LinkedIn 的产品演进与构建复杂系统的艺术 | Hari Srinivasan(LinkedIn)
LinkedIn 的产品演进与构建复杂系统的艺术 | Hari Srinivasan(LinkedIn)
疫情下的就业市场与技能优先招聘
Hari Srinivasan: 那是2020年3月,我们眼看着新冠疫情席卷而来。那是一个令人心碎的时刻——在信息流里,你看到那么多人,明明没有任何过错,却开始发布自己失业的消息。我们从数据中开始观察到,某些行业比如酒店业受到了严重冲击,但另一些领域比如客服却怎么也招不到人。你可能会以为市场会很快重新平衡,觉得这些人会转向其他工作,但这并没有发生。
这背后一个重要原因是,人们习惯于寻找特定的职位头衔,而没有意识到其他人也能胜任这些工作。我们在一个叫做”技能优先招聘”(skills-first hiring)的方向上做了很大的推进。这个理念的核心是,我们可以把人们的工作经历转化为一系列技能,借此帮助他们真正开始平衡市场,用的是一套截然不同的系统。我认为就业市场正在重新平衡,但实现路径与以往大不相同,这似乎是一种能够经受住各种起伏的变化。这将是非常值得关注的。
节目介绍
Lenny: 欢迎来到 Lenny 的播客。在这里,我采访世界级的产品领导者和增长专家,从他们打造和增长当今最成功产品的宝贵实战经验中取经。今天的嘉宾是 Hari Srinivasan。这期节目有一个很有意思的故事。
在 Twitter 上,一个叫 The Curious PM 的账号@了我,希望请一位来自 LinkedIn 的人上播客,谈谈他们是如何运作的,以及在为如此多不同类型用户打造产品方面学到了什么。我回复问他有没有具体推荐的人选,他在 LinkedIn 上做了一些研究后推荐了 Hari Srinivasan。我联系了 Hari,告诉他这条推文的事,他答应了。这就是今天的节目。
Hari 在 LinkedIn 工作了八年半,担任产品副总裁,领导 Talent Solutions 产品团队,这也是 LinkedIn 最大的业务线,涵盖所有的招聘和学习产品,你将在本期节目中听到相关内容。在我们的对话中,Hari 分享了他所观察到的招聘市场的变化、你可以如何提升通过 LinkedIn 找到工作的机会、他在构建和维护像 LinkedIn 这样极其复杂的系统方面的心得、进入产品管理领域的建议,以及他自己讲授的产品管理课程中的一些经验教训。此外,我们还聊到了 LinkedIn 在过去几年里如何真正成为有价值内容的来源,变得不再那么让人尴尬——这一点我自己也确实注意到了,并在对话中分享了感受。
促成这期节目的一系列事件真是太有趣了。非常感谢 Jatin(希望我没念错你的名字),也就是 The Curious PM 账号背后的那个人,让这一切成为可能。接下来,请听 Hari Srinivasan 的分享。
节目缘起
Lenny: 你好,欢迎来到播客。
Hari Srinivasan: 谢谢你的邀请。我一直都是你的忠实听众。
Lenny: 非常感谢。这次对话背后的故事真的很有趣。我就直接问你吧——当我在 LinkedIn 上私信邀请你因为这个随机推文来上播客时,你是什么感觉?
Hari Srinivasan: 我感到非常荣幸。再次说,我确实关注你的工作有一段时间了。看到你所构建的一切真的很令人赞叹,我也一直非常敬佩各类创造者。同时,这也让我感到有些荣幸,因为一个人……我知道我们稍后会聊到这个故事。当你从事某项工作时,尤其是招聘和学习领域,我觉得很少能进入影响力圈层的讨论。这不一定是你或其他人在日常中会直接体验的东西。有时候,我不确定我们是否有机会讲述这样一些故事,所以我非常感谢你主动联系我。
Lenny: 确实如此。我想特别感谢一下 Jatin Rajvanshi,也就是 The Curious PM,他发推聊到这个想法,然后说”嘿,找 Hari 聊聊 LinkedIn 吧”。谢谢你,Jatin,促成了这一切,全都多亏了你。通常这种情况发生时,有人推茬某个人,他们彼此认识,我会想”嗯,不认识,这不过是某个人在替另一个人推广而已”。但你们俩并不认识,对吧?
Hari Srinivasan: 确实不认识。很期待认识你。再次感谢你的推荐。
Lenny: 当然。还要感谢 Jatin 推荐了一堆我准备问你的问题。
Hari Srinivasan: 这个我倒不知道。也许我早该猜到。这我确实不知道。再次感谢 Jatin,你太好了。
LinkedIn 平台的蜕变
Lenny: 好,让我们进入正题。我想先从 LinkedIn 平台整体谈起。我知道你并非负责 LinkedIn 的所有部分,也不一定了解那里正在发生的一切,但我注意到一个相当重大的变化——感觉 LinkedIn 真的从一个让人发尴尬、不愿意在上面发帖和花时间的地方,变成了一个现在确实挺有意思的平台。
Lenny: 我在 LinkedIn 上看到的信息流确实很有趣。很多时候甚至比 Twitter 还有趣,说这话我自己都觉得疯狂。而且,它已经成为我的Newsletter最大的流量来源,超过了 Twitter,这我从来没想过。我的问题是,据你所知,过去几年你们做对了什么,才促成了这样的转变?因为这种变化非常罕见。
Hari Srinivasan: 首先,很高兴你有这样的好体验,这真的非常令人欣慰。你恰好点到了一个很有意思的地方。LinkedIn 内部是一个非常紧密相连的生态系统。我们一直在思考的是,整个系统如何协同运作。我相信我们后面会越来越多地谈到 LinkedIn 的构建方式,但我要说的是,基于这个复杂的生态系统做决策,其实并不困难,因为我们所有人的目标都是帮助人们连接到经济机会。每次讨论的时候,让我感到非常自豪的是,每个人都知道那个决策会怎么做出——一切围绕的都是我们如何将人与经济机会连接起来。
有趣的是,就在前几天,我开车的时候,和负责信息流的同事坐在同一辆 Uber 里。他叫 Kamesh,非常出色。我们正好聊到这个话题,他跟我提到的一点是,“如果你想想信息流在连接人与机会这件事上应该扮演什么角色,它必须把几件事做得非常好。“我们对此做了大量的用户调研,也投入了大量思考。第一件事是,当你在平台上建立人际关系时,这是人们获得机会的一种真实途径。他们与这些人保持联系,关注某些人,希望能了解他们、获取那些知识。我们必须确保这些内容能够触达到用户。
然后,当你把目光投向关系网络之外时,我们必须确保提供人们真正想要的东西——他们在调查中反复说的是知识、建议,以及获取前进所需的真实视角的能力。这些就是他们在关系网络之外想要的。我们一直非常非常专注于推动这两大系统:一个人如何通过人际关系和通过他们真正需要的内容来连接到机会。你也知道,做信息流的时候,有太多的决策融入这个复杂系统之中,太多的决策了。但我们一直在努力确保不偏离这个方向,把所有的旋钮都朝这个方向调整。
Lenny: 如果我们想更具体地说说到底发生了什么变化,显然内部是有聚焦的,对吗?就是那种”让我们把信息流做得更有趣”的明确方向?还是说这是一个持续不断的投入,只是现在终于开始见效了?
Hari Srinivasan: 其实,连接人与机会这一直是我们的关注点,从来没有变过。我认为随着时间推移发生的是,我们越来越清楚地了解了用户真正想要什么——那就是与这些关系保持亲近感,以及真正获取他们所需的知识的能力。随着我们对这一理解越来越清晰、越来越精准,我们也就能把那些旋钮调到正确的位置,希望它正在落地到对的地方。但我认为远没到可以宣布胜利的时候。
我觉得以”连接人与机会”这个愿景来工作的一个美妙之处在于,总会有某个环节存在摩擦,总会有我们可以做得更好的地方。我始终不太愿意说我们达到了什么标准,我也知道你的一些听众可能并没有那样的好体验。我总是鼓励大家联系我们,告诉我们哪些地方可以改进。但我很高兴你的体验是好的。而且回到你说的那一点,我始终觉得,只要我们保持专注于此,每一个决策都朝着这个方向前进,产品就会持续带来价值。
信息流背后的产品与技术驱动
Lenny: 你知道有没有哪些具体的产品变化,对信息流变得更有趣起到了最大的推动作用?
Hari Srinivasan: 有几件我认为非常特别的事情我们正在做,但很难说哪个影响最大,因为很多这些改变显然是累积的、随时间复利增长的。当然,背后有大量的机器学习和算法在驱动这些系统。随着我们越来越理解哪些东西是用户觉得有价值的,关键就在于如何确保把那些有趣的知识送到用户手中。随着我们对”什么是有价值的”定义越来越清晰,我认为我们也能更好地朝这个方向构建。
另一个是全新的方向,但我特别兴奋——我们开始做很多生成式 AI 辅助的功能。你基本上可以进入平台,获得一些提示,然后人们可以在此基础上发表自己的观点。我觉得这种组合虽然还很早期,但在如何帮助人们解锁知识方面非常令人兴奋。平台上现在有将近十亿用户,将这十亿人的知识以人们可以找到和看到的方式呈现出来。
Lenny: 太好了。我知道这不是你花最多时间负责的领域,但也许可以再沿着这个方向问一个问题。
Hari Srinivasan: 当然,请说。
Lenny: 你对 LinkedIn 上什么类型的内容在算法中表现最好有感觉吗?你提到的算法可能是带来变化的最大因素之一。
Hari Srinivasan: 只要是与知识或建议相关的内容,我觉得那就是很多人在寻找的东西。每次我们做这些调研,每次我们和用户聊他们想要什么,这些都是真正把人与机会连接起来时他们追寻的东西。你自己就是一个很好的例子。你能够在一个领域给出有深度的知识和建议。我想这可能就是你在平台上取得一些成功的原因,看到这些真的很好。
Lenny: 我觉得我其实还没有获得本可以达到的成功,因为我没有投入时间。我通常只是发一个简单的帖子加一个链接,我觉得如果我真的……我就是没时间去经营,比如在帖子里面发更多内容。我觉得那样效果会更好。
Hari Srinivasan: 这其实让我很高兴。我猜你真正想做的是学习和创作,而不是花大量时间去管理。也许这其实是件好事。这又是另一个让我高兴的反馈。
LinkedIn Talent Solutions 业务
Lenny: 对,完全同意。好,让我们转到你最擅长的领域——Talent Solutions 产品,是叫这个名字吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 对。基本上就是 LinkedIn 上所有帮助你找工作或学习技能的产品。我们有面向招聘方和用人企业的产品,包括职位发布。我们有面向求职者的产品。我们有 LinkedIn Learning,当然,我们还运营着一个相当庞大的创作者生态系统,供讲师在 LinkedIn Learning 上发布内容。
Lenny: 这是 LinkedIn 内部最大的业务吗,这是真的吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 这确实是 LinkedIn 内部一个很大的业务。当然,我希望它——回到那个连接人与机会的愿景——我认为这是非常、非常核心的部分,关乎人们如何获得工作和学习技能。
Lenny: 信息流赢得了所有的关注,而你们才是真正赚钱的那一方?
互联互通的产品生态
Hari Srinivasan: 我不会这么说,不过我们确实会拿这些开玩笑。在 LinkedIn,很难把一个产品跟另一个完全分开。这正是我们的运作方式,是我们思考产品的方式,也是我们构建产品的方式。让我给你一个特别具体的例子。当然,如果有人来看信息流,我们可能会根据他们在信息流中浏览的内容推荐一个职位。我们需要思考的是,一个人在浏览自己感兴趣的内容时,如何同时驱动他的求职体验。
当他们开始找工作的时候,很重要的是他们要知道怎样才能真正与那个职位建立联系。你所建立的关系和人脉网络,正是这个飞轮中非常重要的组成部分。再进一步说,你可能正在看一个话题,想深入了解更多,这时候就会有一门课程出现在其中。对我来说,所有这一切构成一个非常、非常紧密相连的生态系统,这些要素协同运作,为人们创造机会。从外部来看,它们似乎是截然不同的东西,但在内部,从我们的运作方式到思维方式,这是一个非常、非常紧密相连的生态系统。
Lenny: 能再说说这个组织架构里有哪些组成部分吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 我们把它看作两个不同的市场。一个是招聘市场,连接求职者、招聘人员和用人经理;另一个是学习市场,连接学习者和讲师。
Lenny: 明白了。那在招聘这块,还有更细的子模块吗?
市场中的市场
Hari Srinivasan: 有的。我们确实把它当作市场来运作。总体上是围绕求职者和招聘方来组织的。有一个团队负责 Recruiter,这大概是 LinkedIn 一直以来最旗舰的产品之一;有一个团队负责职位,就是你在 LinkedIn 上发布职位时用到的那个;还有一个团队致力于帮助求职者确保他们能够建立连接。另一边是面向学习者和讲师的,负责 LinkedIn Learning 的团队,LinkedIn Learning 是全球较大的企业学习产品之一;还有一支团队帮助讲师。
很多人不知道,我们实际上有两个大型摄影棚。我们会请讲师来,拍摄大量内容。一个在欧洲,一个在圣巴巴罗。这一切都始于对 Lynda 的收购。我们有一支庞大的内容创作者团队,从化妆师到编剧,各种人员一应俱全。
Lenny: 哇,一路说下来全都是市场——招聘市场、学习市场、信息流本身。可能还有我没想到的。
Hari Srinivasan: 是的。我们内部有时也用这样一个模型来思考:如何在一个生态系统内部以多个市场的形式运作?我觉得这也说明了这个产品的复杂性,也在某种程度上反映了我们的运营方式。
招聘市场的变化
Lenny: 我想以你处于招聘核心的视角来看——过去大概一年里,招聘市场发生了很多变化。过去是非常偏向求职者的,他们掌握所有筹码,薪资高得离谱,各家公司在竞价抢人。现在完全反过来了,大量人在找工作,公司掌握所有筹码。我很好奇你观察到了什么,是不是大致如此,或者说你目前基本看到了什么。
Hari Srinivasan: 首先,你提到的这种平衡确实在发生变化——现在市场上的求职者更多了,而开放的职位更少了。这当然会改变一个职位收到的申请数量,也改变你筛选申请的方式。有些人认为市场正在急剧回到过去的老样子。但我认为过去几年中出现的一些变化实际上正在持续下来。让我举几个我认为正在真正发生改变的例子。
技能优先招聘的兴起
第一个变化,而且在我看来是这个世界正在发生的重大变化之一、却没有得到应有关注的,就是向基于技能的招聘(skills-based hiring)的转变。长期以来——让我给你一个特别具体的例子——那是 2020 年 3 月,我们亲眼看着 COVID 席卷而来。那是一个令人心碎的时刻,信息流里到处都是人们——完全不是他们自己的错——发帖说自己失业了。
我们开始从数据中看到,有些领域比如酒店业受到了严重冲击,但有些领域比如客户服务却怎么也招不够人。你会以为市场很快就会自我平衡,你会想,好吧,这些人会开始转向其他工作,但这并没有发生。一个很大的原因是,人们习惯了寻找特定的职位头衔,他们没有意识到其他人也能胜任这份工作。
我们在一项称为技能优先招聘的举措上做了很大的推动。这个理念是,我们可以把人们的经验转化为一组技能,通过这种方式帮助他们以一种完全不同的体系来实现市场平衡。不是说我需要有这个头衔的人才,而是说我需要一个擅长谈判的人,需要一个能帮我处理客户矛盾化解的人。
你会发现很多酒店行业的从业者拥有客户服务所需技能的大约 70%,当然,剩余的部分可以通过培训来补足。我们开始看到技能优先招聘真正开始起飞。到目前为止,大约 47% 的招聘人员会在寻找候选人时明确使用技能筛选。这是一个相当大的变化,而且我们确实看到它在持续。我知道这些变化还处于早期阶段,但我认为人们仍然在继续转向以技能为导向的招聘方式。
以价值观和兴趣为导向的求职
另一个变化是,越来越多的人开始以价值观为导向来找工作。他们会说,大多数求职网站的模式是你进来之后按职位和头衔去找,这就是你探索世界的方式。我们开始意识到很多人想换一种方式——他们可能说,我想要一份与我的信念相契合的工作,或者按兴趣来,比如我想要 AI 方向的工作。我们开始推出各种集合和筛选方式来满足这些需求。这些用法至今仍在持续。
我认为就业市场正在重新平衡,但实现平衡的路径跟以前很不一样,这似乎是一种可能在起起伏伏中持续存在的变化。这将非常值得关注。
Lenny: 有意思的是,这种变化并不是自然发生的。你们是世界上最大的求职市场,对吧?
