Engineering the Neighborhood Experience: A Conversation with Can Zhang
In the first installment of our ProdDev Spotlight series, we sit down with Can Zhang, Lead, Software Engineering at Nextdoor, who leads our Feed UX and Trust and Safety teams. With a focus on building engaging and secure community experiences, Can plays a pivotal role in shaping how neighbors connect through Nextdoor.
Can shares insights into the engineering challenges and rewards of creating technology that fosters neighborhood connections. He also reveals his excitement about the future of Nextdoor’s product transformation and how news content is introducing a powerful new use case that incentivizes regular platform engagement.
Join us as Can takes us behind the scenes of his work at Nextdoor, explaining how his teams directly impact both user experience and business growth while maintaining the delicate balance between metric-driven development and long-term strategic innovation.
Role & Responsibilities
What does your typical day look like as a member of the ProdDev team?
I spend about 70% of my time attending meetings, and my meetings are either team meetings where we discuss project execution or 1-1 meetings with my reports or cross-functional partners. Outside 1-1s, I float between all initiatives on my teams and respond to either external requests or blockers during project execution.
What aspect(s) of your role do you find most rewarding, and why?
The most rewarding aspects of my role are figuring out ways to build trust with people, and giving people around me just enough guidance to allow them to grow through taking on challenges independently.
Business Impact
How does your work directly contribute to Nextdoor’s product development roadmap and/or revenue streams?
I support two teams: Feed UX and Trust and Safety. Feed UX helps our users engage in content on Nextdoor, which directly impacts our ad revenue in the news feed; Trust and Safety protects our users and platform from abuse and fraudulent activities, which helps with user retention and Nextdoor’s public image.
How do you balance innovation with practical business needs when developing new products?
The right user experiences will grow business metrics eventually, but most of the time, metrics will fluctuate during product iteration. We have a metric-focused culture to help us mitigate risks to company metrics, and at the same time, we make strategic bets on features that may drop metrics in the short term if we believe it’s the right experience for our users.
Projects & Innovation
What excites you most about our upcoming product transformation? Where do you see it evolving in the next 1-2 years?
I’m most excited about news content; it will introduce a new use case to Nextdoor where users are incentivized to return to Nextdoor on a regular basis to discover and discuss local news. This will provide more utilities to neighbors on a daily basis and will in turn drive more frequent visits to our platform.
This interview is part of our ongoing ProdDev Spotlight series highlighting the talented individuals behind Nextdoor’s product development team. Stay tuned for more conversations with the team members who help make neighborhood connections possible. Follow us on LinkedIn and X to catch future installments featuring more of our team members.
