F8 2019: 3 Powerful Takeaways from this Year’s Facebook Conference

Facebook’s new desktop design

The announcement of the new facebook.com came with plenty of cool new features and ideas (see here). But, the most impactful idea I grasped onto was that it’s okay to start from scratch sometimes. Whether it be a technical or client project, we often find ourselves so deep into the rabbit hole on something that it’s hard to innovate — much less fix the existing issues. If you’re in any sort of technical role, you’ve probably heard of the product life cycle.

The Product Lifecycle Model

After 15 years, Facebook is well beyond the introduction and growth phases. And probably even past maturity. So in the final stage of its life cycle, Facebook, against all odds, decided to start from scratch.

Have you ever re-written an entire app before? Yeah, it’s not easy.

Genius? Maybe.

Not only did they rewrite every line of code that was embedded in the previous Facebook, but they also re-envisioned what the product should be and be where it needs to go. Personally, I find this pretty inspiring considering the hundreds of thousands of lines of code that got replaced and the hundreds of wireframes and iterations that the product and engineering teams went through before ending up with the new facebook.com. These people learned from previous mistakes and moved forward with a massive re-branding of the app to make it lighter, cleaner, faster and more group and community focused. So next time you find yourself stuck in a hole, dig yourself out and consider starting fresh with a new mindset and goals.

AR/VR is booming and we should be involved.

Preview of AR Instagram filters

It’s no secret that augmented and virtual reality are taking over the tech industry. From machine learning algorithms to gaming experiences, it seems like there is something new and exciting emerging from this space every day. At the conference this year, they announced the Spark AR for Instagram beta where creators will be able to build AR Instagram filters. I haven’t had a chance to play around with the open-source platform yet but I’m excited to see the ideas marketers and brands are able to come up with!

There’s Always Room for Improvement

Testing Framework Icons

Just when you thought humans had perfected testing frameworks, Facebook swoops in to wipe it all away. The teams at Facebook recently developed several open-source solutions powered by machine learning to learn the semantics and common patterns in your code base to be able to identify and fix bugs automatically. These solutions will also be able to find unique search queries within the complex code. So basically, all developer jobs will be automated very soon. Kidding — there will always be plenty to do. Regardless, all of these solutions could provide incredible value to your company’s code base and allow more room for upskilling instead of spending time on tedious developer tasks.

Overall, this year’s F8 conference was pretty incredible and touched on so many different fascinating topics. I would highly recommend attending if you ever have the chance!