If you were the product manager of Youtube, evaluate whether you should add a new feature to show the videos flashing 5 frames instead of being static in the search thumbnail view.
Google- Gerard Kolan
Apporach:
1. Understand the prompt better
2. Establish the business goal
3. Come up with the criteria to choose between the flashing frames and static frames
4. Prioritize the feature
Clarifying questions:
Candidate: Is the feature specific to desktop or app or both
Interviewer: Both
Candidate: is the number of frames fixed at 5 for video of any length
Interviewer: up to you
Candidate: Who should select the video frames content creator or youtube algorigthm
Interviewer: upto you
Business goal:
I assume the goal is to personalize the video feed that the users would enjoy and therefore spend more time on the platform. It will create more opportunities to monetize the service.
Criteria to select the product feature:
I would evualate the ROI and accordingly select the feature
Flashing frames:
Benefits:
A. Create a sneek peek into the video: Users can get a glimpse of the video content that can decide to watch or not watch the video. This would increase the video completion rate which is a indicator of user satisfaction
B. Become a pioneer on the social media space: This feature would enhance the user experienc and set us apart from the competition
C. Empower the content creator: Content creator can curate the frames for the video; it gives tools to content creators to attract more eyeballs
Cost:
A. Number of developers requried to build this feature
Trade-offs:
A. Users in the developing countries where the internet is slow or data is expensvie, it might affect the performance of the youtube or cost more data for the customer.
Thus, we need to build AI to turn on/off the feature based on the user preference or internet connectivity
B. Spolier: As for the thriller genre videos, the moving frames might reveal the key moment in the video, negatively affecting the user experience.
Need to turn-off the feature for thriller category videos
Evualuation critieria:
I would create the treatment and control group and perform the A/B testing where one group will be shown the moving frames when the customer hovers over the video and control group would be shown the static frames
I would measure the average time spent (and video completion rate) between the two groups.
Prioritize the feature:
Based on the outcome of the A/B testing, I woud make the decision on whether to make the feature permanent or not.