Messenger in VR

Messenger in VR

Where: Facebook Reality Labs, Oculus

Role: Pillar Lead, Product Design Manager

Goal: Lead the team creating the future of communication in VR to help VR become more social through Messaging and VR Parties.

Challenge: People felt lonely in VR. There was no way to communicate between VR and the real world without removing your Quest headset. And if you were wearing your Quest, you’d miss messages on your phone. There was also no easy way to invite your friends to join you in a VR Experience. Our team looked to solve these and more challenges.

Action: I began this work by first hiring and building up our team, as well as defining our strategy and go to market timeline. I created frameworks and systems so our team could run efficiently, and be a great partner to engineering and the PM team. I led the team through execution under tough timelines, with very high profile stakeholders, and the team delivered a stellar experience within target date to ship Messenger in VR.

Result: Messenger in VR was announced at Facebook Connect in 2020 as part of the Quest 2 Launch, and Messenger Calls and Horizon Home were announced at Connect 2021. Overall the product was well received by people and media, and contributed to helping make the Quest platform a much more Social VR experience, and a hit overall.

Oculus Quest 2 is our fastest-growing VR headset, thanks to the convergence of leading VR form factors and the content built by our developer community. Quest 2 surpassed the original Quest’s monthly active people in less than 7 weeks, and more people are using it to stay fit, play games with friends, and collaborate for work. And we are continuing to diversify our user base, with more women using Quest 2 than any of our previous headsets (Facebook Reality Labs)

Work performed: Pillar Leadership, Design Leadership, Design Strategy, Team Building, Design Planning and Coaching.

Press:

Engadget: Facebook starts rolling out Messenger on Oculus headsets

Cnet: Facebook Messenger now lets you chat on Oculus without removing your headset

UploadVR: Oculus Quest Getting Facebook Messenger Support Soon

TechCrunch: Facebook Messenger lands on Oculus Quest