Hari Srinivasan: 我们平台上确实有大量的专业职位和大量的专业求职者。
Lenny: 希望我没说错。我想应该是的,我不确定。也许 Indeed 算一个竞争对手,但好吧,至少可以说是最大的求职市场之一。你们影响了人们求职、发布职位和发现职位的方式;所以在某种意义上,这是在主动设计。听起来基本上是内部做了一个决定——让我们聚焦于技能这条路径。这很酷的地方在于,它改变了世界上招聘发生的方式。
产品构建与用户信号
Hari Srinivasan: 我觉得当今做产品最有趣的一点就是,它必须确实是人们想要的东西。如果我们只是单方面决定这样做,而每个招聘方都说”我不想这么做”,或者每个求职者都说”我不在乎”,我觉得什么事都不会发生。我们也必须足够敏锐地去捕捉那个信号,让它在整个系统中发挥作用,最终使其真正易用。
我不认为我们当初说过”嘿,我们得去做这个以价值为导向的事情”。我觉得是我们开始从用户那里感受到、听到这些需求,然后随着我们的适应,这些东西在传导过程中不断放大。我确实经常在想的一件事就是——希望我们能始终保持这种敏感度——确保我们持续把握人们想要什么,并确保我们能让这些需求以相当快的速度穿透整个系统。因为这样的话,我们就有望继续成为人们愿意去找工作、进行招聘的地方。
Open to Work 功能的诞生
Lenny: 刚才听你说的时候,我想到的是 LinkedIn 的 Open to Work 功能。我还记得它出现之前的日子,人们过去就是各种临时拼凑,“嘿,我在招人”,或者”我在找工作”。一直存在这样一种感觉:如果你 open to work,那你就不那么优秀。因为如果你真的很厉害,怎么会 open to work 却还没被雇用呢?我好奇你是否参与了这个功能的开发过程。当时是怎么想出这种方式来传达”我在找工作”这个信息的?
Hari Srinivasan: 它经历了几个阶段,我认为这些阶段确实反映了人们的认知是如何变化的。最初,你可以说自己 open to work,但这本质上是一个给招聘者的私密信号,如果你愿意这么说的话。这个功能当然仍然存在,但后来我们说你也可以更公开地表达,也许是一条动态帖子。然后我们开始正式推出。实际上是在 COVID 期间,当时关于失业的污名发生了巨大变化,因为每个人都开始理解你可能处在不同的处境中。我们开始用那个框架来呈现——也就是现在人们普遍联想到的那个更具标志性的方式。
很有意思的是,就在这周,我们尝试了一个新功能,我感觉它几乎是走的同一条路。你可以想象,很多客户使用了 LinkedIn Learning,而 LinkedIn Learning 通常是一个企业级产品,覆盖整个员工群体。我们正在尝试做 Open to Internal Work,你可以说”我实际上已经到了可能想在内部寻找下一个机会的阶段”,然后内部的招聘者就能看到你。你可以想象,我甚至可能认为这种情况下污名更重,因为人们担心惹恼自己的经理。当然,不同公司对此有不同的文化。
我有一种感觉——有时候我们喜欢展望五到十年后——我认为它会走同样的旅程。这是我的一个直觉,即内部也会出现一种以员工主动表达意愿为驱动的方式,让人们找到自己的下一个机会。看它如何发展会很有趣,但我们刚上线的时候就已经能感受到那种张力了。走着看吧。
产品经理招聘趋势
Lenny: 你刚才谈到招聘方式在变化。我很好奇产品经理的招聘具体发生了什么变化。听这个播客的很多人都是产品经理。你有没有注意到什么特别的地方?
Hari Srinivasan: 也许几个数据会很有帮助。如果你正在为找 PM 职位而苦恼,先说这个——你不是一个人。我们会发布这些数据,你可以去 Economic Graph 数据查看,这些都是公开的。但如果你看科技行业,同比下降了大约 50%。我们看的是招聘量占 LinkedIn 总用户数的比例,你可以去 Economic Graph 看到不同行业的趋势对比。我们没有太多按职能来看数据,但 PM 的数据似乎比软件工程师和数据岗位的趋势还要稍低一些,后者也许可以作为参照。我知道行业和职能之间的对应并不完美。
确实是一个艰难的市场,但我可以给你几个建议,因为我觉得这对一些听众可能会有帮助。这也是我收到最多的 inbound 咨询之一。第一,在这样的市场中,你确实要尽可能多地建立关系,让人知道你能做什么,这总是有帮助的。我知道不是每个人都有现成的关系,但你可以在不同的场合尝试建立这些联系,包括通过 LinkedIn。但这是我会非常、非常重视的一件事。
第二件我非常建议做的事情是,我们现在已经上线了一种方式,让你可以明确地表达你对某个职位感兴趣。我们有 Open to Work 的功能,同时每个职位下面都有一组所需的技能,就像我们之前聊过的技能优先招聘那样。针对每一项技能,你实际上可以添加不同类型的凭证。我真的很鼓励大家添加工作成果,如果确实有在做的东西的话。你可以添加不同类型的推荐信或其他能与该技能关联的内容。这些对应的凭证正变得越来越引人关注,让人觉得”哦,这个人正是我在找的”。
第三件我非常鼓励 PM 们开始关注的——这也许比任何数据都更偏个人观察——每个 PM 职位都是不同的。如果你有该行业的经验,并且能够展示你对该行业有经验或某种程度的理解,我认为这是一种脱颖而出的方式。我会开始聚焦于那些你可能有行业经验(即便没有职能经验)的职位。我认为这会大有帮助,让你在与更多候选人、更多申请竞争中实现差异化。
Lenny: 你说行业经验,能举个例子吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 假设你在申请一个 PM 职位,但那个软件是在,比如说,汽车科技领域。如果你碰巧之前在汽车行业工作过,对汽车有了解,那就是一个非常有帮助的切入点。我认为如果你能展示出行业知识和对它的理解,这是一个非常好的思路,帮你思考如何在其他候选人中定位自己。
求职者如何提升被发现的概率
Lenny: 那个找工作的人还能做什么来提高招聘者发现自己(的概率)呢?我觉得这可能是最实际的策略,因为 LinkedIn 很大程度上是招聘者主动找到你。
Hari Srinivasan: 招聘者永远会看两样东西:你的技能和能力,以及你对这个职位的意愿和兴趣。我们的很多产品和设计路径,都是为了让这两件事变得更简单。也许我们先说兴趣,稍后再回到技能。我们最近上线了几个功能,我认为它们代表了你可以建立连接的其他方式。如果你去一个公司主页,正在查看这家公司——我想公司在某种程度上需要开启这个功能——你可以说你对这家公司感兴趣,即使他们当前没有职位。当下一个职位出现时,他们就会有一个信号:这个人确实对这个职位很感兴趣。
Hari Srinivasan: 这是一种很简便的方式,可以在早期阶段表达你对他们的兴趣。这样,当他们开放一个职位时,你可以想象,他们开始筛选的时候,会在 Recruiter 上看到一个高亮标记,点进去就能找到你。当然,你也可以进入 Open to Work,表明你现在正在找工作,向所有人展示你想要进入的领域。某种程度上我鼓励你同时做这两件事。如果你在找工作,就大方说出来,告诉公司你在找。这些都是非常强的意愿信号。
你还可以在 LinkedIn 上进一步操作——当你说 Open to Work 时,可以具体指定你想找的职位类型和方向。我认为这种更详细的意愿信息能确保你出现在正确的地方。
技能展示的重要性
在技能方面,我们之前聊过一点,但我确实认为这是一个很大的变化。过去只看头衔的时候,你只有一种方式来证明自己具备某些技能——就是你必须拥有那个头衔,而这是非常难打破的门槛。在一个看技能的世界里,你可以说:“你看,我能做这些事情”,并且提供佐证。我真的很鼓励大家这样做。你去任何一个职位发布页面,都能看到所需技能,你可以点击添加,看到所有的佐证方式以及如何添加。我真的鼓励大家去做这件事,因为当人们在 Recruiter 里搜索技能时,档案会弹出来,你把鼠标悬停在某个技能上,就能看到所有那些佐证。
基本上,招聘者可以说:“哦,这就是为什么我会把你推荐给这位招聘经理。“我希望你会发现这是一种非常有用的方式。
Lenny: 我想像钓鱼一样抛出这个问题,看看能不能钓到什么。如果没有,我们就跳过。你有没有看到过什么数据,比如如果你做了某几件事,被录用或被人主动联系的概率会显著提高?
Hari Srinivasan: Open to Work 的信噪比确实很高。可以想象,当一个人要招人的时候,这正是他们想要的。我们在企业意向方面还处于早期阶段,但已经看到了一些信号,需要继续推进。技能的信号也相当强——当你能够展示和证明你的技能时,我们看到这与人们获得职位之间存在一定相关性。
还有一个比较难追踪但确实重要的方式。我们确实在很多职位上会展示招聘经理的信息。由于结果追踪机制的原因,这对我们来说比较难追溯,但我真的鼓励大家去看看,看能不能直接走到那些人面前。
高管级别的求职
Lenny: 在 LinkedIn 上找工作,有没有一个资历的上限,超过之后就不好使了?我想象中 CPO(首席产品官)大概不会在 LinkedIn 上找工作。如果我在找工作,你有没有一个经验法则——到了某个级别,可能运气就不会太好了?如果低于——
Hari Srinivasan: 我们确实有 CPO 级别的职位发布,但区别往往在于”职位发布”和”猎头招聘”之间。越来越高级别的职位通常是通过猎头方式招聘的。我们发现人们会利用 LinkedIn 去联系一位 CPO,很多资深人士会说:“哦,我在 LinkedIn 上收到了一条消息,然后就有了这个机会”,或者建立了一个长期的招聘人脉。但这可能不是通过你自己找到一个职位然后点击申请按钮来实现的。
在 LinkedIn 工作的故事
Lenny: 我们来聊聊 LinkedIn 作为一家公司的体验吧,也许可以聊聊文化。你跟我说过,你加入 LinkedIn 时第一次产品评审有一个故事,说那次经历很疯狂。能讲讲那个故事吗?我还没听过。
Hari Srinivasan: 好。我是通过 LinkedIn 收购我们公司这个小规模收购进来的。我觉得第一次产品评审是一个非常说明问题的时刻。我进去的时候,你可以想象,加入一家公司时,你会收到很多关于如何让产品运转起来的建议。我当时什么都不懂,从来没做过 PM。我记得我把那些建议汇总成了一个演示文档,然后在评审中被批得体无完肤。当时 Jeff 是产品负责人兼 CEO。他以一种很友善的方式,基本就是说:“等等,这完全说不通。”
我只记得开车回家的路上给妻子打电话:“我觉得我可能要被解雇了。“我不确定是不是真的要被解雇,但他确实很友善。他说:“回来吧,给你四五周时间。“我记得当时心想,如果你只有一次机会,那就做你真正相信的事情,确保它能行得通。我们从那一刻开始,从这个理念倒推——“我相信最重要的事情是连接机会,我们应该真正理解怎么做这件事。就从这里开始。“结果非常顺利。
对我来说,这也说明了另一个道理——你身处这些大型系统、大型公司之中……我认为 LinkedIn 非常特别,因为无论做什么,它都有一个非常清晰的北极星。那一刻让我真正理解了这一点——只要你把那个北极星放在前面,你就会没事。我以前从未在这样一个地方工作过,我觉得很多时候人们会疑惑。你可以想象,我们确实有一个用户参与的生态系统,有招聘业务、营销解决方案业务,还有一个很大的高级会员业务。
你可以想象,当你需要在所有这些之间做决策时,事情会变得非常非常复杂。我觉得当人们让我描述 LinkedIn 时,我经常从那个故事开始讲起,因为我觉得它能帮助理清这里的决策是如何做出的,什么被视为成功。
Lenny: 确认一下,所以那个北极星就是你之前说的那句话——把人与经济机会连接起来?
Hari Srinivasan: 对,就是这样。我知道它听起来比实际要宏大,但我大概可以……再用一个例子。你能感受到一个人是不是在沿着这个方向走。在这里待了一段时间之后,你能分辨出谁理解这一点、谁不理解。这是一个很容易丢失方向的东西。
Lenny: 确实,它听起来很模糊,像是一句nice、温暖、好听的话。但你的意思是,它实际上在会议和产品评审中被反复提起?你是说在那次产品评审中,当你从这个角度出发时,一切都变了?
Hari Srinivasan: 是的。我在这里的第一个产品是个人档案(profile)。你可以想象,一个档案可以做很多不同的事情。你可以思考身份在许多不同场景下的使用方式,哪些该优先、哪些不该。但如果你能解释清楚为什么这是你应该做的事——这件事能真正帮助别人实现他们想做的事,也许是做一个出色的播客并传播出去,也许是帮助一个人连接到一份工作——如果你能理解意图,理解这如何打通障碍,以及为什么你要优先做这件事,突然间一切就变得简单多了。
Lenny: 这在公司里具体是怎么落地的?是领导者不断提醒大家?还是写在墙上?为什么人们会一次又一次地回到这个点上来?
Hari Srinivasan: 我确实认为很大程度上就是反复、反复、再反复。就是这样。我认为公司的文化现在已经有了很强的免疫系统,意思是当你没有按照这个方向运作的时候,大家能看得出来,并且会反过来纠正你。我觉得 Jeff 做CEO的时候,以及 Ryan,他们在持续不断地重复这一点上做得非常出色。这种一致性保持了这么长时间,我觉得它已经融入了公司的 DNA。我认为这确实很了不起,是很出色的领导力,我从观察这一切以及它的实际运作中学到了很多。
Lenny: 有没有一个与之关联的指标?当人们使用这个使命的时候,会不会有人说”不,那其实不是我们的本意”?有没有办法把它落实为更具体的目标、指标,来了解人们是否真的在践行它?
