Product localisation research · Meta · 2022–2024

WhatsApp for small businesses, before I built on it.

Role
Research lead, as an independent product researcher. I led the research team and worked closely with a Meta counterpart.
Users
Small business owners in Mexico.
Scope
New features for the WhatsApp Business Platform, to help small businesses promote themselves.
Status
Confidential. Under NDA, so I can't share findings or visual material from the studies.

Would it work for a small business in Mexico?

Meta was designing new WhatsApp features for small business owners to promote their businesses. My job was to find out whether they needed local adaptations to work in Mexico, and to propose them.

What I did

I led the research team and worked closely with a counterpart at Meta. From the study I brought back three things.

  1. 1
    Opportunities for new features

    What small business owners needed that the product didn't do yet.

  2. 2
    Risks

    Where the features could fail or be misread in Mexico.

  3. 3
    Localisation recommendations

    Changes to features, to the language, or to how the product is presented, so it fits how small businesses work there.

Meta was also a client in my years at Fjord in London.

Why it matters now

From researching the channel to building on it.

Why I understand WhatsApp as a business channel in Latin America.

1 Research for Meta WhatsApp for small businesses, Mexico 2 An AI agent on each clinic's WhatsApp
  • 1. Research for Meta on the WhatsApp for small businesses, Mexico
  • 2. An AI agent on each clinic's own WhatsApp, at AgendaPro

From research to product

Working on the WhatsApp Business Platform is a big part of why I understand WhatsApp as a business channel, not just a chat app.

Today I lead an AI business unit whose agent lives on each clinic's own WhatsApp. It books, reschedules, sends reminders, confirms attendance and hands patients over to the clinic's team when needed.

Related work

Research for Google in Latin America.

→ Read the case