If you were the product manager of Youtube, evaluate whether you should add a new feature to show the videos flashing 5 frames instead of being static in the search thumbnail view.

Apporach:

1. Understand the prompt better

2. Establish the business goal

3. Come up with the criteria to choose between the flashing frames and static frames

4. Prioritize the feature

Clarifying questions:

Candidate: Is the feature specific to desktop or app or both

Interviewer: Both

Candidate: is the number of frames fixed at 5 for video of any length

Interviewer: up to you

Candidate: Who should select the video frames content creator or youtube algorigthm

Interviewer: upto you

Business goal:

I assume the goal is to personalize the video feed that the users would enjoy and therefore spend more time on the platform. It will create more opportunities to monetize the service.

Criteria to select the product feature:

I would evualate the ROI and accordingly select the feature

Flashing frames: 

Benefits: 

A. Create a sneek peek into the video: Users can get a glimpse of the video content that can decide to watch or not watch the video. This would increase the video completion rate which is a indicator of user satisfaction

B. Become a pioneer on the social media space: This feature would enhance the user experienc and set us apart from the competition

C. Empower the content creator: Content creator can curate the frames for the video; it gives tools to content creators to attract more eyeballs

Cost:

A. Number of developers requried to build this feature 

Trade-offs: 

A. Users in the developing countries where the internet is slow or data is expensvie, it might affect the performance of the youtube or cost more data for the customer. 

Thus, we need to build AI to turn on/off the feature based on the user preference or internet connectivity 

B. Spolier: As for the thriller genre videos, the moving frames might reveal the key moment in the video, negatively affecting the user experience.

Need to turn-off the feature for thriller category videos

Evualuation critieria:

I would create the treatment and control group and perform the A/B testing where one group will be shown the moving frames when the customer hovers over the video and control group would be shown the static frames

I would measure the average time spent (and video completion rate) between the two groups.

Prioritize the feature:

Based on the outcome of the A/B testing, I woud make the decision on whether to make the feature permanent or not.

This is a product strategy question:

Step 1: Clarify the question:

1) Is the flash frames to be displayed for all vidoes on page or only for the video that has been highlighted?

2) Should sound play along with the video?

3) Are there any specific type of video that should not have flash frames e.g PG videos

Step 2: Describe the company and perform SWOT Analysis:

Strengths- Youtube has a daily active usage of 122 M+, Volume of videos watched - 1bn hours,30 Mn paying subsribers,Revenue- $20 Bn/year

Weaknesses- Quality of content is a challenge due to huge quantum of user generated content. As it a public platform, anyone can upload content without substantial barrier

Oppurtunities- Leveraging video platform beyond user generated data e.g. gaming, short form video, streaming QVC etc.

Threats- Specialized platform catering to niche segments e..g Tiktok,  Twitch etc.

Step 3: Strategic Imperatives

1) User base

2) Engagement

3) Revenue

4) Competitiveness

5) Implementation cost

Step 4: Strategic choices

1) Flash frames only for highlighted thumbnail

2) Flash frames for all thumbnails on the screen

3) Flash frames only for popular or rated video

4) Flash frames for premium of subscribed content

5) Implementation for only premium users

6) Implementation for only rated content for all ages

7) Implementation for only professional content

Step 5: Evaluate strategic choices

Step 6:

The recommendation: 

MVP can have Flash frames only for highlighted thumbnail with 2nd phase extending it to 

Flash frames only for popular or rated video 

Implementation for only rated content for all ages

Implementation for only professional content