YouTube Feature Design: Turning Sports and Fitness Viewing into a Return Habit

You are a product manager at YouTube. The goal is to raise engagement among people who are passionate about sports or fitness, and engagement here means one thing in particular: how often they come back. Design a feature that gets this audience to return to YouTube more often. Explain which part of the audience you are building for, what problem the feature solves for them, how you would prioritize among your ideas, and how you would know the feature worked. ```hint Find the gap between visits For the group you pick, look at what happens between one visit and the next: what brings them back today, and at what point the reason to return fades. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "sports and fitness enthusiasts" mean fans who follow teams and athletes, people who train or play themselves, or both? - Should a repeat visit count any return to YouTube, or only returns that involve sports and fitness content? - Which surfaces are in scope: the mobile app, the TV app, the website, or all three? - Are tools for the creators who make sports and fitness videos in scope, or only the viewer experience? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A definition of a repeat visit and of how it differs from watch time as a goal - Sub-groups of sports and fitness enthusiasts compared, with one chosen and the reason for the choice - Pain points that explain why the chosen group does not return more often today, ranked by severity - Feature ideas prioritized against explicit criteria, including what creators would need to supply - A primary metric measured against a holdout, guardrails, and the main risks with mitigations ### Follow-up Questions - How would you show that the feature created new visits rather than moving visits that would have happened anyway? - Why would creators invest in your feature, and how could it change what they earn? - How would the design change for the TV app, where many people watch sports and exercise in front of the screen?