Product Manager
Canva, Figma, Google Forms, ChatGPT, Perplexity
3 Months
A product management project exploring feature opportunities to increase engagement while preserving BeReal's authentic experience.
BeReal is built on spontaneous, unfiltered sharing, but over time, the daily prompt can become repetitive. This project explored how BeReal could give users a stronger reason to return and increase monthly active users without losing the authenticity that makes the app unique.
Understanding BeReal
Before identifying feature opportunities, I reviewed BeReal's founding story, competitive landscape, business model, and growth strategy to understand the product's current challenge.
Core User Journey
Awareness
Hears about BeReal from friends or social media
Curious, interestedOnboarding
Signs up, enables notifications, and learns how posting works
Excited but unfamiliarEngagement
Receives the daily prompt, posts, views friends' BeReals, and reacts
Engaged, but posting can feel repetitiveValidation
Gets reactions from friends and feels noticed
Connected, motivated to returnI mapped both direct and indirect competitors in the social sharing space.
I selected Instagram as the primary benchmark because it competes for similar daily social attention, but uses a very different engagement model.
I compared BeReal and Instagram at the feature level to understand how each product creates repeat engagement.
BeReal
BeReal brings users back through a random notification, a short posting window, and a feed that unlocks after posting.
Instagram
Instagram keeps users returning through Reels, Stories, and Direct Messages. These features create fresh content, frequent checking, and daily communication.
Feature comparison
Competitive benchmarking showed that BeReal has a strong daily habit loop, but little variation in what users post. Instagram creates return behavior through constant content novelty, but copying that model would weaken BeReal’s authenticity.
I generated five feature ideas and scored them using the RICE framework to identify the solution with the strongest impact and lowest implementation effort for improving posting variety.
Mini Prompts of the Day scored highest because it improves posting variety with low implementation effort and minimal risk to BeReal’s core identity. It adds a small, optional idea for what to post without introducing algorithms, filters, or streaks.
Feature Definition
Daily posting can become repetitive, which makes casual users less motivated to return over time.
An optional prompt appears after the daily notification to give users a simple idea for what to post.
As a casual user, I want a lightweight posting idea so I can participate without overthinking it.
The prompt must be optional, dismissible, and consistent with BeReal’s simple, spontaneous, low-pressure experience.
Increase 30-day posting retention among casual users by reducing hesitation at the point of capture.
User Flow Map
Prompt appears alongside the standard BeReal notification. No new entry point needed.
One-sentence explanation. "A new prompt each day. Use it or ignore it."
Prompt shown as a subtle overlay. "Skip Challenge" available at any point.
Standard BeReal preview. Prompt label optionally shown on the post.
Soft spinner. "Posting your BeReal..."
Return cue: "Come back tomorrow for a new mini challenge."
"That did not go through — want to retry?" Two options: Try Again or Post without challenge.
Single toggle: "Mini Challenge On / Off". Full user control, no penalty.
I ran a usability test with 6 participants. The goal was to validate clarity, desirability, and whether Mini Prompts felt aligned with BeReal's authentic experience.
The feature was easy to understand, and the optional nature of the prompt was clear. Participants understood that they could use the prompt or ignore it, which helped preserve BeReal's low-pressure identity.
Prompts need to stay broad and accessible. Overly specific prompts could exclude some users or make the feature feel less casual.
The next version should clarify the feature's purpose during onboarding and explore a shared challenge feed as a future extension, since two participants independently suggested seeing friends' prompt responses together.
This project taught me that strong product decisions come from combining multiple signals, not relying on one data point. Competitive benchmarking, RICE scoring, and user testing helped me move from a broad engagement problem to a focused feature recommendation.
The biggest takeaway was that optionality matters. Participants were more open to Mini Prompts when the feature felt skippable, lightweight, and aligned with BeReal’s low-pressure identity. If I continued this project, I would test a shared prompt feed and refine the onboarding copy with a larger participant group.