Hari Srinivasan: 有的,完全有。我觉得在下一层的执行层面,我们考虑的是:当我们运营这些市场、通过这个生态系统将人与机会连接起来时,我们衡量的是什么产出?就拿我的部分来说吧。我们非常关注招聘数量,成功转化的招聘数。我们匹配了多少人?这是衡量”机会”的一种非常切实的方式。另外就是学到了一项技能的人数,在这个领域通常是用学习时长来衡量的——你花了多少分钟来学习。我们用时长来衡量技能学习,因为很多时候技能并没有一个可以直接追踪的直接成果指标。我们基本上把这些看得比什么都重,以此来判断我们运营这个市场是否成功。
Lenny: 明白了,这些对我来说完全说得通。
Hari Srinivasan: 对。
会员优先的价值观
Lenny: LinkedIn 还有哪些公开的核心价值观可以分享吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 你也可以直接去 Google 搜,都是非常公开的。不过在当前这个话题下,我觉得最值得谈的一个是”会员优先”(members first)的理念。我觉得任何时候你运营一个像我们这样复杂的生态系统,哪怕你的目标是连接人与机会,这里有双方,你怎么决定此刻谁更需要这个机会?明确生态系统中哪一部分是优先关注的焦点,这有助于我们首先建立信任关系,确保我们了解谁在获取数据、了解决策是如何做出的。我一直很喜欢这条我们始终坚持的原则。
Lenny: 对,我在页面上看到了。“We put members first。“(会员优先。)
Hari Srinivasan: 看来故事对得上。
Lenny: 对得上,对得上。有意思的是,“连接人与机会”、经济机会并不是这些价值观中的一条。看起来它比价值观更宏大,是整个公司层面的东西。
Hari Srinivasan: 对,是公司层面的。
Lenny: 明白了。好,我很喜欢这一点。
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构建复杂生态系统的经验
Lenny: 你提到了复杂系统这个概念,我想在这里多花点时间。正如你所说,LinkedIn 非常非常复杂。市场里面嵌套着市场,有那么多客户需要兼顾,而且它们都得协同运作。我很好奇,关于构建和维护这样一个复杂生态系统,你学到了什么?
Hari Srinivasan: 这个问题非常好。坦率地说,首先从职业发展的角度,我一直被这类事物所吸引。我们谈论产品的时候总是把它当作一个整体来讨论,但实际上你可以构建的东西有很多种、很多类型。然后我们会说,也许有硬件、软件、消费品。我实际上经常按照复杂度曲线来思考产品。我认为,管理一个复杂生态系统所需要的技能,与设计一个互联程度较低的东西所需要的技能,是非常不同的。我稍后再详细解释我的意思,但我确实认为 LinkedIn 是一个格外复杂的地方,而你在复杂生态系统中思考和管理所需要的技能组合也很不一样。也许可以分享一些具体的策略,如果对这类问题有帮助的话。
Lenny: 好,来吧。
Hari Srinivasan: 我经常思考的一个概念是因果关系。如果你面对的是互不关联的东西,其实不太需要考虑这个问题。你做了一个人们喜欢的东西。我不久前写了一本儿童读物,写的过程很有趣。一旦完成了,就完成了,它就在那里,可以自行传播。这里的情况就不太一样了。如果你做一个改动,比如 Open to Work,你一下子就要考虑另一端的人的感受——他们看到之后会怎么想?他们会更多地还是更少地使用这个平台?你要考虑客户,他们拿到这些数据会怎么做?是不是如你所说,会以不同的方式来看待某个人?你必须考虑到第二层、第三层甚至第四层的影响,并在推进过程中加以管理。我觉得这是我们非常引以为豪的一点——我们如何开始系统性地思考这些不同的影响,如何在推进过程中进行衡量。这是第一点。
第二点,我觉得确实如你所说,你需要一种不同的决策机制,因为生态系统中有更多的交叉牵连,有很多人需要一个打破僵局的方式。我们引入了一些机制,比如我们有一个叫做 RAPID 的框架,能很清楚地知道谁是决策者。你列出谁是建议者、谁需要同意、谁是决策者。我们还有一条”五天升级规则”,确保这些事项能及时推进。我觉得你需要更多这样的——我不知道该怎么叫——熔断机制也好,或者说就是一套系统性的流程来管理复杂性,让事情能够推进。我认为这些流程对于确保生态系统正常运转来说真的非常重要。
Lenny: 我们来聊聊这两个流程。RAPID,还有一个是什么?五天——
Hari Srinivasan: 对,五天对齐规则。这两个机制在 LinkedIn 已经存在一段时间了,但确实很好用。RAPID 说到底就是,就像你说的,当你同时运营两三个市场、好几种不同的商业模式时,一个关键问题就是:谁来做决策?谁有权在这种情境下做出决定?确保有一个具体的人名对接到这个决策上,而且这个人……这一点真的非常重要,因为它能很快地带来清晰度。
这更像是一条个人准则,但我很喜欢说的一句话是:如果你在邮件里来回三次还没说清楚,就该拿起电话了。如果电话打了二十分钟还没搞定,那就直接去找那个决策者拍板。这样,你能确保在一个小时内做出决策。实际操作并不总是这样,我相信 LinkedIn 很多 PM 在这里工作,可能对我说的这点有反馈,但这是背后的初衷。
五天对齐规则则是,你应该对你的管理者有要求——五天之内,如果有人有事项未能完成升级和解决,那责任就落到上一级的人头上了。但当你运营这样一个生态系统,周围有那么多复杂性时,我觉得你需要一些这样的流程,才能开始处理那些需要打破僵局的局面。
Lenny: 哦,我喜欢这个五天规则。基本上就是给管理者加上一个倒计时,要求他们去解决问题,对吧?
Hari Srinivasan: 对,没错。
Lenny: 关于 RAPID,我不确定我完全理解了。它是什么的缩写吗?还是说就是——
Hari Srinivasan: 是缩写。
Lenny: ——快速做决策的意思?
Hari Srinivasan: 好问题。D 代表决策(Decisions),R 代表谁在提议推荐,A 代表谁需要同意,I 代表其他可能提供意见的人。基本上就是列出需要参与决策链的所有人。
Lenny: 明白了。
Hari Srinivasan: 我认为最关键的一点是,决策线上只能有一个人的名字,因为这通常能确保你非常快速地做出决策。
人才与系统能力
Lenny: LinkedIn 还有没有其他类似这样的常用框架或流程,你觉得特别有帮助的?
Hari Srinivasan: 第三点是我们在思考人才方面的方式,尤其是在产品团队中。我在面试或晋升的时候,确实很注重考察一个人看到系统的能力。因为我再次认为,这是一种不同的技能和不同的能力——我们如何把这些东西映射到一条复杂性曲线上。很多时候,我觉得那些人才体系会……能够看到整体、在整体层面做决策的人,其实是很稀缺的。
我认为大多数人才体系的逻辑是,“嘿,你的业务线增长得怎么样?你的产品增长得怎么样?你负责的领域增长得怎么样?“我们尽力让大家理解,不仅仅要看这些。当然你需要在生态系统中有问责制,但这个人跨部门协作的能力如何?我觉得当我们围绕这一点建立衡量体系,或者说组织层面的认知——当我们更了解自己的时候,认识到”嘿,这种技能在这里真的很重要”——我认为在驱动这种复杂系统方面,这是相当难得的。
Lenny: 关于这个话题,我还有一个问题。
Hari Srinivasan: 请说。
从优化到创新的产品转型
Lenny: 你在 LinkedIn 已经待了很长时间了。从外部观感来看,过去 LinkedIn 的产品团队给人的印象是非常注重优化——每个人都在微调 LinkedIn 的各种小功能。我跟每一个从 LinkedIn 出来共事过的人打交道,他们都非常擅长做优化。
感觉 LinkedIn 最近有很多新东西在发生。我很好奇,这是否是一次真正有意为之的转变——不再那么关注让邮件效果更好、不再纠结各种点击率,而是更多地创新、做一些更大的押注?
Hari Srinivasan: 我认为有两点需要说明。第一,LinkedIn 有一个非常出色的增长团队,我觉得很多从 LinkedIn 出去担任重要角色的人都是做增长出身的。我想你接触到的很多人可能就是增长方向的。第二点,尤其是 LinkedIn 早期——你也说了,我在这里待了一段时间——扩大网络规模在当时确实是最重要的事情,需要把规模做起来。我觉得大家最初接触到的很多东西,可能更多是增长机制,而非其他系统。
不过我确实认为,至少在过去好几年里,一直有一条底层主线:价值才是支撑这个生态系统的根本,价值才是最终决定一切的东西。正如你所说,我喜欢这样想——这些可能不是最闪亮的东西,但我对我们在技能方面所做的事情非常自豪。我认为这是那些没人真正了解的隐形系统之一。比如说,天哪,如果人们现在可以获得……那是一种人们创造的巨大语言,那是人们改变自身的一种巨大方式。
我们对在价值观方面所做的工作也感到很自豪。即使是 Open to Work 以及各种承诺,这些都是我们贯穿搭建起来的重大社会系统。我对 LinkedIn Learning 所做的工作也非常自豪。我认为它是世界上较大的创作者系统之一。它拥有这些了不起的讲师,能够把一个会教课但可能不太擅长面对镜头的人带到工作室,赋予他们这种能力,让他们的声音传播出去。
我觉得我们做了很多不同的事情,但因为它们可能更加隐形,或者隐藏在某个市场里,那些有影响力的声音未必每天都需要接触到它们,所以它们可能没有得到那么多曝光。但我愿意相信,这一直是我们 DNA 的一部分,我们一直在认真地思考这些。
LinkedIn Learning
Lenny: 我们来聊聊 LinkedIn Learning 吧。我知道这是你非常热衷的一个方向,你在里面也有自己的课程,我等下想聊聊这个。但先宏观地说一下,LinkedIn Learning 到底是什么?让不了解的人有个概念。因为我觉得很多人可能不知道 LinkedIn 里面还有这个东西。
Hari Srinivasan: 好问题。LinkedIn Learning 本质上是一个学习职业技能的途径。我们在 2015 年进入这个业务,当时的论点同样是以市场的思维来看——你有求职者和职位,而求职者往往并不具备获得那份工作所需的全部技能。我们现在正在向技能模型转型,但毫无疑问,这是另一个二阶效应。我觉得我们没有人想要——如果你愿意说的话——把整个世界”优步化”。我们没有人想把每个人都推到某个位置上去。我们想要确保每个人都拥有学习技能的能力,从而能够到达那个位置。因此,获得学习业务对整个愿景和使命来说真的非常重要。核心理念就是,我们要有办法教人们技能,而且是非常贴合职业人士需求的方式。
以上是愿景。具体的运作机制是这样的:我们会去寻找世界上最优秀的讲师,把他们请进摄影棚。我们也可以在家拍摄,或者用任何能让内容达到极高水准的方式来做。我们会协助撰写脚本,当然也有非常出色的图形设计,目的是帮助那些本身是专家、但未必有能力或时间去独立制作在线课程的老师,把他们带进摄影棚,从这里开始。然后,绝大多数人可能是通过自己的公司获得访问权限的。绝大部分的使用量和业务都是走企业端的,它本质上是一个大型企业学习产品。
Lenny: 太好了。作为一个纸上谈兵的战略爱好者,我能理解这个逻辑——我们想帮助人们连接经济机会、找到工作,怎么帮他们呢?哦,他们缺技能?那就帮他们培养技能。完全说得通。好,在这个产品里面,你自己也有一门关于产品管理的课程。
Hari Srinivasan: 说来有趣。我考虑做课程已经有一段时间了,但很大程度上是因为这样一个想法:我想确保自己亲自使用过我们的产品,理解讲师的痛点。不过这是一个非常令人紧张的经历。首先,我不确定自己有没有什么东西可以教——我自己也有这样的顾虑。但大约四五 年前,我们在 PM 内部开始做的一件事是 product university(产品大学)。我们搞了一个内部大学,基本上就是发了一份调查问卷出去。我记得所有人的反馈中,最负面的一条是:“我不具备做好这份工作的技能。”
我记得我环顾四周,心想:“原因很明显。我们招了一堆人,根本没有 PM 学位这种东西,而且我们什么培训都没做。“于是我们开始内部创建 product university。它是一个入职训练营的形式。我们尝试了不同的模式,其中一个很重要的发现是:你不能仅仅通过框架来教这些东西。你需要一系列案例研究,需要一系列真实的实例。但幸运的是,我们在 LinkedIn 做了很多事情,所以我们开始围绕这些内容编排课程。然后就在最近,我们几个人一起把实际的课程录制完成了。基本上就是把我们的 product university 训练营向全世界开放。
Lenny: 你在这门课程里公开了一些你们内部的案例?
Hari Srinivasan: 是的,公开了。
Lenny: 太棒了。我常说,在大公司工作有一个你意识不到的优势,就是能接触到大量的战略文档、愿景文档和背后的故事。因为一旦你离开,没人会再跟你分享这些——它们太机密了。我现在也看不到这些东西了。如果你在 LinkedIn 这样的公司工作,这真的是一个很棒的福利。
Hari Srinivasan: 谢谢,确实如此。
PM 课程的核心内容
Lenny: 关于你的课程有个问题。你教的最核心的课程内容是什么?能不能预告一下在这门课里能学到哪些精华?
Hari Srinivasan: 再说一下,课程很大程度上是案例研究和实际用例,和我们内部教学的方式一样。但有几点是我们重点讲到的。当我们开始做自己的 product university 时,我们发现了人们碰到的几个主要痛点。第一个是,在任何一个组织中,如何验证一个新想法、以及判断新想法的标准是什么,这其实非常难。我觉得这真的很难说清楚。我们提供了很多框架。最简单的比如——“你得向世界证明为什么这里需要胶带。“意思是说,得有人真正走出去尝试做这件事。
如何围绕一个痛点对一长串想法进行排序,如何做一个简洁的表达,如何区分哪些是急迫的痛点、哪些是广泛人群在使用的东西,我们期望用什么样的数据来验证。你可以说这是好主意还是坏主意的工具。更重要的是,确保你走完了整个流程的工具,以及如何把这个过程沟通出来。这是我们在课程中讲的一套框架。
另一部分主要是 Damian 的内容,他领导我们的增长团队。他会进来讲很多关于”用循环思维思考”的内容。如何确保你在构建产品时拥有能够不断扩散和增长的燃料。我觉得这个框架——如何衡量、如何监控——至少在我自己创业的时候,是我非常希望自己能接触到的。这可能是我们讲到的两个比较好的框架和工具的例子。
当然,我们还会把这些框架叠加到真实案例上。而且不总是成功的案例——我们也讲了很多失败的经历,以及如果事后复盘的话,我们可能在哪里出了问题。
如何进入产品管理
Lenny: 听这个播客的很多人是想进入产品管理领域、目前还不是 PM 的人。我猜你经常被问到这个问题:我怎样才能进入产品管理?你通常给出的建议是什么?
