Being a product coach has thrust me into the world of a Creator. To build and monetize my business, I have to leaverage Creator tools. I need to post stories and videos. I need to create courses and relentlessly promote myself. Doing this as a product manager means that everytime I run into a problem, I can’t help but deconstruct the product. I speculate (1) why did they make this decision and (2) how can they improve it.

I have just begun to post on TikTok and YouTube. I feel I have no choice. People who know less than I do in my field are better known because they can be found on these channels. And so, I have forced myself to experiment.

This is week one with YouTube Shorts, and here is what I have discovered:

• YouTube is struggling to deliniate between Shorts and YouTube proper.

• YouTube is making some prioritization decisions I would question on Shorts, but I need to learn more.

The limits I have encountered:

• Control of Landing Page I can’t edit my cover image on Shorts. I will learn work arounds, but it is a real pain point for me. From one video to the next, the content isn’t that different visually. I am posting education drills. I have no control on what they users see when they land on my page so it is visually difficult for them to distinguish one video from another.

• No Single Landing Page It seems that when people follow me they follow YouTube but maybe not Shorts. When I go to my YouTube home page it only lists videos, not Shorts. Which I hate. I am using Shorts in case TikTok doesn’t make it. It could be a real advanatage if YouTube let me have a landing page for ALL content.

• One 60 Seconds and NO Warning YouTube will not let me post a Short that is 61 or more seconds long. It turns it into a video rather than a Short automatically. I only realized what was going on when the short showed up on my home page… or so I though. YouTube turns it into a video without telling me. I have not control, I can’t tell YouTube this is meant to be a Short. If TikTok gets regulated out of being, YouTube is NOT prepared. From a strategy POV, this seems crazy to me. I was ready to drive my users to Shorts and not experiment as much with TIkTok, instead, the lack of features is driving me to TikTok!!