YouTube as a two-sided video platform: product design for creators and viewers
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Design YouTube, the platform where people upload videos and others watch them. Explain who it serves, which of their problems it solves and the product you would build.
```hint Find the loop
The platform only works when uploads attract viewers and viewers motivate more uploads. Decide which side of that loop your design has to get right first.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Should I design the product as if it did not exist yet, or redesign today's YouTube?
- Should I focus on the user-facing product, or also sketch the technical system behind uploading and playback?
- Which surfaces should I assume: web, mobile, TV, or all of them?
- Is the main goal growth in viewers, a healthy base of creators, or revenue?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- The ecosystem of creators, viewers, advertisers and rights holders, and a chosen starting segment with a reason
- Pain points for that segment and a prioritized feature set with a clear MVP
- How the design keeps uploads and viewing feeding each other, including how viewers discover videos
- Success metrics for both sides of the platform, with guardrails
- Risks a video platform faces, such as harmful content, copyright and the cost of storing and streaming video
### Follow-up Questions
- At a high level, what happens between a creator finishing an upload and a viewer pressing play, and which steps drive cost?
- If recommendations were tuned only to maximize watch time, what could go wrong, and how would you guard against it?
- How would you get the first creators to upload before there is any audience?
Overview: A product design question asking a PM candidate to design YouTube, the platform where people upload and watch videos. It tests reasoning about a two-sided creator and viewer ecosystem, choosing where to start, prioritizing an MVP, picking metrics for both sides, and weighing moderation, copyright and streaming costs.