Hari Srinivasan: 好。让我们先从我们看世界的方式说起,也就是”技能”这个概念。我脑海中有一个图,技能分布在一个三角形上。你可能听过这个说法,我不确定你有没有。技能分布在一个三角形上,我认为要成为一名优秀的 PM 需要三种不同的技能。你需要具备 Steven Spielberg 式的创作者能力。需要数据科学方面的能力——能够真正审视数据、发现规律,然后预见未来。再往上走,尤其是到了更资深的级别,我觉得很大程度上是综合管理。你必须能够在团队中发光和创新,理解预算,理解不同公司是如何运作的。
实际上,我从未见过一个伟大的 PM 处在那个三角形的正中心。我发现优秀的 PM 都活在三角形的边缘。总有某个人是极其出色的数据科学家,同时具备成为优秀 GM(总经理)并引领和激励团队的能力;或者是某个人极具创造力,能以一种不同的方式带领团队。我非常、非常鼓励大家去理解自己在这个图上的位置,并向那些与自己特长相符的角色靠拢。因为很多时候,我觉得人们会认为自己必须补齐那个图上其他的部分,这反而把他们引向了一条可能无法发挥自身优势的道路。这是我一直鼓励大家的一件事。
另外一点我想说的是,我知道这里面有一定的运气成分,但回想我自己的经历,有一件事我觉得特别有帮助。我曾经在第一个在美国做混合动力 SUV 的团队工作。当时在福特做的是 Hybrid Escape。我来自中西部,那是一款人们真的会开几百英里去亲眼看看的产品,围绕它形成了真正的社区,因为它是一款非常特别的产品。能够参与一款人们真心热爱的产品——在早期就看到人们那么爱它,感受和目睹那种成功——这为我后来对自己产品的期望设立了一个标杆。
Hari Srinivasan: 如果你能参与到一款人们真心热爱的产品中去,去感受它、体验它,真正理解那是什么样子、达到那个目标需要什么,我认为这在我的整个职业生涯中都是一堂非常有价值的课,因为你能理解通往成功的完整路径。我回头看那段经历,真的觉得这是我希望其他人也能做到的事情。我知道你们在做职业决策时会考虑很多不同的标准,但请尽量去找一款人们热爱的产品,真正去体验那种感觉。
PM 如何提升自己
Lenny: 顺着这个话题说,对于那些为你工作、与你共事的 PM,当他们想要提升自己、磨炼技能的时候,除了去 LinkedIn Learning 上修几门课之外,你通常会建议他们怎么做,来帮助自己变得更强、更胜任工作?
Hari Srinivasan: 首先,就是那种感觉——你必须拥有自己的产品,你必须站出来说”这就是我想把它带到的方向”。因为很多时候,我觉得人们害怕这样做,或者担心这样做,或者觉得那不是自己真正的职责。第一点,要极其明确地告诉大家:嘿,这就是你的角色定位。你的职责就是拥有这个产品,把它带到一个新的高度。当你开始塑造那块黏土的时候,人们会愿意过来帮忙。当你开始打造一些很酷的东西时,人们会”哦”的一声被吸引过来。但在你开始动手之前,这一切都很难实现。所以第一点,就是让大家知道这就是对他们的期望。
第二点,我会告诉人们:去动手构建。听起来可能有点疯狂,但我很多业余时间都花在尝试构建不同的东西上。试试不同的黏土,思考不同的想法。我认为这是一项非常重要的技能——能够说”好,我要从一张白纸开始,创作一些艺术”,或者任何你想做的事情。我鼓励大家这样做,因为这是一种肌肉,和其他能力一样。它会萎缩的。我真的认为,无论 PM 的核心是什么,归根结底就是那种作为构建者的能力,你必须确保自己能持续保持这种能力。
Mind of Hari:动手构建的副项目
Lenny: 这个话题恰好很自然地引到了我接下来想聊的方向。你说你喜欢构建东西,但你不只是说说而已,你确实在构建大量的东西。你有一个网站 mindofhari.com,在上面分享各种副项目。能聊聊那上面都有什么,你做了哪些东西吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 对。可以说,我这辈子唯一真正擅长的就是构建东西和创造东西。我从中获得了很多能量。是的,我有一个网站,叫 Mind of Hari,因为它确实就是我心里想什么就放什么。我尽量把它与商业完全分开。我知道作为一个好的 PM,总会有一种冲动去想”这里有没有一个商业机会?“但我尽量把它当作艺术。它完全是艺术,是我想构建什么就构建什么。我会涉猎新的主题。我有两个小孩,这很有趣——其中一个项目是我和我的大孩子一起写的一本书,是一系列睡前故事的合集。后来有一天我说,“嘿,我们应该把这个做成一个笔记本。“我们就做了。我觉得它现在大概有大约五十万读者了。看着它有了自己的生命力并传播开来,很有趣。
我们最近做了一个桌游,我知道斯坦福设计学院那边的一些教授一直在使用它,叫做 Parallel Universe。玩法是——你拿到一张卡片,然后能看到比如卡片上说”这个世界上再也没有窗户了”,然后那个世界会发生什么?你需要列出十件会发生的事情。那种提前思考的能力,有趣的科幻元素。我还做健康的软糖小熊。我就是想尝试一些全新的东西。我不知道,这可能是这个世界上最有趣的时刻之一——你就坐在那里,创造出一些东西,拥有一些新的黏土。是的,这就是那个网站的内容。
Lenny: 等等,所以你做了真正的软糖小熊?
Hari Srinivasan: 对,我们在做一些和软糖小熊有关的事情。Lenny,我知道你即将迎来新成员,再次恭喜你。但我在有孩子之后发现的一件事是,无论我想怎么做,糖果和糖无处不在——万圣节、生日派对等等。你根本没法完全杜绝,因为这太难了。所以我们就想,嘿,我们坐下来自己做软糖小熊吧。我发现一个有趣的冷知识,可以分享给你的读者——如果你打开一根 Twizzler 或类似的东西,大约 80% 的成分是糖,因为他们在优化保质期,在为货架上的商品做优化。
而我们做到的是,基本创造了一款软糖小熊,其中只有大约 40% 是糖。只有五种原料。甜味剂用的是蜂蜜,因为我不想给孩子们吃那些替代性甜味剂。我们有一个小型的商业厨房,生产一些软糖小熊。如果你什么时候想尝尝,对你的任何粉丝,我都乐意寄一些软糖小熊过去,希望你们能试试。
Lenny: 等等,有什么地方可以买到吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 你可以去 Mind of Hari。我们按季节上架。我们发现的一件事是,关于运输有不同的法律规定,而且显然我们不是在为长期储存做优化。但它们会放在 Mind of Hari 上。你随时可以联系我,我会告诉你我们在哪个农夫市集,你可以过来。
Lenny: 我在 Mind of Hari 上没看到,也许等这期节目出来的时候,把它放上去。或者如果你是想——
Hari Srinivasan: 放上去?
Lenny: 对。
Hari Srinivasan: 嗯,它在主页上。然后当有库存的时候,我们会放在商店里。
Lenny: 好。那这意味着现在缺货了?好,我们要把你的软糖小熊买光了。接下来,我们进入了非常令人兴奋的闪电问答环节。准备好了吗?
Hari Srinivasan: 好,来吧。
闪电问答
Lenny: 你最常推荐给别人的是哪两三本书?
Hari Srinivasan: 第一本叫《Thinking in Systems》。我时不时会送给团队。这是一本非常好的书,讲的是——我觉得有时候人们看到系统,能谈论它,但可能比较抽象。我认为这本书详细讲述了人们如何在系统的不同环节进行干预,以及如何在不同的系统中采取行动。我非常喜欢那本书。
有一本不算是直接推荐的,但我刚读完觉得非常精彩,推荐给读者们如果他们想找一本好书的话,叫《Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow》。是一个朋友推荐的。你读过吗?读过?
Lenny: 读过。说实话我没有特别喜欢,但确实不错。
Hari Srinivasan: 不知为什么,我一直——
Lenny: 挺温暖的。
Hari Srinivasan: 我觉得写得非常好,有几章我回味了很久。我刚刚读完。我觉得写得很好。这本我就推荐出来。
Lenny: 对,很温暖。我觉得它被炒得太热了,对我来说就是——嗯。
Hari Srinivasan: 哦,我其实不知道它得到了那么多——
Lenny: 我觉得这就是关键。
Hari Srinivasan: ……那么多宣传。好吧,确实如此。第三本是我刚下载的,因为我刚读完上一本。我其实要打开我的有声书应用告诉你,因为我大概听了一个小时,非常享受,它叫《An Immense World》。不知道你读过没有。它是关于动物的,讲动物们拥有怎样不同的感官。它逐一介绍不同的动物,以及它们如何感知这个世界。
动物的感官世界
Hari Srinivasan: 这就像是一种提醒,让我们意识到自己的感知有时候是多么有限。比如狗,它们在呼气的时候也能吸入气味,这几乎就像视觉一样。光是想到我和我的狗一起散步时,它们可能感知到的东西就远远多于我们所能感知的,这简直太不可思议了。
Lenny: 我了解到狗在闻东西之前,会先把空气从鼻子里喷出来,把里面清理干净。
Hari Srinivasan: 这不是很奇妙吗?就因为这一点,在一次小小的散步中,它们可能比我们看到更多的历史痕迹。
影视与播客推荐
Lenny: 太神奇了。下一个问题。你最近最喜欢的电影或电视剧是什么?
Hari Srinivasan: 我们尝试做的一件事就是一家人一起看电视,这能让我们更紧密一些。我们正在带孩子们看《星球大战》,这是第一次,能通过他们的眼睛来体验这一切,非常享受。然后我们还回顾了一些老片子,看了《E.T.》。很有意思,会唤起你的记忆。这些电影都很出色。不过你问的问题应该是最近才出的电视剧吧。
Lenny: 这些也完全可以。
Hari Srinivasan: 对。另一个我很喜欢的是,它不是电视剧,而是……天哪,叫什么来着?是一个播客节目。好像叫 Case 63?不管怎样,希望我没有记错名字。它是一个科幻播客,每集十分钟的短篇。故事设定是有人从未来回来,带有一些推想小说的元素,去找一位心理医生。这部作品真的很精彩。我之后得把确切的名字发给你,也许我可以在节目结束后给你,加到节目备注里什么的。
Lenny: 好,我们会编辑你的话,加上——
Hari Srinivasan: 对,没错。
Lenny: ……节目备注里写什么,就是你说的那个。你最喜欢问的面试问题是什么?
最喜欢的面试问题
Hari Srinivasan: 我确实喜欢问别人,你做过的最复杂的东西是什么。我主要是想了解:一,他们会被什么吸引?有没有什么特别吸引他们的东西?二,他们能否把它简化?我认为这是两项非常重要的能力。
Lenny: 你在他们的回答中寻找什么来判断这是一个好的回答?
Hari Srinivasan: 这两点我都会看。首先,他们是否承担了真正复杂、非常非常困难的事情?因为我觉得只有一类特定的人会被这类问题所吸引。我越来越认为,世界将因那些非常难以解决的问题而变得更好。亲密感无法规模化。当你思考如何让人们感到更紧密的联系时,这将是一个非常难解决的问题。医疗保健也是如此,非常难以解决。教育是一个高度互联且非常困难的领域。我觉得那些被这些问题吸引、并且知道这些问题很难的人,拥有一种非常特殊的天赋。这种热情很难复制。所以第一点,你是否做到了这一点?
第二,我觉得真正理解系统的人,尤其是那些可能比我聪明得多的人,他们能够以某种方式将其简化。他们能够解释清楚,说”我是这样看的,但这是我建模的方式,这是其中的各个部分,我是这样攻克它的”。即使过程是非线性的,他们也能说清楚”因果关系是这样的”。我真正想看的是,一旦你做了这件事,你是否真正理解了,是否能够破解它?或者至少,你是否理解了为什么自己没能破解它?我通常发现这也是最有收获的对话。
Lenny: 太棒了,谢谢分享。
Hari Srinivasan: 不客气。
最喜欢的产品发现
Lenny: 下一个问题。你最近发现并喜欢的产品是什么?
Hari Srinivasan: 我再给你一个当爸爸的例子。我最小的孩子特别讨厌刷牙,一直是个大问题。我应该查一下那款牙刷的名字,但你在 Google 或 Amazon 上搜一下就能找到。基本上,它是一个 Baby Shark 牙刷,但它是一个游戏。你玩两分钟的游戏,刷牙的时候可以尝试收集不同的奖品。
我喜欢它的原因在于,我觉得所有伟大的产品都做到了这一点:它把一个令人烦恼的时刻变成了一个充满快乐的时刻。它不仅仅是解决了痛点,而是一种超出预期的体验——现在他爱上刷牙了。做得太好了。大概就十块钱,十块钱花得极其值。太多快乐了。做这款牙刷的人,谢谢你们。
Lenny: 天呐。它会放 Baby Shark 吗?希望不会。
Hari Srinivasan: 嗯,可以的。它有这个功能,有这个能力,但对我来说,这是一笔很小的代价,换来的是快乐。
产品开发流程的改进
Lenny: 美好的时光。你在产品开发流程中做了什么相对小的改变,却对团队的执行力产生了很大的影响?
Hari Srinivasan: 我确实喜欢定期做一些调整。每隔一个季度或六个月,坐下来想想我们能在哪些方面做得更好。我发现自己在两个方面——如果可以称之为创新的话——创新或调整得最多。一个是规划方面。我觉得每家公司都在这方面挣扎,公司越大,这变得越困难,尤其是当我们谈到生态系统的复杂性时。我们开始了一种做法,基本上我们称之为橙色和红色优先级。通常的做法是,团队会自下而上地进行规划,然后提交给经理或领导者,领导者可能会做一些调整,说应该这样做。我认为我们开始用一种不同的方式来转变这个流程。我们说,这些是我们必须完成的大石头,我们先把这些东西做完。我们会提前坦诚地告诉你,这些是我们要做的事,这些就是优先级,然后你们可以从这个基础上做规划。我觉得这大大减少了推进中的阻力,而且带来了一种坦诚,这是一个很大的改变。
另一个就是我们评审产品的方式。这一直是个话题。我的观察是,当我们的产品评审流程持续太久,它就会变得有点制度化,人们开始写很长的文档之类的东西。你必须在每个季度都做一些调整。基本上,我觉得归根结底都是同一件事:如何快速呈现问题陈述?然后如何从这里出发进行设计?但我们为此施加的关键杠杆就是大幅缩短时间。
我正在尝试一个做法,不确定能不能行。我们能不能把评审从一小时缩短到十五分钟,看看是否能缓解一些问题?下次我们聊天的时候我再告诉你结果,但我很好奇这是否会是一种不同的体系,让我们更快地达到清晰,或者更快地意识到我们还没有达到清晰,然后暂停,稍后再回来。
Lenny: 这让我想起一条我好像刚看到的推文。也许是 Instagram 上的帖子,说有些团队在做平板支撑的时候开站会,这样会议就会非常短。
Hari Srinivasan: 有意思。
Lenny: 也许可以成为你的下一个尝试。
Hari Srinivasan: 我还没试过那个,但也许我们会试试看。
LinkedIn 使用秘诀
Lenny: 最后一个问题。你在 LinkedIn 已经很长时间了。我猜你经常使用 LinkedIn。你能不能分享一个小窍门,关于如何更好地使用 LinkedIn,从 LinkedIn 中发现更多价值,或者更好地享受它?
