Context

Today, creators use descriptions to share products that are not in the video but may be relevant to their audience. This helps scale their shoppy recommendations. However, descriptions provide a subpar viewer experience and are difficult for Creators to maintain and curate.

• Recommendations are Tied to the Video: Our current product tools are fundamentally video-centric, designed for items prominently featured. It fails to address the creator need for a way to share curation beyond the video itself.

• We're Sending Users Off-Platform: Creators resort to third-party platforms and links to curate collections. This creates a disjointed and untrustworthy journey for viewers, while handing our revenue and brand loyalty to competitors.

• Creators Lack Tools to Build Their Brand: In today's social commerce landscape, success is about more than just revenue. Creators need dedicated tools to express their unique style and personality.

Shopping Collections is a new format for Creators to curate and share their product recommendations while showcasing their unique perspectives and building their brands.

We launched M1 in Apr 2024. Techcrunch

Vision

Provide inspirations and tools to lower the creation effort

• Ready-made collections from prompts or previous content

• Community inspiration

• Create from tagged content or from scratch

Create compelling formats that showcase the creators brand and compel viewers to think of collections as a shopping destination

Share across YouTube and other platforms contextually to boost discoverability

Search / Channel store / Watch / Shorts / Posts / Other platforms

Provide clear understanding of the impact and performance of the collection

My role

• Cross-geo, cross-actor alignment: Viewer, creator, and affiliate teams across 3 regions were not aligned on product direction — I initiated and led a sprint to build alignment on a shared vision for Shopping Collections.

• Translating vision into phased delivery: The vision was too broad to ship in one go — I collaborated with PM and Eng to define phased milestones and shape the roadmap. 

• Led two designers to create aspirational prototypes and a vision deck to bring more clarity to the problem space.