Product design question

How would you improve Instagram stories?

Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.

What this question tests

Tests product sense on a mature, high-usage feature competing directly against Snapchat and Instagram's own Reels for attention.

Segment users: casual posters, creators using Stories for reach, and viewers who mostly watch without posting.
Identify the pain point: Stories are ephemeral and hard to organize or revisit meaningful ones after 24 hours, unlike a curated Highlight.
Propose an improvement: smarter, auto-suggested Highlights grouping (by trip, event, or theme) instead of requiring manual curation.
Consider a creator-side angle: better performance analytics per Story slide to show where viewers drop off, similar to Facebook Stories' need.
Define success: increase in Highlight creation rate and Stories completion rate, since both signal higher perceived long-term value.

Targets a specific structural limitation (ephemerality without easy curation) instead of a cosmetic feature suggestion.
Proposes automation (auto-suggested Highlights) to reduce the manual effort that likely limits Highlight adoption today.
Uses an illustrative number, e.g. assume only 10% of Stories get saved to Highlights, showing a large gap between short-term posting and long-term value capture.
Picks measurable outcomes (Highlight creation rate, completion rate) instead of vague 'engagement'.

Suggesting generic sticker or filter additions without identifying a structural user pain point.
Ignoring competitive context, since Stories directly competes with Reels for the same screen time and needs differentiation.

How would you differentiate Stories from Reels so they don't cannibalize each other?
How would you validate auto-suggested Highlights don't feel intrusive or wrong to users?