No Filter: The inside story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier

Facebook was like a constant high school reunion, with everyone catching up their acquaintances on the life milestones that had happened since they’d last talked. Instagram was like a constant first date, with everyone putting the best version of their lives on display.

“This Journey Is Only 1% Finished,” the posters around campus declared. “The Riskiest Thing Is to Take No Risks.” “Done Is Better than Perfect.” “Move Fast and Break Things.”

Instagram was told that the recipe for growth at Facebook—sending notifications and reminder emails, clearing sign-up hurdles, understanding the data, playing defense—was the most important thing to learn if they wanted the app to be truly important one day. It was also the thing that, if implemented badly, could completely kill the good vibes Instagram had going with its community.

The biggest was “community first,” meaning all their decisions should be centered around preserving a good feeling when using Instagram, not necessarily a more fast-growing business. Too many notifications would violate that principle. Then there was “simplicity matters,” meaning that before any new products could roll out, engineers had to think about whether they were solving a specific user problem, and whether making a change was even necessary, or might overcomplicate the app. It was the opposite of Facebook’s “move fast and break things,” where building for growth was valued over usefulness or trust. There was also “inspire creativity,” which meant Instagram was going to try to frame the app as an artistic outlet, training its own users and highlighting the best of them through an editorial strategy, focusing on content that was genuine and meaningful. This was a rejection of the self-promotional fakery that was already starting to define some of Instagram’s popular accounts. It was also a very different strategy than Facebook’s algorithmic personalization approach. “We don’t have a voice,” Chris Cox, the head of the news feed, would tell employees. “We give people a voice.”