Understanding user experience of ads related to traumatic life events

Context:

The Ads Transparency and Control team at Facebook wanted to understand the user experience of people seeing ads on Facebook that are (somewhat) related to their difficult life moments (example, a parent passed away, alcohol related issues, body related discomfort), which might be temporary and/or permanent and trigger unwanted/negative behavior/thoughts, etc. The goal was to design an experience that empowers people to ease those moments by making product improvements informed by this research.

My role:

I lead research on the Ads Transparency and Control team at Facebook. I led a survey in collaboration with another researcher thathelped in sizing different types of negative life changes and their impact on receiving similar information on social media and to understand the triggers relate to these changes. To gain an in depth understanding of such experiences, I led 1:1 interviews with qualified users form the survey (who agreed for a follow up study). After the study, findings were collated in the form of a user journey consisting of the pain points and challenges that users face. I led a brainstorming session, using the journey map as an innovation spring board to come up with opportunities for each of the pain points that users encounter during the experience on Facebook.