TikTok User Journey From Video Discovery to Using In-App Restaurant and Shop Services
Company: TikTok
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
You are a product manager at TikTok, and businesses such as restaurants and shops can now offer their services directly inside the app. Design the end-to-end user journey for these third-party services.
```hint Follow one person
Trace a single user from the moment a video makes them want something to the moment they have it and might come back. Note where TikTok's video and creator strengths help, and where the experience must hand off to the business or a partner.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Should I design the consumer's journey, the business's journey (joining, listing, fulfilling), or both?
- Does the transaction complete inside TikTok (ordering, booking, paying), or does TikTok send users to the business's own app or website?
- Which services come first: restaurant orders and reservations, purchases from shops, or other local services such as salons?
- Which markets are in scope? Delivery partners, payment methods and regulation differ by country.
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A goal for TikTok and for the businesses, and a deliberate choice of user segment and service type to start with
- Every stage of the journey (discovery, evaluation, transaction, fulfillment, after the purchase) with the pain points at each
- How videos, creators and the For You feed are used, and where the journey hands off to the business or a partner
- Trust and reliability: merchant verification, accurate prices and availability, refunds, and businesses overwhelmed by a viral video
- Success metrics with guardrails on feed engagement and user trust
### Follow-up Questions
- Restaurants in one market want orders to go through the delivery service they already use rather than through TikTok. How does the journey change?
- How would you keep the For You feed from feeling like an ad catalog as more businesses join?
- What does the business side need for this journey to work, and which piece would you build first?
Overview: A TikTok product design question about the end-to-end user journey for restaurants, shops and other third-party businesses offered inside the app. It tests how a candidate turns video discovery into completed purchases and repeat visits while protecting feed quality, user trust and merchant reliability.