Nextdoor // 2023 · Content Platform · future vision
Placelists
Nextdoor helped neighbors connect around businesses, but there was no dedicated home for parks, trails, beaches, or other local places that communities cared about. Users repeatedly tried to fill this gap by creating business pages for parks, only for those pages to become abandoned because the product wasn't designed to support non-business places.
This behavior revealed a broader opportunity to expand Nextdoor's Pages ecosystem beyond businesses so people could discover, organize, and build community around the places that matter most in their neighborhoods.
As the lead product designer, I identified the opportunity, defined the long-term product strategy, and developed a multi-quarter vision for expanding Nextdoor's Pages ecosystem. I created interactive prototypes to align stakeholders around a phased roadmap and demonstrate how the experience could evolve over time.
Defined a multi-quarter strategy to expand Nextdoor's Pages ecosystem beyond businesses.
Introduced Placelists, a new product concept that enabled neighbors to discover, curate, and share meaningful places.
Created a North Star prototype that aligned stakeholders around a long-term roadmap for local discovery and community building.
Expand Pages beyond businesses
Rather than introducing another standalone feature, we evolved the existing Pages ecosystem to support parks, trails, beaches, and other points of interest. This allowed users to interact with places through familiar patterns while creating a scalable foundation for future place types.
Make places discoverable through community
Information about local places already existed across posts, recommendations, and bookmarks, but it was fragmented and difficult to rediscover. We envisioned dedicated place pages that became living hubs for photos, discussions, recommendations, and local knowledge.
Turn discovery into curation
Discovery alone wasn't enough. Placelists gave neighbors a way to curate and share collections of places around themes like "Best picnic spots" or "Dog-friendly hikes," creating new ways for communities to share local expertise.
