 70+ markets.
The Challenge
The Challenge: Solving the Empty Room Problem
Our data showed that socially active users were 32% more retentive, but our existing chat features had failed to scale. I diagnosed this as an Empty Room problem where users had no context to initiate a conversation. Direct messaging felt high-friction and awkward for our audience.
I worked with the Product Lead to define a new direction based on behavioral evidence. We found that while users ignored chat, they actively engaged in public recipe comments. We realized users wanted to connect through the food, not directly to each other. We needed to shift from direct communication to object-centric communication.
The Solution
The Solution: The Cookbook as a Social Object
I designed the Communal Cookbook to serve as a low-friction social object. Instead of asking users to learn a new behavior, I capitalized on their existing high-frequency habit of saving recipes.
By upgrading private folders into shared libraries, we allowed users to co-create value without the pressure of conversation. This created a stored value effect where the more a group contributed to their cookbook, the harder it became to leave the platform.
The Result
Validated Locally, Scaled Globally
We de-risked the launch by piloting in Taiwan and Spain first, achieving an 8% retention lift in those markets. This validation gave us the confidence to execute a global rollout, which drove a 4.3% increase in worldwide retention within 30 days. The feature became a foundational layer for our premium conversion funnel.
Takeaways
