Planning a YouTube shutdown at Google: challenge the premise, then design the wind-down
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager at Google. How would you go about shutting down YouTube?
```hint Ask why first
The right plan depends on why a shutdown is on the table, so find that out before planning anything. Then list who depends on YouTube besides the people watching videos.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What is driving this: sustained losses, a regulator ordering a breakup, a strategic shift, or a pure exercise in planning a shutdown?
- Is the whole YouTube family in scope (YouTube Music, YouTube TV, YouTube Kids, Premium), or only the main video service?
- Does selling or spinning off YouTube count as sunsetting it, or must the service actually go offline?
- Is there a fixed deadline, or do I set the timeline?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Challenging the premise with the scale of what would be lost, and weighing alternatives to a full shutdown
- A map of every affected group and what each needs before the service ends
- A phased wind-down covering notice, data export, refunds and payouts, advertiser contracts, embeds and the API
- Legal, regulatory and trust risks, including Google's reputation for retiring products
- Metrics that show whether the wind-down is going well
### Follow-up Questions
- Suppose regulators order Google to divest YouTube instead. How would your plan change?
- Creators hold years of uploads with comments and analytics. What exactly would you let them take, and in which formats?
- Which YouTube features or sub-products would you seriously consider retiring today, and why?
Overview: A Google product manager question asking how you would sunset YouTube. It tests whether a candidate questions the premise, weighs alternatives to a full shutdown, and can plan a responsible wind-down for viewers, creators, subscribers, advertisers and developers.