Proposal · YouTube Shorts · Video · 3 min read
Increasing average watch time on Shorts
Why do viewers exit Shorts — and what would keep them watching?
Interview-led teardown of YouTube Shorts: three personas, a mapped drop-off journey, three feature proposals with wireframes, HEART metrics and an A/B launch plan.
At a glance
- User interviews · ages 14–60
- 10
- Personas
- 3
- Features proposed, with wireframes
- 3
- Top priority score
- 25/30
- Role
- Solo — interviews, wireframes, launch plan
- Format
- 15-slide deck
- Methods
- User interviews · Journey mapping · Wireframes · Weighted scoring · HEART metrics · A/B testing
Context
Shorts is YouTube's short-form video experience for clips up to 60 seconds. YouTube reported 6.5 billion daily Shorts views in May 2021, up from 3.5 billion at the end of 2020, against competition from Reels, TikTok, MX TakaTak, Josh and ShareChat. Business goal: give viewers a simple way to consume a single topic quickly — and keep them watching longer.
Research
In-depth interviews with ten users aged 14 to 60, across tier-1 and tier-3 cities, on their pain points and what they expect from an end-to-end short-video platform.
Personas
Rajat, 23
Software engineer · Uttar Pradesh
Active viewer of travel, comedy and music videos.
- Pain:
- The Shorts feed often doesn't match his interests.
Priyanka, 15
Student · New Delhi
Tech-savvy; spends a lot of time on social apps.
- Pain:
- Struggles with the interface — buttons get lost on bright videos.
Nihal, 58
Business owner · Chennai
Watches clips to unwind after work.
- Pain:
- Ads break his viewing, but Premium isn't affordable for him.
Where the current journey breaks
Both entry paths end at the same drop-off.
Opens YouTube
Goes straight to the Shorts tab — or searches for a video and sees Shorts in results.
Scrolls through Shorts
Content is generic rather than tied to what the viewer came for.
Doesn't find content of interest
Frustration builds; nothing to steer the feed.
Exits Shorts or the app
Watch time is lost.
Feature proposals
Personalised Feed
For Rajat- A feed control on Shorts opens a picker for genres (cricket, travel, cooking, knowledge…).
- Also pick preferred length: <15s, 15–30s, >30s.
- Can be switched off in settings to return to the regular feed.
- Impact
- Viewers browse by interest instead of bouncing, increasing viewing duration.
Adaptive UI Panel
For Priyanka- Like / dislike / comment / share move into a panel that adapts to the video's layout.
- Icon colours adjust to the background so controls stay visible on bright footage.
- Impact
- Fixes invisible controls on bright videos, lifting interaction and retention.
Watch Rewards
For Nihal- Watching Shorts unlocks rewards at viewing-time milestones, announced by a pop-up.
- Two rewards: ad-free viewing and background playback.
- Daily cap that resets each day; earned rewards shown in Home and History.
- Impact
- A path to an ad-free experience for users who won't pay for Premium — and a reason to keep watching.
Prioritisation
Business Value, Customer Benefit and Ease of Implementation, each scored 1–10.
| Feature | BV | CB | EI | Total | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personalised Feed | 8 | 9 | 8 | 25 | Immediate |
| Adaptive UI Panel | 8 | 8 | 7 | 23 | Near-term |
| Watch Rewards | 6 | 8 | 7 | 21 | Near-term |
Success metrics (HEART)
| Factor | Goal | Signal | App-level metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Happiness | Shorts is the best place for entertainment | User feedback, feature surveys | App-store rating, NPS |
| Engagement | Users love the content and keep using it | Total time spent | Average session duration |
| Adoption | New users see value in new features | Watch time and repeat reward use | New sign-ups |
| Retention | Users return to the app | Active presence | Weekly active users |
| Task success | Average watch time goes up | Plays after search or filter | Visit frequency |
Feature-level signals
- Personalised Feed — categories per user, % opting in, daily visits to categories, likes / shares / comments.
- Adaptive UI — videos per session, time to first search or filter, exit rate from search.
- Watch Rewards — ad-free and background minutes earned per user, % redeeming, change in average watch time.
Launch plan
Build · ~2 months each
AI-driven feed tuning; behaviour tracking; background-aware UI.
Pre-launch
Teasers, campaigns and influencer collaborations.
Beta + A/B
Ship to YouTube's beta users against the current version; Rewards tests ad-free minutes vs background play.
Feedback · 30 days
Collect feedback and iterate.
Release
Announce on social; final release a week later.
From the deck
(opens full size in a new tab)
(opens full size in a new tab)Want to talk through this?