How would you improve YouTube's recommendation algorithm

Guidance

How would you improve YouTube's recommendation algorithm

without increasing watch time at the expense of user wellbeing?

Product Design

The Product Improvement Playbook

Improving a product requires diagnosing the core friction within an existing system and proposing ROI-driven enhancements, rather than just listing random feature ideas.

Step 1

Identify the goal of the product

First, understand the product's ultimate goal and the problems it solves. Remember that a product often has primary and secondary goals for different user segments. For example, the primary goal of Slack for employees is seamless daily communication, but for enterprise IT admins (the buyers), the core goal is data security, compliance, and access control.

Step 2

Identify the problems the product faces

Step 3

Propose solutions & Trade-offs

Step 4

Discuss implementation & Technical hurdles

Step 5

Validate the solution

Additional Tips

Respect the legacy: Don't just trash the current product. Acknowledge that existing flaws might be the result of historical technical debt, time-to-market pressure, or past business constraints.
Prioritize ruthlessly: You will brainstorm many improvements, but you must narrow them down. Mentally use a framework like RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) to justify why you chose to focus on one specific improvement over the others.
Think systemically: In two-sided platforms, improving the experience for one side often impacts the other. Always articulate how a change for the "buyer" affects the "seller" to demonstrate true product sense.

How would you improve YouTube's recommendation algorithm

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