Hari Srinivasan: 第一点是,我确实认为有很多方式可以让技能发挥作用,而其中大多数方式是靠我们推断技能。但我觉得个人档案上有一个技能板块。我觉得很多人忽略了它,因为他们没有意识到其中的价值。这种情况正在改变,但我不确定是不是对所有用户都在改变。随着我们越来越多地推进技能优先招聘的相关工作,我会更加关注技能。
第二件事我可能会做的是——我不确定这算不算什么隐藏秘诀——但我会去看看 LinkedIn Learning。我确实认为 LinkedIn Learning 是一块宝藏。我觉得因为它主要是通过企业渠道销售的,所以很多人错过了它。我希望你们去看看。但更重要的是,告诉我我们在哪些方面可以做得更好。我希望人们能在那里发现价值。
Lenny: 了解 LinkedIn Learning 最好的方式是什么?直接 Google 搜索 LinkedIn Learning 就能找到——
Hari Srinivasan: 对,或者直接访问 LinkedIn/learning。是的。
Lenny: Linkedin.com/learning?好的。太好了。Hari,我觉得我们在这期播客上把 Mind of Hari 彻底打开了。感谢你的到来。最后两个问题。如果大家想联系你,在哪里可以找到你?听众怎样能帮到你?
Hari Srinivasan: 嗯,你可以在 LinkedIn 上找到我。这很简单。我真的、真的、真的非常重视产品反馈。我向正在收听的朋友们保证,我会虚心接受。其次,回到我们这次对话关于复杂性的核心话题,有时候真的很难了解每个人的体验是什么样的,因为你生活在一个非常抽象化的生态系统中。你越是能直接说,嘿,这个功能好使或者不好使——前提是出发点是善意的——如果你有空闲时间,不管你体验不好还是很好,都写下来告诉我。我真的非常希望听到你的视角。
Lenny: 太棒了。Hari,非常感谢你来做客。
Hari Srinivasan: 谢谢,Lenny。很高兴认识你。
Lenny: 我也是。大家再见。
感谢大家的收听。如果你觉得这期节目有价值,可以在 Apple Podcasts、Spotify 或你最喜欢的播客应用上订阅本节目。也请考虑给我们打分或留下评论,因为这真的能帮助其他听众找到这档播客。你可以在 lennyspodcast.com 找到所有往期节目或了解更多关于本节目的信息。下期再见。
术语表
| 原文 | 中文 |
|---|---|
| An Immense World | 《An Immense World》(动物感官科普著作,保留原文书名) |
| Baby Shark | Baby Shark(儿童品牌/歌曲名称,保留原文) |
| big rocks | 大石头(优先级管理中的核心事项隐喻) |
| Case 63 | Case 63(播客节目名称,保留原文) |
| CPO | CPO(Chief Product Officer,首席产品官,保留原文缩写) |
| Damian | Damian(人名,LinkedIn 增长团队负责人,保留原文写法) |
| Economic Graph | Economic Graph(LinkedIn 发布的公开经济数据平台,保留原文) |
| engagement ecosystem | 用户参与生态系统 |
| Ford | 福特 |
| GM | GM(General Manager,总经理,保留原文缩写) |
| Hari Srinivasan | Hari Srinivasan(人名保留原文写法) |
| hiring business | 招聘业务 |
| Hybrid Escape | Hybrid Escape(福特混合动力车型名称,保留原文写法) |
| Jatin Rajvanshi | Jatin Rajvanshi(人名,保留原文) |
| Jeff | Jeff(人名,指 LinkedIn 时任 CEO Jeff Weiner,保留原文写法) |
| Lenny | Lenny(播客主持人名,保留原文) |
| LinkedIn(保留原文,知名平台无需翻译) | |
| LinkedIn Learning | LinkedIn Learning(LinkedIn 企业学习产品名称,保留原文) |
| Lynda | Lynda(被 LinkedIn 收购的在线学习平台名称,保留原文) |
| marketing solutions business | 营销解决方案业务 |
| marketplace | 市场 |
| members first | 会员优先 |
| Mind of Hari | Mind of Hari(Hari 的个人网站名称,保留原文) |
| North Star | 北极星(指公司核心使命/方向) |
| Open to Internal Work | Open to Internal Work(LinkedIn 内部求职功能名称,保留原文) |
| Open to Work | Open to Work(LinkedIn 功能名称,保留原文) |
| orange and red priorities | 橙色和红色优先级(LinkedIn 内部优先级管理方法) |
| Parallel Universe | Parallel Universe(桌游名称,保留原文) |
| PM | PM(Product Manager,产品经理,保留原文缩写) |
| premium business | 高级会员业务 |
| product university | product university(LinkedIn 内部产品管理培训项目名称,保留原文) |
| profile | 个人档案 |
| RAPID | RAPID(LinkedIn 内部决策框架缩写,R=Recommend 推荐、A=Agree 同意、P=Input/Put in input 提供意见、I=Input 输入、D=Decision 决策,保留原文缩写) |
| Recruiter | Recruiter(LinkedIn 旗舰招聘产品名称,保留原文) |
| Ryan | Ryan(人名,保留原文写法) |
| skills-based hiring | 基于技能的招聘 |
| skills-first hiring | 技能优先招聘 |
| Steven Spielberg | Steven Spielberg(国际知名导演,保留原文写法) |
| Talent Solutions | Talent Solutions(LinkedIn 产品线名称,保留原文) |
| The Curious PM | The Curious PM(Twitter 账号名,保留原文) |
| Thinking in Systems | 《Thinking in Systems》(系统思维经典著作,保留原文书名) |
| Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow | 《Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow》(小说,保留原文书名) |
| Twizzler | Twizzler(美国知名糖果品牌,保留原文) |
此文档由 AI 分片翻译(translate_long_document)
LinkedIn’s product evolution and the art of building complex systems | Hari Srinivasan (LinkedIn)
Pandemic Job Market & Skills-First Hiring
Hari Srinivasan: It was March 2020 and we were just watching COVID hit. It was just this heartbreaking moment where in the feed you were seeing all these people, by no fault of their own, starting to post that they’ve lost their job. We started seeing in our data is you had some areas like maybe hospitality was really getting hit, but some areas like customer service that just couldn’t hire enough. You’d think the marketplace would balance pretty quickly. You’d think, okay, maybe these people will start moving to other jobs, but it wasn’t happening.
A large reason behind this, people are used to looking for certain particular titles, and they didn’t start realizing other people could do this job. We made a pretty big push in something we call skills-first hiring. This was the idea that we could translate people’s experiences into a set of skills, and by that we could help them really start balancing the marketplace with a much different system. I think that the job market is rebalancing, but it’s being done, the pathways are being done in a very different way that seems to be maybe a change that holds through these ups and downs. That’ll be very interesting to see.
Intro to the Episode
Lenny: Welcome to Lenny’s Podcast, where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts, to learn from their hard-won experiences building and growing today’s most successful products. Today, my guest is Hari Srinivasan. This episode has a hilarious story.
On Twitter, an account called The Curious PM tagged me with a request to have someone from LinkedIn come on the podcast and talk about how they operate and what they’ve learned about building products that serve so many different types of customers. I replied asking for any suggestions for who he thought I should specifically talk to, and he suggested Hari Srinivasan, by doing some research on LinkedIn. I reached out to Hari, told him about this tweet and he agreed. Here’s the episode.
Hari’s been at LinkedIn for eight-and-a-half years and he leads the Talent Solutions Product Team as VP of product, which is also LinkedIn’s biggest business, and includes all of the hiring and learning products, which you’ll hear about in this episode. In our chat, Hari shares what he’s seeing change in the hiring market, what you can do to improve your odds of finding a job through LinkedIn, what he’s learned about building and maintaining really complex systems like LinkedIn, tips for getting into product management, and some lessons from his own course on product management. Plus, we also talk about how LinkedIn has been able to become a real source of valuable content and a lot less cringe over the past couple years, which I’ve definitely noticed and I share in our chat.
What a fun series of events that led to this episode. Big thank you to Jatin, hopefully, I’m pronouncing your name correctly, the guy behind the Curious PM account, for making this all happen. With that, I bring you Hari Srinivasan after a short word from our sponsors.
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How are you? Welcome to the podcast.
Hari Srinivasan: Thanks for having me. Been a big fan for a long time.
Origins of This Episode
Lenny: I really appreciate that. What a fun story behind this conversation. Let me just ask you, how did you feel when I cold-DMed on LinkedIn, asking you to be on this podcast because of a random tweet?
Hari Srinivasan: I felt very honored. Again, I really have followed your work for a while. It’s been really amazing to see what you’ve built, and I’m a huge fan of different builders. Also, it was a little bit of an honor that someone … I know we’re going to get into the story in a little bit. When you work on something, oftentimes jobs and learning, it’s rare I think that it’s in the influencer conversation. It’s not necessarily something you or other people are properly experiencing on day-to-day. Sometimes, I don’t know if we get to tell some of these stories, and I really appreciate you reaching out for that.
Evolution of the LinkedIn Platform
Lenny: Yeah. Absolutely. I guess let me just give a big thank you to Jatin Rajvanshi, also known as The Curious PM, who tweeted about this concept and then is like, “Hey, talk to Hari about LinkedIn.” Thank you, Jatin, for making this happen. It was all thanks to you. Usually, when this happens, someone tweets a recommendation of someone, they know each other. I’m like, “Eh, I don’t know. This is some promotion of some other person.” But you guys don’t know each other, right?
Hari Srinivasan: We don’t, no. I’m looking forward to meeting you. Thank you, again, for putting in the word.
Product & Tech Behind the Feed
Lenny: Absolutely. Also, thank you to Jatin for recommending a bunch of questions that I’m going to ask you.
Hari Srinivasan: That I didn’t know. Maybe I should’ve known. That I didn’t know. Thanks, again, Jatin. It’s very kind of you.
The LinkedIn Talent Solutions Business
Lenny: Yeah. Okay. Let’s roll into some stuff. I actually want to start with LinkedIn as a platform broadly. I know you don’t work on all parts of LinkedIn and don’t necessarily know everything that’s going on there, but something I’ve noticed that’s pretty major is, it feels like LinkedIn’s really made this move from being a very cringey place to post and spend time to, it’s actually now interesting.
The feed that I see on LinkedIn is interesting. Oftentimes even more interesting than Twitter, which is crazy to say. Also, it’s become the biggest source of traffic for my newsletter, more so than Twitter, which I never expected. My question is, as far as you know, what is it that y’all did right in the past couple years that has allowed for this shift to happen? Because this is very rare.
An Interconnected Product Ecosystem
Hari Srinivasan: Well, first, I’m glad you’re having a good experience with it. That’s really, really kind to here. First of all, it’s very interesting you hit on it. Everything at LinkedIn is a very connected ecosystem. One of the things that we always think about is how the whole system fits together. I’m sure we’ll get into it more and more about how we build at LinkedIn, but how you make decisions based on the very complicated ecosystem is actually not very difficult because we’re all here to help people connect to economic opportunity. Every time there’s a discussion, something I’m really, really proud about working here is, everyone knows how that decision is going to be made. It’s all about how we’re connecting people to economic opportunity.
Now, it’s funny. Just the other day, I was driving. I was in an Uber with the person who runs a feed. He’s this guy, Kamesh, who’s just phenomenal. We were just talking about this and one of the things he mentioned to me was, “If you think about what a feed is when it connects someone to opportunity, it’s got to do a couple of things really, really well.” We’ve done a ton of member surveys on this, a ton of thought behind it. The first is, as you make relationship connections across the way, that is a real way by which people get opportunity. They keep in touch with those people. They learn they might follow someone, and hopes in getting knowing them and getting that knowledge. We got to make sure that that content is getting to them.
Then, when you think outside the network, we have to make sure that the things that people really want, which they keep saying are knowledge and advice and ability to get the real perspectives they need to get there, those are the things out of network they want. We’ve really, really been focused on driving those two systems. How does someone connect to opportunity both through the people and through the content that they actually want? As you know, when you do a feed, there’s so many decisions that go into that complex system, so many decisions. But we’ve been really, really trying to make sure that we don’t lose sight of that and start tuning all those knobs into that direction.
Lenny: If we’re trying to get even more specific with what has changed, clearly there’s been a focus internally. Is that true? There’s just like, “Hey, let’s make this feed a lot more interesting”? Or is this just a never ending and then it’s actually started to work investment as far as?
A Market Within a Market
Hari Srinivasan: Well, there’s always been a focus on connecting people to opportunity. There’s always been a focus on that. I think what’s happened over time is we’ve gotten more and more clear with what our members really want, which is this ability to feel close to those relationships and the ability to really get that knowledge that they need. As we’ve gotten better and clear in that understanding and we’ve been able to dial the knobs in the right way, I hope it’s landing in the right place. I don’t think it’s any place near declaring victory in any part of this product.
I think one of the beauty of working with that vision of connecting people to opportunity, there is always some piece of friction. There is always something we could be doing better. I’m always hesitant to say we’ve ever hit that bar, and I know there’s probably people who listen to you who probably maybe have not had that experience. I always encourage you to reach out and let us know ways we can do better. But I’m glad you’re having an experience with it. And then to your point, I always feel that as long as we stay focused on that and each of our decisions start moving in that direction, hopefully the product will continue to deliver.
Shifts in the Hiring Market
Lenny: Do you know if there’s any product changes that have most contributed to that feed becoming much more interesting?
The Rise of Skills-First Hiring
Hari Srinivasan: Well, there’s a couple of things that I think are very special that we’re working on and it’s hard to say which is most, because a lot of these things obviously accumulate and compound over time. But certainly, there’s a lot of machine learning and algorithms that go behind these systems. Many of them, as we start understanding that these are things that people get value by, it’s about how do we make sure that we’re giving people that interesting knowledge? As we’ve gotten crisper on what that means, I think we’ve been better able to build towards it.
The other one, which is new, but I’m just particularly excited about, we’re starting to do a lot of things which are gen AI-assisted. You basically can come in and get some prompts and people can bury their perspective on that. I think that combination, it’s very early, but it’s very exciting on how we might be able to help people unlock knowledge. There’s almost a billion people now on the platform, knowledge of those billion people in a way that people can find and see.
Value-Driven and Interest-Based Job Seeking
Lenny: Awesome. Again, I know this isn’t the area you spend all your time on, but maybe one more question along these lines.
Product Building & User Signals
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah, please.
Birth of the Open to Work Feature
Lenny: Yeah. Do you have any sense of the kind of content that works best on LinkedIn in terms of the algorithm you talk about? The algorithm is probably one of the bigger impact things that have changed.
Hari Srinivasan: If there’s anything with knowledge or advice, I think that’s what a lot of people are looking for. Every time we run these surveys, every time we talk to people on what they want, those are the things that really when you connect opportunity that people seek after in our system. You’re a great example of that. You’re able to give knowledge and advice in an area with a lot of depth. I think that maybe that’s why you’re having some of the success you’re seeing on the platform, which is wonderful to see.
Product Manager Hiring Trends
Lenny: I think I’m actually not getting as much success as I could because I don’t put in the time. I usually just post a simple thing with a link and I think I could be, if I really … I just don’t have time to do this of just like, post a lot more stuff within the actual post. I think that would do better.
Hari Srinivasan: That actually makes me happy. My guess is what you want to be doing is learning and creating and not spending a lot of time managing. Maybe that’s actually a good thing. It’s actually another wonderful thing to hear.
