# TikTok · interest highlights

- **Industry:** social media
- **Status:** phase 1 shipped, phase 2 in development
- **Team:** 1 PM, 1 SDE
- **Timeline:** Jun 2026 - Sep 2026

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.

## Challenge

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.

## Solution 1: put reposts in highlights

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.

## Solution 2: highlights that suggest themselves

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.

## What I took away from TikTok

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.

## More

- [All work](https://ruocanpeng.com/) · [About Stella](https://ruocanpeng.com/about) · [Contact](https://ruocanpeng.com/contact)