TikTok STEM Feed Creator Interviews

Background

Team: 30 internal stakeholders

@drkarl Three doctors explain three layers of fact checking. TikTok’s STEM feed is coming to Australia 🧬 #STEMtok #STEMfeed #drkarl #science #sciencealert #STEM ♬ original sound - Dr Karl

Cross functional stakeholders include roles from brand & comms, trust and safety, data science, government relations, public policy, content and creator team, etc.

role: lead researcher

I scoped the project with key XFN, created the research plan, recruited participants, conducted sessions, analyzed data, completed the final report, shared out with the larger team, and followed through with impact.

Timeline: 2-3 weeks

First week was dedicated to scoping the project, second week was recruitment and moderation, and then the last and final week was report creation and share-out with the team.

product: STEM Feed team

The STEM Feed product team focuses on the dedicated tab on the top navigation that provides verified content on science, technology, engineering, and science.

Methodology: moderated user interviews

A total of (13) total educational content creators with (7) educational creators that post primarily on YouTube and (6) low volume STEM Feed creators* that post primarily on TikTok

stats: increased engagement and perceptions

STEM content has grown by 35% on TikTok since the STEM feed launched in other markets, including the US, Canada, the UK, and most countries across Europe. 1 in 3 young people on TikTok visit the STEM feed on a weekly basis in regions where it is available.

Objective

At the beginning of 2025, the STEM Feed team was encouraged by senior leadership to form some “big bets” and challenge the status quo of educational content within the Short-Form Video (SFV) landscape. The product team was weighing two possible directions: (1) double down on STEM by increasing the supply of STEM creators to accelerate the growth flywheel, or (2) expand into a broader range of educational topics such as history, language, and the arts. This study aimed to help the product team form their roadmap from “big bet” recommendations and provide some insight into the future of education at TikTok.

research questions

  1. What motivates educational creators?

  2. What are educational creator perceptions of the STEM Feed on TikTok?

  3. What challenges or pain points do specifically TikTok low-volume STEM Feed creators face when posting educational content, if any?

Methodology

Participants

A total of (13) total educational content creators

  • (7) educational creators that post primarily on YouTube

    • Recruited via UserTesting

    • Must post primarily educational content (e.g., STEM, Language, History, etc)

    • Must post on YouTube

    • Prefer creators that also post on TikTok

    • Must post 3-5 videos a month

  • (6) low volume STEM Feed creators* that post primarily on TikTok

    • Recruited via back-end pulls

    • Must be a STEM Feed creator

    • Must have posted between 1-20 total STEM Feed videos (pulled from backend)

    • Must post 3-5 videos a month

*Because 80% of STEM Feed videos were created by only 20% of STEM Feed creators, the team wanted to better understand how to improve the experience for the remaining 80% of creators, who contributed just 20% of the content. Our data scientist defined these groups using backend analytics: “low-volume” creators were those who had posted fewer than 20 STEM Feed videos in total, while “high-volume” creators exceeded that threshold.

Procedure

  • Introduction (5min): Provide instructions and built rapport

  • General Content Creation (10min): Understand their general experience posting content as an educational creator

  • Motivations (10min): Understand their overall motivations, specifically as a educational content creator

  • Challenges and Pain Points (15min): Understand the challenges they experience when creating and posting educational content

  • Perceptions of TikTok STEM Feed (15min): Understand their perceptions of the TikTok STEM Feed and their experience with posting content on the STEM Feed, if any

  • Wrap-up Questions (5min): Follow-up questions were asked to allow participant to reflect on their overall experience and identify ways to improve the feed or posting educational content overall.

Application: Zoom interviews

  • Internal interviews were recruited via backend query pulls, which sent an in-app notification to their TikTok account, inviting them to participate in an interview for a gift card.

Key Findings

1. [Motivations] While all creators are driven by monetization and community, educational creators were uniquely motivated by making a positive impact in the world.

  • Like other content creators, educational creators are motivated to produce high-quality videos by 1) monetization, which gives them the resources to invest in better equipment and 2) community, which provides the social drive to continue posting.

  • What was unique to educational content creators was their drive to give back to their community through teaching and make real-life impact in the world.

  • This was shown through three main ways:

    • 1) Amplifying impact: Rather than volunteering in classrooms, which only reach a handful of students at a time, creators can spend just 3-5 hours making a video that impacts thousands. Being an educational content creation was seen as the most efficient way to scale their positive influence.

    • 2) Shaping everyday decisions: Many educational creators were motivated by a desire to influence everyday choices. For example, one marine-life creator hoped their videos would discourage people from eating octopus, while another raised awareness about the ethical challenges of owning parrots, helping audiences make more informed everyday decisions.

    • 3) Building better futures: Educational creators sought to expand opportunities for learners of all ages and backgrounds. By sharing accessible content on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, they broke down barriers to education. One creator was especially inspired when his videos helped an 80-year old grandma learn how to build her own PC.

 

2. [perceptions] educational Creators wanted the STEM Feed to expand beyond STEM topics to attract more like-minded learners and foster a stronger community with increased engagement.

  • Creators valued STEM Feed because it mirrored YouTube’s intentional discovery experience via search, where users actively sought out specific learning topics.

  • In contrast, the For You Feed on TikTok felt too broad and diluted, proving too difficult to reach a like minded community. The STEM Feed provided a dedicated space for a like-minded community who is passionate about learning,

  • Because of this, many creators felt only including STEM topics felt too niche. They wanted to drive other passionate learners onto the STEM Feed by broadening the topics to also include things like language, history, geography, etc (i.e., elementary-high school topics).



 

3. [challenges] Most low volume STEM Feed creators didn’t know their videos appeared on the STEM Feed, highlighting unclear guidelines and contributing to the limited supply of STEM content.

  • Many TikTok STEM Feed creators had never seen or were never aware of the STEM Feed guidelines. Most did not know that any of their videos qualified to show on the STEM Feed.

  • While many TikTok STEM Feed creators said they would adapt their content to meet the guidelines because it allowed them the best chance to engage a passionate, learning-focused audience, many didn’t even know they were qualified as a STEM creator.

  • However, the lack of clear guidance has limited the volume of eligible content and contributed to low creator supply on the STEM Feed.

Key Recommendations

  1. 🌍 Launch designs that highlight the social good educational creators bring to their audience. These quick, low-effort mockups can boost creator motivation while larger monetization and community strategies are in progress.

  2. 🚌 Expand STEM Feed to include broader educational topics, which will encourage a stronger community of engaged learners on TikTok.

  3. 📋 Highlight and clarify STEM Feed guidelines so educational creators understand how to change their content to fit the criteria, and therefore increase creator supply.

Impact

Launch of quizzes on STEM Feed

  • The product team is launching quizzes, which will allow creators a low effort way to track how many viewers are retaining the content in their educational videos.

  • High or increasing retention scores from their audience will provide a quick and easy way to track how much of an impact educational creators are bringing to their audience.

launch of in-app notifications and emails when a creator’s video qualifies for the stem feed

  • By notifying low volume STEM creators when their video qualifies for the STEM Feed, the product team aims to increase education of the guidelines in a celebratory way.

  • Directing STEM creators to the right information will allow for more videos to qualify for the STEM Feed, increasing the creator supply.

piloting expansion of educational topics in the stem feed in Australia

  • Results from this study guided the team to expand the STEM Feed to broader educational topics. The product team is piloting this strategic direction starting in Australia, including topics such as language, history, literature, etc.

  • After reviewing metics from the pilot in Australia, the product team will determine whether we should expand to other high priority markets.