How Job Seekers Increase Discoverability
Lenny: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Let’s move to your sweet spot, which is the talent solution product? Is that what it’s called?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. It’s basically any product on LinkedIn that helps you get a job or learn a skill. We have products for recruiters and hires, jobs. We have products for job seekers. We have LinkedIn Learning and then certainly, we run a pretty large creator ecosystem for instructors who post content into LinkedIn Learning.
The Importance of Showcasing Skills
Lenny: Is it true that this is the biggest business within LinkedIn?
Hari Srinivasan: It is a very big business between LinkedIn. It’s certainly hopefully something that, again, if you go back to that vision of connecting people to opportunity, it’s certainly something that I like to think is very, very core to that, how people get jobs and learn skills.
Executive-Level Job Searching
Lenny: The feed gets all the glory and you guys are making all the money?
Hari Srinivasan: I would not say that, but again, we joke about those things. It’s so hard at LinkedIn to separate one product from the other. It’s really the way we run. It’s the way we think about the product. It’s really the way we build. Let me just give you a super concrete example of that. Certainly, if you have someone coming in and looking at the feed, one thing we might do is suggest a job recommendation based on what they’re looking for in that feed. Part of what we have to do is think about how someone who’s looking at something in their interest might be driving their job-seeking experience as well.
And then when they’re looking for a job, it’s very important that they know how they can actually get connected in that job. The relationship, the network you build are very much part of that flywheel that go into it. And then even as we start looking at this, you might be looking at a subject and then you want to go deeper on, and there’s a course that comes into it as well. All of this to me is a very, very connected ecosystem on how those items work together in order to give people opportunity. We might think of it from the outset as very different things, but inside, even the way we operate and the way we think about it, it’s a very, very connected ecosystem.
Stories From Working at LinkedIn
Lenny: What are the components again of this part of the org?
Hari Srinivasan: We think about it as two different marketplaces. There’s a hiring marketplace, which is, how do we connect job seekers and recruiters and hiring managers? And then there’s a learning marketplace, which is, how do you connect learners to instructors?
Member-First Values
Lenny: Got it. And then within hiring, are there subcomponents?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Again, we really think about it as a marketplace. We’re generally organized around seekers and hires. There’s a team that’s working on a Recruiter, which is probably one of the more flagship products that LinkedIn has always been around, a team working on jobs, which is, if you ever post a job on LinkedIn, and then a team working to always help job seekers make sure they connect. And then on the other side for learners, instructors, the team working on LinkedIn Learning, which is one of the bigger enterprise learning products in the world. And then a team working to help instructors.
Many people don’t know this. We actually have two large film studios. We bring in instructors. We film a lot of content. One’s in Europe and one’s in Santa Barbara. It was all started with the Lynda acquisition. We have a large team of content creators and teams, everyone from makeup artists to script writers, that we get to use over there.
Lessons in Building Complex Ecosystems
Lenny: Wow. It’s just marketplaces all the way down as you talk about this. Hiring marketplace, learning marketplace, the feed itself. Probably more I’m not thinking about.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. It’s very much the one model that we sometimes use internally as well is, how do we operate as marketplaces inside an ecosystem? I think it speaks to the complexity again of the product and hopefully somehow of how we might operate it.
Talent and System Capabilities
Lenny: I think with your vantage point at being at the center of hiring, a lot is changing within the hiring marketplace in the past, I don’t know, year at this point, where it used to be very candidate-oriented, where they had all the power and they salaries were crazy. Everyone’s bidding and trying to get people to join their company. Now, it’s completely opposite. So many people looking, companies have all the power. I’m curious what you’ve seen, if that’s roughly it, or what you’re seeing basically in the hiring market these days.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Well, first of all, the balance that you’re talking about, it is shifting in the sense that there are more seekers in the marketplace now and there are fewer open jobs in the marketplace. Of course, that changes how many applications you get for the job and how you have to look through. I think there’s a model where people think it’s drifting dramatically to exactly the way it was. I actually think some of the changes that occurred during the last couple of years are actually sticking around. Let me give you a couple examples of where things I think are really changing.
The first thing that happened was, and maybe in my opinion, one of the big changes to the world that no one’s really talking about it to my degree is the impact of it, but there’s been a real move to skills-based hiring. For the longest time, and I’ll give you actually a really concrete example, it was March 2020 and we were just watching COVID hit. It was just this heartbreaking moment where in the feed you were seeing all these people, by no fault of their own, starting to post that they’ve lost their job.
We started seeing in our data is you had some areas like maybe hospitality was really getting hit, but some areas like customer service that just couldn’t hire enough. You’d think the marketplace would balance pretty quickly. You’d think, okay, maybe these people will start moving to other jobs, but it wasn’t happening. A large reason behind this, people are used to looking for certain particular titles, and they didn’t start realizing other people could do this job.
We made a pretty big push in something we call skills-first hiring. This was the idea that we could translate people’s experiences into a set of skills, and by that we could help them really start balancing the marketplace with a much different system. But instead of saying, “I need to have this talent,” you can say, “I need someone who can do negotiation, and I need someone who can really help me understand how to deescalate a customer situation.”
You find a lot of people in hospitality have about 70% of the skills you need for customer service and of course, you could train off the rest. We started seeing the skills-first hiring really start taking off. At this point, roughly 47% of our recruiters will come in, explicitly use skills when they start looking for candidates. That’s a pretty big change that we’re actually seeing hold. I know it’s early in some of these changes, but it’s a change where I think people are still continuing to start looking at skills.
Another one was this concept of, there’s a lot more people who are starting to look for jobs by values. They were saying, “Look, most job sites work by you come in and you look for a job and a title, and that’s how you navigate the world.” We started realizing a lot of people wanted to come in and instead of look at it like that, they may say, “Look, I really want a job. This aligned with my purpose.” Or even by an interest, I may want something in AI. We started launching collections in the way to filter in these things. We’re still seeing some of that usage today.
I think that the job market is rebalancing, but it’s being done, the pathways are being done in a very different way that seems to be maybe a change that holds through these ups and downs. That’ll be very interesting to see.
Shifting From Optimization to Innovation
Lenny: What’s interesting is it’s not like this would change on its own. You’re the biggest jobs marketplace in the world, right?
Hari Srinivasan: We have a lot of professional jobs on our platform and a lot of professional seekers.
Exploring LinkedIn Learning
Lenny: Hopefully, mysterious. I imagine it is. I don’t know. I guess Indeed might be a competitor, but okay, let’s say it’s one of the bigger job markets. You influenced the way jobs are sought and posted and how people find jobs; so in a sense, designing. Sounds like basically, there was an internal decision. Let’s focus on the skills approach. What’s cool about that is that changes the way hiring happens in the world.
Hari Srinivasan: It’s one of the things that I think is so interesting about building products today is, it has to clearly be something people want. If we had just said we’re going to go like this, and every hire was like, “I don’t want to do this,” or every job seeker said, “I don’t care about it,” I don’t think anything would click. We also have to be receptive enough to amplify that signal and allow it to work through a system so that it could actually be easy to use.
I don’t think we said that, “Hey, we got to go and do this value-based thing.” I think we started feeling it and hearing it from members and then as we adapted, these things start amplifying as they come through. I do think that’s hopefully something that I think about a lot is, let’s just make sure that we keep a pulse on what people want and we make sure that we can get that through a system at a pretty fast pace. Because then, we will hopefully continue to be a place where people want to go look for jobs and make hires.
Core Content of PM Courses
Lenny: What I was thinking about as you were just chatting is this open to work feature that LinkedIn has. I remember days before that existed and people used to just like jury-rig, “Hey, I’m hiring,” or, “I’m looking for a job.” There’s always this sense that if you’re open to work, you’re not as good. Because why would you be amazing and open to work and not hired? I’m curious if you were even part of this experience. Just, what was it like to come up with that approach to how to communicate that you’re open to work?
Hari Srinivasan: It’s been through phases and I think those phases really reflect on the perception of how it’s changed. In the beginning it was, you could say you’re open to work, but it was a secret signal to recruiters if you will. That certainly still exists, but now we said you could more publicly say it and maybe it’d be a feed post. And then we started launching it. Actually it was around COVID when a lot of the stigmas of unemployment changed dramatically, because everyone started understanding you’re in this different situation. We started putting it the frame and that’s the more iconic way I think people associate with now.
It’s funny. Just this week, we tried something new and I feel like it’s almost the same journey. There are many customers as you can imagine, that have LinkedIn Learning and LinkedIn Learning is typically an enterprise product. It works across your employee base. We’re trying to do Open to Internal Work where you can say, “I’m actually at the point where I may want the next play internally in my role,” and an internal recruiter can see you. As you can imagine, I would actually even maybe argue more stigma about being concerned about upsetting your manager. Certainly, there’s different cultures and companies about this.
I have a feeling in sometimes we like to think five, 10 years out, I think it’s going to go on the same journey. That’s one hunch I have, that there’ll also be an employment-driven way internally for people to find their next play. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, but already you can feel a little bit of that tension right when we launched it and knowing. Let’s see how this goes.
How to Break Into Product Management
Lenny: You were talking about how hiring is changing. I’m curious how PM hiring specifically is changing. A lot of people listening to this podcast are product managers. Is there anything unique you’re noticing there?
Hari Srinivasan: Maybe a couple stats that could be very helpful. If you’re having a hard time finding a PM role, let’s start with this, you’re probably not alone. We publish it. You can go to Economic Graph data. This is all public. We publish this. But if you look at tech, it’s down about 50% year-over-year. We look at hires over total population on LinkedIn. You can go to Economic Graphs and you can see how it compares trends industry. We don’t look at the functional data as much, but the PM data seems to be trending just slightly even maybe below software engineers and data as well, which is maybe a comp for this. I know not everything is perfect industry to function cuts.
It is a difficult place, but I’ll give you a couple tips because I imagine that may be helpful for a couple of the listeners. It’s certainly one of the larger inbounds of things I get. The first is, in those markets, you do want to make sure that the more you can do to form relationships and say that this is what you can do, which is always helpful. Now, I know that not everyone has relationships, but you can always try to develop those at different places and across LinkedIn as well. But that’s one thing I would really, really start to look for.
The second thing I would really do is we have launched the way now to come in and signal obviously that you are interested in a role. We have those open to work capabilities, but then each job has a set of skills that they’re looking for under it, like we talked about in skills-first hiring. Against each skill, you can actually add different kinds of credentials. I would really encourage people to add work products if that’s something that they’re actually building. You can add different kinds of recommendations or other things they can associate with that skill. Those credentials against it I think are becoming much more interesting for people to say, “Oh, this is someone I’m actually looking for.”
And then the third thing I would really encourage PMs to start looking through is, this is probably more personal than anything in data, but every PM job is different. If you have experience in that industry and you’re able to show that you have experience in that industry or some kind of understanding of it, I think that’s a way to separate. I’d really start zoning in on roles where you might see if you don’t have the functional experience, the industry experience. I think that would go a long way as how to help you differentiate from yes, what’s probably more candidates, or more applications going into each role.
How PMs Can Level Up
Lenny: When you say industry experience, what’s an example of that?
Hari Srinivasan: Imagine that you are applying for a PM role, but that particular software is in, I don’t know, automotive tech. If you happen to have worked in automotive before, have a knowledge about cars, that’s a very helpful way to get in. I think if you’re able to show that you can show an industry knowledge and an understanding of it, I think it’s a real nice way to think about how to position yourself against some of the other candidates.
Mind of Hari: Hands-On Side Projects
Lenny: What else can that person looking for a job do to improve their chances of a recruiter basically finding them? I feel like that’s probably the best tactical thing they can do because a lot of LinkedIn is recruiters reaching out and finding you.
Hari Srinivasan: There’s two things that anyone who’s hiring is always going to look for. They’re going to look for your skills and capabilities and they’re going to look for your intent and interest in the role. A lot of our products and the pathways we try to do are making those things simpler. Maybe we’ll just start with interest and we’ll move back to skills in a minute. A couple of things we’ve launched recently, and I think they are symbolic of other ways you can connect. If you go to a company page and you’re looking at the company, and I think they have to opt into this in some degree, look, you can say you’re interested in that company even though they don’t have roles. When the next role comes up, they’ll have a signal that this person is actually very interested in this role.
That’s an easy way to signify from an early stage that you have interest in them. That way, when they open up a role, as you can imagine, they start looking through, they’ll have a spotlight on recruiter and they can click out on it and come through. Certainly, you can go into open work and say that this is something that I’m open to work right now, and you can signify to the whole population that this is an area that you want to go for as well. I would encourage both of those in some ways. If you’re looking for a role, be open about it and tell the companies that you’re looking for it. Those are really high signals of intent.
The other thing you can do on LinkedIn is you can actually go through when you say open to work and you can specify particular kinds of jobs and things you’re looking for. I think that more detailed intent helps make sure you’re showing it to the right place.
On the skill side, we talked about it a little bit, but I do think there’s a big change. When you were just looking at title, I think you only had one way to really prove that you had the skills. You had to have that title, which is very hard to break in. In a world where you’re looking at skills, you can go through and say, “Look, I can do these things and you could put evidence behind it.” I’d really encourage people to do that. If you just go to any job post, you can see the skills, you can say add and you can see all the evidence and how you can add it. I would really encourage people to do that because when people are in recruiter and they’re looking for skills, profiles pop up and you can scroll over a skill and you can actually see all those evidences.
Basically, a recruiter could say, “Oh, this is why I’d recommend you to this hiring manager.” I think you will find that that’s hopefully a very useful way of doing it.
Rapid-Fire Lightning Q&A
Lenny: I’m going to lob this question like a fishing line, to see if it catches anything. And if not, we’ll move on. Are there any stats that you’ve seen of just like if you do X, Y, Z, your chances of getting hired or getting people reaching out just go significantly higher?
The Sensory World of Animals
Hari Srinivasan: Open to work certainly has a high signal to noise. As you can imagine, when someone’s looking to fill a role, that’s one they want. We are early in company commitments, but we are seeing some signal there that we got to move through it. Skills has a pretty high signal as well, when you’re able to come through and show and demonstrate your skills. We’re seeing some correlation to basically people getting a role.
And then the final one that is harder for us to look through, but it’s certainly important. I do think we show the hiring manager on a lot of the roles. We show these people through. It’s harder for us to trace that because of the way the outcomes work, but I would really encourage people to look through that and see if you can get in front of those people.
Movie, TV & Podcast Recommendations
Lenny: Is there a max seniority that you find works effectively on LinkedIn to find a job? I imagine CPOs aren’t finding jobs on LinkedIn. If I’m looking for a job, do you have a rule of thumb of, if you’re at this level, maybe you’re not going to have a lot of luck? If you’re below the-
My Favorite Interview Question
Hari Srinivasan: We certainly have CPO jobs that are posted, but the difference often is job posts versus recruiting. More and more senior roles are often recruited. We find that people will use LinkedIn in order to connect to a CPO and many people who are senior will say, “Oh, I got a message on LinkedIn and that led to this,” or they made a long-term recruiting contact. But it may not happen through you finding a job and hitting the application button.
