Strategy question
Should YouTube Shorts be separated from the YouTube app? If yes, why? If no, why?
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What this question tests
Strategic reasoning on product architecture, weighing cannibalization, discovery, and competitive positioning.
How to approach it
- State the core tension: keeping Shorts inside YouTube leverages the existing audience and ad infrastructure, while separating it could sharpen competitive positioning against TikTok.
- Assess the case for keeping it integrated: cross promotion from long form to Shorts drives discovery, and a single app increases total time spent and ad inventory.
- Assess the case for separating it: a dedicated app could iterate faster on short form specific features and attract a younger audience who prefer app native short form experiences.
- Weigh the business reality: YouTube's ad business benefits from combined time spent and unified measurement, which a split would fragment.
- Recommend staying integrated, since the cross promotion and combined engagement value likely outweighs the faster iteration benefit of a separate app.
- Define success as Shorts driving measurable growth in overall YouTube watch time and new user acquisition, not just Shorts specific metrics.
What a strong answer includes
- States a clear recommendation with reasoning instead of listing pros and cons with no conclusion.
- Weighs the real business trade off, combined ad measurement and cross promotion, against the competitive case for a standalone app.
- Gives an illustrative number, for example assuming Shorts drives a 10 percent lift in overall watch time through cross promotion.
- Acknowledges the counterargument seriously, like TikTok's faster short form native iteration, before recommending against it.
Common mistakes
- Giving a one sided answer that only argues for or against without addressing the real trade off.
- Ignoring the ad business and measurement implications of splitting a unified property into two apps.
Likely follow-up questions
- What data would change your recommendation between keeping it integrated versus separating it?
- How would you measure whether Shorts is cannibalizing long form watch time?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop