Three charts to win executive support for continued YouTube Shorts investment

You want Google's executives to keep investing in growing YouTube Shorts, and your slide deck can hold only three graphs. Which three graphs would you create? For each one, say what it plots, what it should show the executives, and why the three together make the strongest case. ```hint Give each graph one job List the objections a leader might raise before funding more Shorts growth, then let each graph answer a different one instead of showing three views of the same upward trend. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - What are the executives unsure about today: whether Shorts is still growing, whether it pulls viewing away from long-form YouTube, or whether it can earn enough? - What does "keep growing" ask them to fund: engineering and product headcount, creator incentives, marketing, or all of these? - May one graph overlay two related series, for example Shorts and long-form watch time on the same axes? - How much history is available, and is there holdout or experiment data on Shorts exposure? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear statement of the decision and of what this audience needs to believe to make it. - A metric framework for Shorts across viewers, creators and advertisers, with one headline metric. - Three graphs with defined measures, time windows and comparisons, each answering a different question. - Honest treatment of evidence that could cut against the case, such as cannibalization or slowing growth. - The trade-offs behind what was left out. ### Follow-up Questions - One of your graphs shows growth flattening. Do you still include it, and how do you present it? - An executive says Shorts viewing is simply moving over from long-form videos. What analysis would settle that? - How would the three graphs change if you were arguing to cut Shorts investment instead?