My Product Work
Festival Cards
During festivals, learners send a friend a greeting in the language they're learning, with a free month of Super. The friend replies in that language on the web before installing anything, so the invite itself is their first lesson.
The prompt: pick a KPI and spec a new feature in the Duolingo app that would improve it, in five slides or fewer, with mockups.
Problem
People learn a language to connect with its culture, but Duolingo skips that culture's festivals, and learners can't share them with friends outside the app.
KPI
Day-7 referred learners: invited friends still active a week after joining. It feeds daily active users.
Validation
Two cheap checks before building, then two A/B tests at Lunar New Year, Eid and Holi.
The problem and the KPI
Why festivals matter to learners, and an estimate of about 34K new learners from New Year alone, built from industry benchmarks.
How it works
The full loop from sender to new learner, a calendar of 27 festivals across 38 languages, and how it differs from Gift Super, Friends Quests and today's follow link.
The sender's side
Mockups of the sender's flow: a festival lesson, making the card, and sending it on WhatsApp, with each screen marked as new or existing.
The friend's side
The friend replies in the sender's language in her browser, accepts the gift, and joins with her streak already started.
How I'd test it
Three hypotheses with pass bars, two A/B tests with guardrails, and the tracking events from card sent to day-7 active.
