One of the reasons Facebook has dominated the web over the past few years is it’s willingness to reinvent the service as it has grown – this organizational capability and culture is something no other social service can match. Sometimes these changes come at the request of users, and sometimes they’re driven by a vision that users reject at first, but later come to see as obvious and vital. Underlying all changes is a relentless focus on providing the best user experience possible.

Developers must be Agile to Keep Up

Developers on the Facebook platform live and work in this environment of rapid change. Facebook has not only provided the tools but also the philosophical template for development, so long as developers choose to pay attention to it.

As obvious as it sounds, recognizing that your users problems are your own and that your product must evolve to keep up with their expectations is not something companies typically pay a great deal of attention to. More often it is the desire to insulate the company from change that drives business decision-making. The great challenge developing on Facebook poses to big businesses (and little businesses with big business mindsets) is that the change has come fast and it doesn’t seem to be letting up.

With each change made to the developer platform, Facebook is saying ‘if you don’t change quickly and pay attention to the overall user experience, you will be left behind.’

Heads Up, App to User Communication is Changing

You’ll never have to see these again

The latest examples of Facebook’s rapidly changing environment are two of Facebook’s core messaging channels: user notifications (see right) and app-to-user requests (“Here are 50 servings of Tony’s Classic Pizza! Accept | Ignore”). In the weeks ahead, these 2+ year old channels are effectively being removed, and apps that placed a heavy emphasis on these at the expense of other features now have to go in search of what problem their product actually solves.

What’s exciting is the underlying problem – app-to-user messaging – will be solved in a better way using counters (see featured image in this post), visible with applications users have bookmarked. Users will now get notices, without spam, from only the applications they like. This is Facebook’s philosophy in action.

Look for Companies that have Core Competency on Facebook Platform and have the Talent and Resources to Move Quickly

Inigral presenting at Facebook's Developer Friday

When deciding to adopt enterprise solutions that incorporate Facebook, the Facebook philosophy should impact how you evaluate solutions. The ‘build then maintain’ model typical in enterprise cannot survive in the development environment Facebook has created, nor is it a winning approach on any student-focused product from here on forward.

For example, if you had purchased an application a year ago that relied on notifications, and that application was in ‘maintenance mode’, the best you’d get would be support for a counter update where there once was a notification sent. But because bookmarks now play a greater role in surfacing the counter information, any counter change wouldn’t be noticed unless your app was bookmarked. Making your app useful enough to be bookmarked – well that’s beyond ‘maintenance mode’. All else equal, your app traffic would drop and your users would soon forget you.

This is why Facebook as a category is simply not something to ‘have’ or ‘not have’ in your enterprise technology portfolio – it is an evolving ecosystem that demands continued innovation. Look for a company that has bet their fortunes on Facebook even more than you have. Look for a relentless focus on the user experience and a product development capability to make it real. Look for a demonstrated capacity to understand and move in lock step with changes on Facebook and the social web. The question you should ask is – will the solution you adopt keep up with Facebook?