TikTok Digital Well-Being Strategy: Answering Worries About a Compulsive Feed

You are a product manager at TikTok, and users are raising concerns that the platform's recommendation algorithm is too addictive. How would you respond? ```hint Name the harm first "Addictive" can mean lost sleep, sessions far longer than intended, or teenagers who cannot stop. Pick the harm you are fixing before choosing features, and consider what the feed itself is optimized for. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Who is raising the concern most loudly: users themselves, parents of teen users, or regulators and the press? - Should I focus on a segment, such as users under 18 or the heaviest users, or on the whole user base? - Am I allowed to change what the recommendation system optimizes for, or only to add features around the feed? - How much short-term watch time is leadership willing to give up for this? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A precise definition of the harm, with evidence from usage data and user research about who is affected and how much - A deliberate segment choice, with extra protection for teens - Interventions at several levels: user controls, defaults and friction, and the ranking objective itself - Metrics for well-being and regret alongside engagement, with retention and revenue as guardrails - An honest handling of the engagement trade-off and of how to win leadership support ### Follow-up Questions - An experiment shows your main well-being feature lowers daily watch time. How would you make the case to launch it? - How would you measure regretted or compulsive use at scale without surveying every user? - How would your plan change if a regulator required specific protections for users under 18?