Linkedin India roadmap

Disclaimer: This article has been idling my drafts for a while. And since then Linkedin India has launched Placements and Linkedin Learning.

Linkedin is an amazing product. What makes it special is that its in a league of its own and doesn’t have a worthwhile competitor. The network effect and niche approach has made it into the mammoth it is today. However Linkedin’s consumer facing product has changed little over the past few years. I believe there are multiple opportunities for Linkedin to capture more users and develop into a de-facto career management platform.

Here’s a look at Linkedin’s users and services :

The above infographic shows that Linkedin platform has user base across students, professionals, contractors, education institutes and organizations. However there are a few focus areas (in red) that will help it have a much stronger user-case and engagement across the board.

Focus on Students and Education Institutes

I started using Linkedin back in college (2007–8). Of course Linkedin wasn’t as relevant (in India at least) back then, than it is today. But is it still really relevant to the college kids who are about to step into the job market? If Linkedin needs the future job seekers and job providers to rely on its platform, it should catch them young. Make Linkedin more relevant to the colleges and students. Here are a few ideas around that:

1. Linkedin for college recruitment: The current campus placement today is completely broken. Its all done on excel sheets with no proper paper/data trail. Can Linkedin make college specific recruitment platform where Placement Cell can invite recruiters, schedule visits, students can submit resumes, recruiters can shortlist candidates, conduct tests (something like HackerRank) etc.
2. Linkedin for skill building: Integrate Lynda strongly with college curriculum and create courses relevant to current job market and offer it to college kids. Give certifications which will directly reflect on Linkedin Accounts. Evolve from profile listing to profile enhancing.
3. AMA with recruiters: Campus placements are mostly an opaque affair where a company visits one day, gives a 30 mis presentation, conducts interviews and boom its over. Linkedin can help setup campus-recruiter specific forums where students can ask questions about the work, work-culture, interesting projects, company vision etc. Forums will not only help students but also recruiters (especially startups) to build a healthy and more engaging relationship with campus/students.

Making Lynda more prominent

About 70% of folks that I have interviewed/met over the last couple of months had done at least one certified course from Coursera. However I am not sure how many people in India have heard about Lynda (a Linkedin company), which operates in the similar space.

Lynda can be the tool that helps Linkedin evolve from career discovery to a career enhancement platform. Its generally agreed that today there is a huge gap between education and employability. Lynda can help bridge that gap for students and professionals alike.

There is a huge opportunity to create relevant courses and offer them in partnership with corporates. What if Lynda skilled the talent according to industry needs and becomes the de-facto standard in hiring and corporate trainings.

Linkedin for freelancers/ Subject matter expert

I am sure at some point of time each on of us has used Linkedin to reach out to various subject matter experts. There are companies built around ‘expert-calls’. Freelancing/Independent consulting is the way of future and is going to disrupt the hiring market. Linkedin has tried ProFinder in this space. It needs to tweak its platform to enable better discovery of experts and also help freelancers showcase their skills better.

A feedback loop using Review and Ratings need to be developed and maybe payments as well.

Strong Pulse Integration

Linkedin has professionals from all walks of life and they contribute actively to knowledge building and expertise exchange. However Pulse, which is Linkedin’s publishing platform isn’t very impressive. Pulse leaves a lot to be desired not only in features but also in usability.

1. Simple things like ‘drafts’ etc are hard to find
2. Statistics are old-school and lack new-age charts and interactive features
3. Tags — completely broken. Most relevant tags don’t even exist
4. …

Not only the usability, but Pulse should be integrated strongly with the Linkedin app. Separate app for Pulse is pretty slick but somehow there is hardly any integration with the Linkedin App (Now this may be a conscious decision). Even on web interface, there is no clear path to reach pulse. See www.linkedin.com and www.linkedin.com/pulse they look like products from two different worlds.