I redesigned Highlights from a shelf for old stories into a home for interests, and brought reposts into it. With my PM, I mapped the 0 to 1 path in two phases. Phase 1, reposts in highlights, launched in Q3 2026. Phase 2, auto-suggested highlights, is planned for Q4 2026.
People showed their interests every day through stories and reposts, but none of it carried over to their profile. We defined the goal: a highlight should let visitors understand someone at a glance.
Stories and reposts sit on one scrolling page when adding to a highlight, so picking stays in the flow people already know. When viewing, a repost appears as a framed middle card with the reposter's note above it, so it reads apart from full-screen stories even mid-swipe.
As more content came into highlight creation, we wanted to offer a suggested flow where TikTok picks for you. After testing several entry points with my design manager, I placed the suggestion inside this flow. The final design is still under NDA, so I can only share it at a high level here.
This summer changed how I make design decisions. Every choice had to hold up against numbers, and I left more data-driven: checking what the numbers can support before arguing for a direction, and asking what a feature is for before drawing it.