Favorite Product Discoveries
Lenny: Let’s talk about LinkedIn as a company to work in, the culture maybe for a bit. You told me that you have a story about your first product review when you joined LinkedIn and how that was wild. Can you just tell that story? I haven’t heard this yet.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. I came through a small acquisition that they made of our company, and I thought it was such a telling moment in this first product review. I went in and as you can imagine when you join a company, there’s a lot of advice on how you should make that product work. I didn’t know anything. I’d never been a PM. I remember taking a lot of that advice and putting together a presentation and just getting destroyed during that review. I think Jeff was the head of product and CEO at that point. In a very kind way, it was basically like, “Wait, this doesn’t make any sense.”
I just remember driving home and calling my wife and like, “I think I might be fired.” I’m not sure if I was fired, but he was very kind about it. He’s like, “Just come back and exit.” I think five, four weeks. I remembered at that point I was like, if you’re going to go in and you know you only have one shot, just do something you believe in and make sure it works. We started from that point and we worked backwards from there in this concept of, “Hey, I do believe that the most important thing is connecting to opportunity and we should really understand how to do that. Let’s just start from there.” It went very well.
To me, it was another way of you’re in these large systems, you’re in these large companies, you’re in these large … I think LinkedIn is very special because no matter what it is, it’s got a very good North Star. It was a moment for me to really hammer that home, that as long as you get that North Star ahead of you, you’re going to be just fine. I never worked at a place like that before, and I think a lot of times people wonder. You can imagine. The way we’re talking about, we certainly have an engagement ecosystem. We have the hiring business and we have a marketing solutions business. We have a big premium business.
You can imagine when you’re trying to make decisions across that, it could get very, very complicated. I think when people ask me to describe LinkedIn, I often start with that story because I feel like it helps cut through how decisions are made and what is seen as success here.
Improving the Product Development Process
Lenny: Just to clarify, so that North star is that phrase that you used of just connecting people to economic opportunity?
Hari Srinivasan: That’s it. That’s it. I know it sounds bigger than it seems, but I can probably … Time example again. You can understand when someone’s driving on it. Having been here for a little bit now, you can understand when someone knows that and when someone doesn’t. It’s a hard thing to lose track of.
Secret Tips for Using LinkedIn
Lenny: Yeah. It does sound vague and a nice, fuzzy, warm thing that people can say. What you’re saying is that it’s actually brought up in meetings constantly and product reviews. You’re saying in this product review, everything changed when you came at it from that one perspective?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. My first product here was the profile. You can make a profile that does a lot of different things, as you can imagine. You could think about how identity could be used in many different phases and what you should prioritize and not. But if you can explain why this is the thing that you should do that would help someone really do what they want to do, maybe it’s have an incredible podcast and send that out there, maybe it’s helping someone connect to a job. But if you can understand intent and how this is unblocked and why you want to prioritize that item, all of a sudden the world gets a lot simpler.
Lenny: How does that actually get operationalized at a company? Is it just the leaders remind people of that? It’s painted on the walls? How is that a thing that people come back to over and over?
Hari Srinivasan: I do think it’s a lot of repeat, repeat, repeat. I do think that’s it. I do think the culture has a pretty high immune system now in the sense that when you aren’t operating by that, people can see it and they operate against it. I think when Jeff was CEO, and Ryan, they are just exceptional at continuously repeating that. It’s been so consistent for so long that I think it’s just the DNA now. I do think it’s exceptional. I think it’s exceptional leadership, and I’ve learned so much from watching it and how it gets operated.
Lenny: Is there a metric associated with that when people use it in a way of like, no, that’s not actually what we mean? Is there some way of making it even more concrete in goals, metrics, ways to understand if people are actually achieving that?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Totally. I think at the next level of operation, what we think about is, when we run these marketplaces throughout this ecosystem that connect people to opportunity, what are the outputs that they measure? I’ll just give you mine for example. We think a lot about number of hires, converting hires. How many people did we match? Which is a real tangible way of looking at opportunity.
And then number of people who learned a skill, which is usually in this world measured more by time than anything if you learn. Spend time for X amount of minutes. We do that skill because oftentimes skills don’t have a direct outcome as you can measure to go through. We basically look at those things more than any other to say how successful that we are operating that marketplace.
Lenny: Got it. Those make total sense to me.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah.
Lenny: Are there other core values of LinkedIn that are public that you can share?
Hari Srinivasan: You can Google them too and so they’re very, very public, but probably the one that I think is most important to talk about in this world is, there’s this concept of members first. I think anytime you run an ecosystem as complex as we do and you think about it, even if you’re trying to connect people to opportunity, there’s two people, how are you going to decide right now who needs it?
I think having clarity on which piece of the ecosystem is going to be where the focus is, it helps us make sure we establish a relationship of trust first, make sure to understand who’s getting access to data, make sure we understand how decisions are being made. I always love that as a principle that we’ve stuck by.
Lenny: Yeah, I see it on the page here. We put members first.
Hari Srinivasan: Story checks out is what you’re telling me.
Lenny: Checks out. Checks out. What’s interesting is the connecting people to opportunity, economic opportunity is not one of these values. It seems like it’s even broader. They should at the company basically.
Hari Srinivasan: The company, yeah.
Lenny:
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You’ve touched on this idea of a complex system and I want to spend a little bit more time there. LinkedIn is, as you said, very, very complicated. There’s all these marketplaces within marketplaces. There’s so many customers you got to make happy. They all have to work together. I’m just curious what you’ve learned about building and maintaining a complex ecosystem like that.
Hari Srinivasan: It’s a fantastic question. I just openly think first of all, just career-wise, I’ve always been drawn to that. We talk about product as a whole. We always talk about it as a whole, but there’s many different things you can build, many different types of things. And then we go, maybe there’s hardware and software consumer goods. I actually try to think about products by their complexity curve a lot.
I think that the skills you need to manage a complicated ecosystem versus maybe the skills you need to design something that’s less interconnected are quite different. I will get to the details maybe of what I mean in a minute, but I do think LinkedIn’s a particularly complicated place. And I do think that the skillsets that you think through and you try to manage in a complicated ecosystem are quite different. Maybe some tactics that can help if it’s something along those lines.
Lenny: Yeah, let’s do it.
Hari Srinivasan: One of the things that I often think about is this concept of cause and effect. If you have non-interconnected things, it’s actually quite easy not to have to think about that. You made something people love. I wrote a children’s book not too long ago and it was fun. It was awesome to write. Once it was done, it was done, and it was out there and it was able to go. That’s a little bit different than here. If you make a change, like open to work, all of a sudden you’re thinking through the perception of someone on the other side. What is that going to do? Are they going to use the platform less or more? You’re thinking about customers. What are they going to do with that data? Are they going to, to your point, perceive someone in a different way or not?
You have to think through second and third and maybe even fourth effects and manage that as you go through. I think that is something we really pride ourselves on is, how do we start thinking through these different things, and how do we start measuring them as we go? That is one.
The second thing I actually think is it does lead to your point a lot. You need a different kind of decision-making mechanism because there’s a lot more ties in the ecosystem, a lot of people who just need a way to break it. We’ve put in things like we have something called RAPID, which is a really easy way to know who the decision-maker is. Just, you line up who’s a recommender, who has to agree, who’s a decision-maker. We have something called a five-day escalation rule, which makes sure that those items are in. I think you lead a lot more of those fuse, I don’t know what they’re called, fuse limits, or just systems in place in order to manage that complexity so that things get done. I think that those processes are actually really, really important to make sure that the ecosystem can run.
Lenny: Let’s talk about these two processes. RAPID, and what was the other one? Five-day-
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah, five-day alignment. They’ve both been around LinkedIn for a little bit, but they’re great. The RAPID is just a question of oftentimes to your point, if you’re running two, three marketplaces, several different business model here, there’s a question of who has the decision? Who can make the decision in this situation? Making sure that you have a single person’s name with the decision and that person is … That is really, really important because it gets the clarity real fast.
It’s more of a personal rule, but one thing I love to say is, if you had three back and forths in an email, you got to pick up the phone. And if you’ve been on the phone for 20 minutes, it’s time to just write that decision-maker and go. That way, you can make sure the concept of an hour, you should be able to get a decision. It doesn’t always operate like that. I’m sure there’s many PMs on LinkedIn who are operating here maybe, who may have some feedback from me on that, but that’s the intent behind it.
And then a five-day alignment is, you should hold your managers accountable. That in five days if someone has something that they haven’t been able to escalate and solve, that’s probably then on the next level of person. But as you run that ecosystem and there’s so much complexity around it, I think you need some of those processes in place in order to start answering some of those tiebreakers, if you will.
Lenny: Ooh, I like that five-day rule. Basically puts the clock on a manager to get to unblock, basically?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Yeah.
Lenny: With RAPID, I don’t know if I totally understand. Is that an acronym for something? Or is it just-
Hari Srinivasan: It is.
Lenny: … make decisions rapidly?
Hari Srinivasan: No, that’s a great question. The D stands for decisions, but the R is for who’s recommending it. The A, who has to agree. The I is for other people who may be able to be putting in an input. It’s basically a list of people who need to be in the decision chain.
Lenny: Got it.
Hari Srinivasan: I would argue the most important thing is to have a single name on that decision line, because that usually makes sure that you can get a decision very quickly.
Lenny: Are there any other really common frameworks or processes along these lines at LinkedIn that you find really helpful?
Hari Srinivasan: The third thing is just in how we think about talent, especially in the product organization. I often really do try to suss out during interviews or in how we promote people, just their ability to see systems. Because again, I do think it’s a different skillset and a different capability of how we map those things out on a complexity curve. Oftentimes, I think those talent systems will … those who are able to see the whole, make decisions at the whole, that’s rare actually.
I think most talent systems are, “Hey, how did your division grow or your product grow, your era grow?” We’ve tried our best to understand that it’s not just about that. You want accountability in the ecosystem of course, but how well does this person work across? I think as we’ve created telemetry around that or organizational understanding of that, how we’ve understood ourselves, just, “Hey, this is the skillset that’s really important here,” I think that’s quite rare in driving that kind of complexity system as well.
Lenny: One more question along these lines.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah.
Lenny: You’ve been at LinkedIn for a long time. It feels like historically, LinkedIn as a product team, the external impression was it’s very optimizey-oriented and everyone there is just micro-optimizing all the little features of LinkedIn. Everyone I’ve worked with from LinkedIn, they’re just really good at just optimizing things.
It feels like a lot of new stuff is happening with LinkedIn these days and I’m curious if that’s been a real intentional shift of let’s not focus so much on making emails work better and all the click-through rates of everything and more just, let’s innovate more, let’s do some bigger bets.
Hari Srinivasan: I do think there’s two things to acknowledge. First, there’s an incredible growth team, and I think a lot of people that go on from LinkedIn in incredible roles are growth. I think there’s an influencer change that a lot of people you meet might be growth-oriented. The second thing is, especially when LinkedIn started, and like you said, I’ve been here a little bit of time, but growing the network is probably a very, very important thing to get the scale out. I think a lot of things people interacted with at first were maybe more growth mechanisms than other systems.
I do think there’s always been, at least for the last several years, an underlining line that value is what’s going to carry this ecosystem, and value is ultimately what makes the day. To your point, I like to think that they may not be the most, I don’t know, the glittery items, but I’m really proud of what we’ve done with skills. I think that’s one of those invisible systems that no one really knows. Like, oh my gosh, that’s a huge disruption if people can now get … That’s a huge language that people have created. That’s a huge way that people have changed.
We’re really proud of what we’ve done with values. Even open to work and commitments, these are major social systems that we’ve wired through. I’m really proud of what we’ve done with LinkedIn Learning. I would argue it’s one of the bigger creator systems in the world. It’s these incredible instructors and the ability to take someone who teaches, maybe is not great on camera, and move them to the studio and give them that capability and take their voice out there.
I think there’s a lot of different things we’ve done that maybe because they’re more invisible, if you will, or they’re hidden in a marketplace that necessarily maybe a lot of the influencer voices may not actually need an access every day, I don’t know if they get as much visibility. But I like to think that’s been part of the DNA for a while and we’ve been really thinking through it.
Lenny: Let’s actually talk about LinkedIn Learning. I know this is a big passion of yours. You have your own course within this that I want to talk about. But broadly, just what is LinkedIn Learning, just so people understand? Because I don’t know if a lot of people know this exists within LinkedIn.
Hari Srinivasan: Great question. LinkedIn Learning is basically a way to learn professional skills. We entered the business in 2015 and the thesis was, we think about it as a marketplace again. You have seekers and job and oftentimes, seekers may not have all the skills in order to get the job. We’re moving now towards the skills model, but without question, this other second-order impact. I don’t think any of us wanted to, if you will, uberize the world. I don’t think any of us wanted to make everyone there. We wanted to make sure everyone had the skills in order to learn the skills, in order to get there. Getting the learning business was really, really important for the vision and the mission. Basically, the idea was that we’d have ways to teach people skills that was very much tailored to professionals.
Now, that was the vision. The way the mechanism works is, we go and get the best instructors in the world. We will bring them into a film studio. We will do it at home or in a way that makes the content extremely … We help write the scripts, we obviously have incredible graphic, in a way that makes a teacher and someone who’s an expert who may not always have the capability or the time to go and make their own online course and get them in the studio and go from there. And then the vast majority of people will probably have access to it through their company. The vast majority of the usage and the business runs through enterprise and is a large enterprise learning product.
Lenny: Awesome. Yeah. I’m just as a, I don’t know, armchair quarterback strategy person, I could see where this came from of we’re trying to help people connect to economic opportunity, find jobs. How do we help them? Oh, they don’t have the skill? Let’s help them build the skills. Makes a lot of sense. Okay. Within this, you have your own course on product management.
Hari Srinivasan: Well, it’s funny. I’d been thinking about a course for a while, but largely it was this concept of, I wanted to make sure I tried our own product and I understood the instructor pain point. But it’s a very scary experience. It’s like first, I don’t know if I had anything to teach. My own concerns about that. But about four or five years ago, one of the things we started at PM internally was product university. We had our own internal university, which was basically we got some survey, we sent it out. I think everyone told us, well, it’s literally the most negative one was people said, “I don’t have the skills to do my job.”
I remember looking around and I’m like, “Well, it’s pretty obvious. We hired a bunch of people, there’s no PM degree, and we’ve done nothing.” What we started doing is internally creating a product university. It was a bootcamp coming in. We tried to get from different models and one of the things we really learned was, you can’t teach this just through frameworks. You needed to have a series of case studies. You need to have a real series examples. But luckily, we had a bunch of things we’d done at LinkedIn, so we started putting a curriculum against that. And then just recently, a few of us got together and we filmed the actual course for it. It’s basically taking our product university bootcamp and opening it up to the world.
Lenny: You opened up some of your internal use cases as a part of this course?
Hari Srinivasan: We do. Yeah.
Lenny: That’s awesome. I always say that one of the things you don’t realize you have as an advantage working at a bigger company is access to tons of strategy documents and vision documents and stories of this. Because once you’re out, no one’s going to be able to share those with you because they’re so private. I don’t have access to any of these anymore. That’s a really cool perk if you’re working at a company like LinkedIn.
Hari Srinivasan: Thanks. Yeah.
Lenny: Question about your course. What are some of your biggest lessons that you teach? Can you just give a preview of some of the tidbits that you might learn in this course of yours?
