TikTok Improvement Roadmap: Ranking Existing Features and Planning the Fixes

As a PM at TikTok, decide which of TikTok's existing features you would improve, explain how you would rank them, and describe how you would improve the ones you choose. ### Clarifying Questions - What should the improvements serve: viewer retention and time spent, more creators posting, or revenue from ads and TikTok Shop? - Which surfaces are in scope: the For You feed, search, comments and messaging, creation tools, LIVE, Shop, or all of them? - Which users and markets matter most: viewers, creators, or advertisers and sellers, and globally or in specific countries? ### Part 1 — Rank the features worth improving Explain how you would find candidate features and put them in order, and name the two or three you would work on first. ```hint Rank against one goal A ranking only means something relative to a goal. Pick the outcome TikTok should move, then ask which features fall furthest short of serving it and how many people each one touches. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A stated goal and metric that the ranking is measured against - Candidate features drawn from evidence such as drop-off points, research and complaints, covering both viewers and creators - Explicit ranking criteria such as reach, impact, confidence, effort and risk, applied to named TikTok features ### Part 2 — Improve your top picks For the features at the top of your list, describe the changes you would make and how you would tell whether they worked. ```hint Start from the failure moment For each feature, name the specific moment where it lets a user down today. The change, the experiment and the metric should all follow from that moment. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - Specific pain points and concrete changes for each chosen feature - A test and rollout plan suited to a recommendation-driven product - Success metrics with guardrails for each change ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear thread from the goal through the ranking to the improvements - Balance across TikTok's sides (viewers, creators, advertisers and sellers) and how a change on one side affects the others - Risks particular to TikTok, such as recommendation feedback loops, teen safety and well-being, and regulatory pressure - Trade-offs made explicit, including what was left off the list and why ### Follow-up Questions - Suppose your top pick changes the For You feed and the recommendation team warns it could lower watch time. How would you reduce that risk? - A change raises the number of creators who post, but viewers rate their feed lower. How do you decide what to do? - How would your ranking change if the goal were TikTok Shop revenue instead of engagement?