Interviewer: Average hours of videos watched per monthly active users have fallen for YouTube. What could be the possible reasons?

Interviewee: Thanks for the question. Before jumping to the solution, I would like to ask a few clarification questions.

Interviewer: Please go ahead!

Interviewee: Starting with what YouTube does. It is a free video content platform where one can create and watch videos. Am I right?

Interviewer: Yes.

Interviewee: Are we considering all YouTube products like YouTube kids, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium, etc.?

Interviewer: No, for now just focus on free YouTube version.

Interviewee: Alright. Have we changed any metric calculation? And are BI tools working fine?

Interviewer: No, we haven’t changed any metric calculation and BI Tools are working fine.

Interviewee: Okay. What is the time duration from which this dip is happening? Is this a gradual or sudden change?

Interviewer: We have seen this drop from past 1 week. This is a gradual change.

Interviewee: Are we facing this issue in a specific geography or around the globe?

Interviewer: No, this is happening everywhere.

Interviewee: Alright. How much % of average watch time has decreased from last week?

Interviewer: Somewhat around 30%.

Interviewee: Is it seen on desktop or mobile phone or both?

Interviewer: Both.

Interviewee: Okay, let’s see what we have discussed till now. The watch time of daily active users has decreased by 30% on YouTube. This drop is faced across the globe and in both mobile and desktop users.

Alright, I would like to structure this problem by digging deeper into internal and external factors.

Interviewer: Go ahead.

Internal factors:

Interviewee: Alright. For internal factors, I would like to analyze some aspects. Are we observing any server related issues or crashing?

Interviewer: No.

Interviewee: Have we seen drop at any specific step in user journey?

The user journey for a YouTube user is:

Opens website/app > Login > Scrolls homepage > Search videos > Watch Videos

Interviewer: No

Interviewee: Alright. So this drop is seen in iOS or Android?

Interviewer: Both

Interviewee: Have we done any UI changes or launched a new feature?

Interviewer: Yes, we did some updates but they are very minor UI changes.

Interviewee: Alright, I’ll mark this and we will come this to later.

External Factors:

Interviewee: Okay. Let’s see the external changes now. Are there any laws/changes in government regulations against content platforms.

Interviewer: No.

Interviewee: Is there any new entrant in the market or any new feature/campaign launched by competitor?

Interviewer: Yes. There’s a new company in the market called (A hypothetical competitor company) Zeta. But we haven’t got enough data around

Interviewee: Did we get a chance to identify or compare what makes Zeta different from us & the competitor?

Interviewer: Not really. We did a quick independent survey to understand this and received the data 2 days back.

Interviewee: Are other competitors facing the same issues?

Interviewer: Yes.

Interviewee: Alright. I’m done with my clarification questions. Based on these questions and my assumptions, I think the reason for the decline in watch time can be an introduction of competitive product.

Summarizing, what we have discussed till now. We were supposed to find the probable reasons for the drop in watch time of youtube users. On investigating the internal and external factors, we came to know that with the lauch of a new product Zeta the users are moving towards the new platform. We can dig deeper to find what makes Zeta different from YouTube and other existing products and we can figure out the ways to improve YouTube.

Interviewer: Thank You!