How would you improve YouTube? - Product Improvement
How would you improve YouTube? - Product Improvement
Google Product Manager Interview: Product Improvement - How would you improve YouTube?
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How to Answer Product Improvement Questions?
Here is a step-by-step framework, you should follow while answering product improvement interview questions during your interview:
0. Pay close attention to the keywords in the question.
1. Describe the Product. (P)
2. Ask clarifying Questions to trim down the scope of the question. (Q)
3. Define the Goal you want to achieve. (G)
4. List the User Segments and select one segment to focus on. (U)
5. List and prioritize the Pain Points for that segment. (P)
6. List out your Solutions to solve those pain points. (S)
7. Evaluate all the solutions and prioritize them. (E)
8. Define Metrics to measure the performance of the solutions. (M)
9. At the end, Summarize your answer (S)
(PQ-GUP-SEMS) -> Mnemonic to help you remember the steps & their order.
Let’s get started with the solution (remember to follow the framework),
Step 1: Describe the Product. (P)
Once, you are clear with the question, start by explaining your understanding of the product. Cover the following things about the product,
What does the product do?
Who uses it?
How are they using it?
What pain point is it solving for the users?
Youtube is an online entertainment cum video-sharing platform, where users come to view, like, comment, share, upload, and monetize their video content. This platform not only entertains but also helps learners, with its wide range and variety of subjective content. The primary target audience of youtube involves information or knowledge seeker, childrens, music lovers, skill developers, entertainment lovers, Vlogs, or event followers.
Content Creators on YouTube can upload their content by creating channels and viewers who are interested in a particular topic can subscribe to such channels.
YouTube currently works in a freemium model by keeping most of its content free and showing a lot of ads. Users can however subscribe to YouTube Premium for ad-free content which can be downloaded and watched in offline mode.
YouTube also offers YouTube Music (Video Music streaming service by YouTube), YouTube TV (Live TV with 100+ channels), and YouTube for Kids (Videos specifically made for Kids (<18 years) of different age group).
YouTube can be accessed from a desktop web, desktop app, mobile web, and mobile app (Android, IOS, Windows).
Some of the major competitors of YouTube (for viewers) are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok etc. and YouTube (for publishers) are Vimeo, Twitch, Hulu etc.
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Step 2. Ask clarifying questions to narrow the scope. (Q)
Q) What do we mean by improvement here? Improve user engagement? Increase user retention? Increase revenue? Increase new user acquisition?
A) It’s up to you. You are free to choose.
Q) Which YouTube business should we focus on? YouTube, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, YouTube TV, YouTube for Kids.
A) Let’s focus on YouTube only.
Q) Are we focussing on any particular platform like desktop web/app or mobile web/app?
A) All Platforms
Q) For the improvement are we focusing on a particular region or target group?
A) No
Step 3. Define the Goal you want to achieve. (G)
YouTube’s mission is to “give everyone a voice and show them the world. We believe that everyone deserves to have a voice and that the world is a better place when we listen, share, and build community through our stories.”
With the growth of other video-sharing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. YouTube is facing tough competition in keeping users engaged and retained on the platform.
I feel improvement in user engagement is something it needs now and that aligns very closely with the mission of YouTube. Also, an increase in user engagement will also lead to an increase in user retention and possibly revenue for YouTube.
Let’s assume that ‘time spent on watching videos per user’ is an indication of engagement in the platform and my goal is to drive engagement by increasing it.
Step 4. List the User Segments and choose one segment to focus on. (U)
Broadly, YouTube users can be divided into,
Content Creators (Users or Businesses who create and publish content on YT)
Influencers: Highly Active users who regularly create and publish content primarily to share information, teach a skill/topic, simply entertain their viewers and a lot more.
Brands: Brands that share content with their viewers primarily for the purpose of promotion, marketing, entertainment, etc.
Individuals: These set of users are individuals who publish content less frequently on YouTube.
Content Viewers (Users who mostly consume content on YouTube)
Power Viewers: These users open YouTube multiple times a day and view many YouTube videos and YT shorts.
Casual Viewers: These users open YouTube once a day and view very few YouTube videos or YT shorts.
Churned Viewers: These users open YouTube once or twice a month and don’t do much activity on YouTube.
I would prioritize the Power Viewer segment since they form the largest cohort and improvements in this segment would result in exponential growth in engagement and retention in the platform which would also lead to an increase in revenue for Google and encourage content creators to create more content.