3/23/26
8 WEEKS
PM EXTERN
Product Manager, Product Designer
Nudge
about.
As an industrial designer moving into the digital product space, my focus is on merging physical design intuition with digital strategy. During my Product Management externship at BeReal, I was challenged to look beyond interface aesthetics to solve core behavioral problems. This project represents that intersection: applying rigorous product frameworks to maintain BeReal's raw, authentic identity while directly improving business metrics.
challenge.
BeReal’s core value is authenticity, but generic, automated push notifications were increasingly blending into digital background noise. This notification fatigue causes users to miss their daily 2-minute posting windows, resulting in stale feeds and a drop in Daily Active Users (DAU). The challenge is to increase daily engagement without relying on algorithmic manipulation, UI clutter, or competitive streaks.
user.
Casual BeReal users—specifically busy students and young professionals—who genuinely want to see their friends' daily updates but lack the internal trigger to post consistently without a direct, personal prompt.
research & exploration.
To move from brainstorming to evidence-based decision-making, I evaluated several potential engagement features using the RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) scoring framework. Ideas ranged from "Live Moments" widgets to collaborative posts. By objectively scoring these concepts, it became clear that a low-friction, peer-to-peer prompt offered the highest impact for the lowest engineering lift, perfectly aligning with BeReal's straightforward ethos.
key insights.
Friends > Algorithms: Users are significantly more responsive to a warm ping from a friend than a cold, scheduled system alert.
Restraint is a Feature: Coming from an industrial design background, the instinct is often to focus on physical form and adding capability. However, establishing strict digital non-goals (no messaging, no gamification) was crucial to protecting BeReal's minimalist DNA.
The Invisible UI: The true value of the feature isn't the button itself, but the behavioral boundaries—like limiting nudges to once a day to protect users from spam.
experience flow.
The proposed solution is a frictionless, one-tap "Nudge" interaction that replaces complex menus with a single, subtle icon next to the names of friends who are late to post. The system architecture was mapped to cover both the "happy path" and critical edge cases. When a sender taps the nudge, it triggers a simple OS-level notification for the receiver: "[Friend's Name] is waiting for your BeReal 👀". The flow explicitly includes error states (preventing duplicate nudges) and a global privacy opt-out in the settings, ensuring users maintain total control over their digital boundaries without disrupting the app's clean geometry and muted aesthetic.
result.
(Currently in Progress) With the PRD-lite, strategic flow map, and acceptance criteria established, this project is actively moving into the visual design phase. I am currently translating these behavioral rules into high-fidelity UI screens—utilizing BeReal's dark mode, clean Inter typography, and a minimalist layout—to prepare for the next phase of rapid prototype testing.
