How would you improve the LinkedIn Endorsement feature? [Product Management Interview]

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LinkedIn Endorse Feature  

Interviewer:  You are a PM at LinkedIn. How would you improve the LinkedIn Endorsement feature? 

Priyanka: To understand the problem better, I would like to ask few clarifying questions. 
Interviewer: Sure, please go ahead. 

 

Priyanka: Firstly, I would like to clarify my understanding of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a networking platform which allows individuals to connect with other working professionals and grow their network. We can also find career opportunities and apply to jobs directly through LinkedIn. It also offers online learning platform – LinkedIn Learning where one can find different courses to enhance their skills. LinkedIn operates on a premium subscription model which offers additional services like access to exclusive content, sending unlimited InMail etc. 

Interviewer: Yes, that is well-defined. 

 

Priyanka: Since LinkedIn’s mission is to connect professionals and help them build their network so the features it provides should be able people to do that successfully. 

Interviewer: True 
 

Priyanka: Now let us discuss what endorse is. As far as I understand, endorse is a feature in the Skills section which allows individuals to get validation from people in their network about certain skills they possess. For example – If I have good data analysis skills and the senior data scientist in my team endorses me for the same, it helps build trust and affirmation with other individuals that I possess the skill. 

Interviewer: I can relate to the example. 

 

Priyanka:  Here, Improvement can be of several types –  

  • Acquisition & Discoverability - Improving the discoverability of the endorsed feature or getting more users to utilise the feature 

  • Adoption & Engagement - Nudging more individuals to start adopting the feature and keep them engaged 

  • Retention - Retaining the already existing users. 

As of now, LinkedIn is not able to make users adopt the feature as there are not able to derive value from it. So, I would like to work with the team on improving Adoption & Engagement. 

Interviewer: Sounds interesting. 

 

Priyanka: Is there a specific platform – Web, Mobile app etc. where we want to focus first. I believe we can first focus on the mobile app version as it has more users.

Interviewer: Okay, go ahead. 

 

Priyanka: Is there any time/resource constraint that I should consider? This will help me prioritise things later. 
Interviewer: Yes, we are targeting to improve the feature this year (2023) and grow adoption by 1.5x. 

 

Priyanka: To recap what we have discussed till now, we would like to improve the adoption & engagement of the LinkedIn endorse feature for the mobile app by 2023. 

Interviewer: That is well-summarised. 

 

Priyanka: Okay, the way I would like to structure this is we will discuss the different user segments and then focus on a specific one. We will discuss the problems they face with endorsed feature. Then we will find out ways in which we can solve them. Finally, we will talk about the metrics to track to see if the adoption & engagement with the endorsed feature is improving or not. Are we aligned on this? 
Interviewer: Yes, excited to discuss how we can solve those. 

 

User persona:  

Priyanka:  Since LinkedIn has a platform with different players like job seekers, job recruiters and advertisers so we should look at all the perspectives: 

  1. Job Hunters: Who are looking for jobs, actively applying through LinkedIn and connecting with recruiters etc. 

  2. Networkers: Who are on the platform primarily to build a strong network and connect with colleagues Knowledge Seekers: Who are the on the platform to learn. They engage with a lot of content.

  3. Influencers: Who are on the platform to share their own knowledge and build community. They write posts or comment on others posts.

  1. Job Recruiters: Who post job and actively hire candidates. 

  1. Advertisers: Who want to build awareness of their brands through targeted LinkedIn ads 



Prioritisation of User Persona:  

While we need both the seekers and the recruiters to adopt the feature, the same might not be useful for advertiser. It is important that the job hunters first start adopting the feature only then can recruiter have enough rich insights to effectively gauge skills through the endorse feature.We will look at job hunters first.

 

User Journey of Job Hunter: 

Create Account -> List Experiences/Skills -> Get endorsement from network -> Apply for jobs -> Take Interviews -> Selected/Rejected 


Pain Points: 


1. As a job hunter, I do not remember or give enough importance to updating my skills on LinkedIn 
2. As a job hunter, I do not know if the skills are good/relevant enough to list them in my profile 
3. As a job hunter, I am not comfortable in reaching out to folks who can endorse me for the skills 

4. As a job hunter, I do not realise the value of endorsements as I have not seen them get noticed in any way 


Prioritisation of Pain Points: 

Priyanka: While prioritising the pain points, I would like to keep our main goal in mind. While updating or listing skills are important, even if we solve pain points 1 and 2, it does not guarantee that engagement for endorsement will improve. However, if a job seeker finds value in getting them endorsed, they will start getting their existing skills endorsed. 

I want to prioritise pain points #3 and #4. Are we aligned on this? 
Interviewer: Yes, we are aligned. 


Solutions:  

[Solution to pain point 3] 

  1. Immediate Notifications: When we update our skills, LinkedIn can send a notification to our network so that they can endorse them. One downside is that it can spam others, hence we can send notifications to relevant folks. For example, If I am working in my current job as a manager, LinkedIn can send notifications to my connections who work in the same company and nudge them to endorse me. 

 

  1. Request Endorsement: LinkedIn can allow users to send request for endorsement. In the request, they can write a one-liner stating when they displayed the skill and ask senior folks in their network to endorse them. This will help in building credibility.  

  1. Suggest whom to reach out for endorsement: LinkedIn’s algorithm should be to recognise and suggest connections whom individuals can reach out for endorsement at a click of a button. This will push users to engage with the feature. 

[Solution to pain point 4] 

  1. Make endorsement valuable: LinkedIn can notify users by saying that recruiters are noticing their skills and the ones which are endorsed are more likely to be focused on. This will push the job seekers to constantly engage with the feature.  

  1. Provide badge for endorsed skills: Once a user crosses a certain set of endorsement thresholds for a specific skill, LinkedIn can provide them with a badge to make them feel special and help them showcase the skill. For example, if my SQL skills get endorsed by 25 connections, LinkedIn can provide me with a silver badge, and I can share the same in a post. 

  1. Increase relevance while job searching: LinkedIn can match endorsed skills with the Job description skills to help candidates find relevant jobs. After the job application has been submitted, LinkedIn can also let the recruiters how many endorsed skills are matching with required skills. This will push the candidates to get their skills endorsed as they have higher chances of being shortlisted. A potential downfall is that it can bias the job recruiters as few users can take undue advantage of this and get fake endorsements. 

 

Metrics: 

To gauge whether the adoption & engagement of the feature has improved or not, we can track the following metrics: 

  • No of skills endorsed per day. 
  • MoM growth in endorsement requested. 

  

To summarise, we discussed what is LinkedIn and its endorsement feature. We narrowed down our problem statement by saying we will improve adoption & engagement of the feature. We focused on creating relevance of the feature for job seekers. We discussed their user journey and identified reasons as to why they don't find relevance in the feature. We brainstormed on potential solutions to make it easy to get endorsement and increase its value while job searching. Lastly, we identified metrics that will help us track whether we have accomplish our goal or not. 


Interviewer: It was an insightful discussion. Thank you, for putting it succinctly. Have a good day. 

 

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