Hari Srinivasan: Well, again, a lot of it is case studies and use cases in the same way we teach it here, but a couple of things that we do talk through. When we started doing our own product university, we realized a couple big pain points that people hit. The first was, it’s actually really hard to know how to validate and what the bar is for a new idea in any organization. I think it’s really hard to say that. We provide a lot of framework. Simple things from, “Hey, you got to prove to the world why there’s duct tape in here.” There’s someone actually physically going out and trying to do it.
How you can prioritize a list of ideas against a pain point, like how to make a simple expression, and how to look through what’s an acute pain point and what’s a wide range of people use, how we’d expect data in order to be used in order to validate this. Tools you could use to say if this is a good idea or a bad idea. More importantly tools to make sure you’ve went through the process and how you can communicate it. That’s one framework set that we talked through.
The other is a lot about Damian, who leads our growth team. He comes in and he starts talking a lot about thinking in loops. How do you make sure that when you’re building something you can have the fuel in order to cascade and grow? I think just the framework of doing that, how you measure that, how you monitor that, is also something that at least when I was starting and doing my startup, it was quite something I wish I had had access to. Those are maybe two good examples of frameworks and tools that we come through.
And then of course, trying to overlay that with real cases. Not always successful ones, of course, too. We talk about a lot of the failures we’ve had and where we probably went wrong if we had to diagnose them in postmortem.
Lenny: A lot of the people listening to this are people that want to get into product management and aren’t PMs yet. I imagine you get asked this a lot, how do I get into product management? What is your advice that you often give?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Well, let’s start with how we look at the world, which is this idea of skills. We have a diagram that I think about, which is skills are on a triangle. You might have heard this one before. I don’t know if you have. Skills are on a triangle, and I think you need three different skills to be a great PM. You need to be a Steven Spielberg type creator. Something around data science and the ability to really look at data and see patterns and then see the future. And then especially get more senior. I think it’s a lot of general management. You have to basically be able to shine and innovate across the team, understand the budget, understand how companies differently work.
I’ve actually never seen a great PM who’s in the center of it. I find the great PMs live on the edges. There’s always someone who’s this exceptional data scientist and the ability to maybe be a great GM and lead and inspire, or maybe someone who’s so creative, who can lead a team in a different way. I think that one thing I would really, really encourage people to do is understand where they fit on that graph and gravitate towards those kinds of roles. Because a lot of times, I think what people do is they think they have to make up for the other pieces of that graph, and it leads them to a path where maybe they’re not playing to their strengths. That’s one thing I always encourage people.
The other thing I would say, and I know it’s a little bit of luck in how this works, but I think about my journey, one thing I’ve really found was really helpful is, I was on the first team that did a hybrid SUV in the US. At the time, it was the Hybrid Escape at Ford. I came from the Midwest and it was one of those products where people would really drive out for hundreds of miles and see, and really a community gravitated around because it was a very special product. Being able to work on something that people loved, really loved early on, and see what that felt like and look like and that success was, it created a bar for what I would hope my products could do. It would.
If you’re able to get into something that people really love and feel that and experience that, and really understand what that looks like and what it takes to get there, I think that’s actually been a really valuable lesson throughout my career because you can understand the whole path on the way up. I look back at that as really something that I would hope other people if they can do it. I know you’re making world decisions on many different criteria, but try to find something people love and really experience what that feels like.
Lenny: To build on that, with PMs that work for you and work with you, when they’re looking to get better and build their skills, other than go take some courses on LinkedIn Learning, what do you often recommend they do to help become stronger and better at their job?
Hari Srinivasan: First, it is that feeling of, you got to own your product and you got to speak up and say this is where I want to drive it. Because a lot of times I think people are scared to do that, or worried about doing that, or don’t feel that’s their actual role. One, it’s extreme clarity on hey this is your role. It’s to own this and take this to the next level. When you start molding the clay, people want to come and help. When you start building something cool, people are like, “Oh.” They’re gravitated to it. But until you can start doing that, that’s really tough. One, it’s letting people know that’s what’s expected of them.
And then two, I would tell people to just build. As crazy as it sounds, I spend a lot of my time on the side, just trying to build different things. Try different clay, think through different ideas. I think that is a really important skill to have, to just being able to say, “Okay, I’m going to start with a blank sheet and make some art,” or whatever it is you want to do. I encourage people to do that because it’s a muscle, like anything else. It can atrophy. I really do think no matter what the heart of PM, in is that ability to be a builder, and you do got to make sure you can keep doing it.
Lenny: Yeah. That’s actually a great segue to where I was going to go next, which is, you say you build and you like to build stuff, but you’re legitimately building a lot of stuff. You have the site, mindofhari.com, where you share all these side projects. Can you just talk about what’s going on there and some of the stuff that you’ve built?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Arguably, the only thing I’ve ever been good at in my life is just building things and creating things. I get a lot of energy from it. Yeah, I have a site. It’s called Mind of Hari because it is really whatever’s top of mind. I try to do my best to completely separate it from business. I know there’s always a draw as a good PM to say, is there a business here? But I try to keep it as art. It’s completely art and it’s what I want to build. I take on new subjects. I have two little kids and it’s fun to … One of them was a book me and my oldest wrote, and it was a set of bedtime stories we did. And then one day I was like, “Hey, we should just make this a notebook.” And we did it. I think it’s got about half-a-million readers now. It’s been fun to see it take some life and go through.
We made a board game recently that I know Stanford Design School or some professors there have been using, and it was called Parallel Universe. It’s, how do you have a card and then be able to see maybe the card says there’s no windows in this world anymore, and then what would happen in that world? You got to list 10 different things that would happen. That ability to think ahead, the fun sci-fi stuff. I make healthy gummy bears. I just try to take something completely new and have that. I don’t know, it’s probably one of the more fun moments in this world where you can sit there and just create something and have some new clay. Yeah, that is what that website is about.
Lenny: Wait, so you made actual gummy bears?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah, we are doing something with gummy bears. Lenny, I know you’re expecting a new addition. Congratulations, again. But one of the things I found when I had kids is, no matter what I was trying to do, there was candy and sugar everywhere like any Halloween, any birthday party, et cetera. You can’t get rid of it because it was just hard to do. So we were like, hey, we’re going to sit down and make our own gummy bear. What I found is, this is just a fun tidbit for your readers, if you open a Twizzler or one of those, about 80% of what’s in there is sugar because they’re optimizing for shelf life. They’re optimizing for what’s in the store.
What we were able to do is basically create a gummy bear. About 40% of it is sugar. It’s just got five ingredients. Honey is the sweetener because I don’t want to give my kids some alternative sweeteners. But we have a small commercial kitchen and we produce some gummy bears. If you ever want to try them, to any of your followers, I’m happy to send some gummy bears and hopefully you can check them out.
Lenny: Wait, is there a way to buy them somewhere?
Hari Srinivasan: Well, you can go to Mind of Hari. We stock them seasonally. One of the things that we found out is there is different laws on how they can be shipped, and obviously we’re not optimizing for long storage. But they’ll be on Mind of Hari. You can always reach out to me and I’ll find you and tell you which farmer’s market we’re at or whatever and you can come swing by.
Lenny: Well, I don’t see it on Mind of Hari, so maybe by the time this comes out, put it on here. Or if you’re trying to-
Hari Srinivasan: Put it on there?
Lenny: Yeah.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah, it’s on the homepage. And then when they’re stock, we put them in the shop.
Lenny: Okay. That means they’re out of stock? All right, we’re going to sell you out. Let’s get all your gummy bears. With that, we’ve reached our very exciting lightning round. Are you ready?
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah, let’s do it.
Lenny: What are two or three books you’ve recommended most to other people?
Hari Srinivasan: The first one is called Thinking in Systems. It’s the one I give the team every now and then. It’s just a really good book about how I think sometimes people see systems. Can we talk about it? It could be abstract. I think it goes into real detail on how people can intervene at various parts and how to take actions at different systems. I really enjoy that book.
Not directly maybe a book I recommend, but a book that I just read that I thought was phenomenal, just to give it to readers if they want something good, it’s called Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. It was recommending by a friend. Have you read it? You read it?
Lenny: Yeah. I honestly didn’t love it, but I liked it a lot.
Hari Srinivasan: For some reason, I’ve been-
Lenny: It was sweet.
Hari Srinivasan: I thought it was very well done and there’s a couple chapters I reflected on. I just finished it. I thought it was well done. That’s one that I’ll throw out there.
Lenny: Yeah, it was very sweet. I feel like it got hyped too much for me. I’m like, okay.
Hari Srinivasan: Oh, I didn’t actually know it got-
Lenny: I think that’s the key.
Hari Srinivasan: … much publicity. Okay, that’s it. The third one that I just downloaded because I finished it, I’m actually going to open up my audiobook and tell you because I’m about, I don’t know, an hour into and I’m really enjoying it, it is An Immense World. I don’t know if you’ve read that one yet. It is about animals and how animals have different senses out there. It goes through a set of different animals and how they see the world.
Just one of those reminders that we’re so limited sometimes in our own perception and how dogs, for instance, they can breathe in and take in sense even when they’re breathing out. It’s like vision almost, and it’s just phenomenal to me just to think about all the things they’re probably sensing as my dog and I are going on our walk.
Lenny: I’ve learned dogs shoot air out of their nose first before they smell, to clear things out.
Hari Srinivasan: Isn’t that wild? They can probably see so much more of what happened in the history of a little walk than we’re able to just because of that.
Lenny: Incredible. Next question. What is a favorite recent movie or TV show?
Hari Srinivasan: One thing we try to do is watch TV as a family. It brings us together a little bit. We are doing Star Wars with the kids, which is for the first time, which has been a really enjoyable experience, just being able to witness it through them. And then we’ve been going a little bit back in time. We watched ET. It’s fun. It jogs your memory. These are phenomenal movies that we go through. I think your question is on recent TV shows that probably came out more recently.
Lenny: Those work just as well.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. The other one I did like, it’s not a TV show but I … God, what was it called? It was that podcast that came out. Case 63 I think it was called? Anyways, I hope that’s the right name of it. But it was a sci-fi podcast. It was like 10-minute shorts. The premise of it is someone comes from the future and there’s a little bit of speculative fiction and is at a psychologist. It’s just a phenomenal piece. I’ll have to get you the real name. Maybe I can get it for you after for the show notes or whatever.
Lenny: Yeah, we’ll edit your words and add that-
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah, exactly.
Lenny: … whatever’s in the show notes, that’s the one you meant. What is a favorite interview question you like to ask?
Hari Srinivasan: I do like to ask people what the most complex thing they ever built was. I just love to understand mostly, what do they gravitate to? Is there something you gravitate to? And two, are they able to simplify it? I think those are two really important skills.
Lenny: What is it that you look for in their answer that tells you it was a good answer?
Hari Srinivasan: Both of those things. First, did they take on something that was super complex, really, really hard? Because I think there’s only a particular group of people who gravitate to those kinds of problems. I do think more and more openly. I think that’s a lot of, in my opinion, the ways the world is going to get better by the things that are really, really hard to solve. Intimacy doesn’t scale. When you think about how people are going to feel more connected, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to solve. When you think about healthcare, it’s going to be very, very difficult to solve. Education is a very difficult interconnected space. I think people who gravitate to that, know those problems are hard, have a very special gift. It’s hard to replicate that passion. So one, did you do that?
And then two, I think people who really understand systems are able to, somehow this is truly, especially people probably way smarter than me, they’re able to simplify it. They’re able to explain it and say, “This is how I looked at it, but here’s how I modeled it. Here’s the lovers and how I went after it.” Even if it’s nonlinear, they’re able to say, “This is how the cause and effects works.” I’m really looking for once you did it, did you really understand and were you able to crack it? Or at least, did you understand why you weren’t able to crack it? I usually find this to be also the most rewarding conversations.
Lenny: Awesome. Thanks for sharing all that.
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah.
Lenny: Next question. What is a favorite recent product that you’ve discovered that you love?
Hari Srinivasan: I’ll give you one more dad one. My youngest just hates brushing his teeth. Just was like, it was always a thing. I should actually find the name of the toothbrush, but you can just Google or Amazon this and you’ll figure it out. Basically, it’s like it was this Baby Shark toothbrush, but it’s a game. You play that game for two minutes and you can try to pick up different prizes, you brush your teeth.
What I loved about it, because I think it’s what all great products do, it turns a moment of annoyance to a moment of joy. It went not even just like you solved a pain point. It was an unreasonable experience of like now he loves it. It was just so well done. It’s like 10 bucks, and it was 10 bucks extremely well spent. So much delight. Whoever made that toothbrush, thank you.
Lenny: Damn. Is it playing Baby Shark? I hope not.
Hari Srinivasan: Well, it can. It has that feature. It has that capability, but it is a small price to pay for me to get out to enjoy.
Lenny: Good times. What’s something relatively minor that you’ve changed in your product development process that has had a big impact on your team’s ability to execute?
Hari Srinivasan: I do like to change things relatively. Every quarter or six months, sit down and say, what can we get better at? The two areas I find myself innovating, if you will, innovating or tweaking the most, one is around planning. I think every company struggles with this. You get bigger, it probably becomes a more different … especially when we talked about the complexity of the ecosystem. We started this thing where just basically we call it orange and red priorities. Which is, then a lot of times what people do is, teams will plan bottom-up.
They’ll come into a manager or a leader and then the leader may shift things around or say, this is what … I think we’ve really started shifting it in a different way. We said, these are the big rocks we got to get done. We’re going to get those things done first. We’re going to be upfront and honest with you, and these are the things and these are price. And then you can plan from there. I think it’s relieved a lot of the progress. I think there’s an honesty that comes within and that’s been a big change.
The others just are the way we review products. That’s always been a thing. My read is, when we keep our product review process live too long, it gets a little institutionalized and people start making long documents and stuff. You always have to change that every quarter. Basically, I think it always comes down to the same thing, which is, how do you get their problem statement quickly? And then how do you design from there? But the lever that we basically put in place for that was to really shorten the time.
I’m trying this thing, I don’t know if it’s going to work. But could we get to 15-minute reviews basically instead of an hour and see if that alleviates some of this? I’ll let you know how it goes when we chat up next, but I’m very curious to see if this is going to be a different kind of system where we might be able to get to clarity quicker, or realize we’re not at clarity and then break and come back.
Lenny: Reminds me of a tweet I think I just saw. Maybe it was an Instagram post of teams that do stand-ups while doing a plank, to keep the meeting really short.
Hari Srinivasan: That’s interesting.
Lenny: Could be the next one.
Hari Srinivasan: I haven’t tried that one yet, but it might be something we try next.
Lenny: Last question. You’ve been at LinkedIn for a long time. I imagine you use LinkedIn a lot. Is there just a pro tip that you can share of how to be more successful with LinkedIn, find more value in LinkedIn, enjoy it more?
Hari Srinivasan: The first is, I do think certainly there’s ways, and the majority of ways that skills work is we infer skills. But I think that there is a skills section on the profile. I think a lot of people ignore it because they don’t realize that there’s value in it. That’s changing, but I’m not sure if it’s changing for everybody. I would pay more attention to skills as we get more into the skills-first stuff.
The second thing I would probably do, I don’t know if it’s that hidden, but I would check out LinkedIn Learning. I do think LinkedIn Learning is a gem. I think because it’s sold largely through enterprises, a lot of people miss it. I would hope you check it out. But more importantly, tell me areas that we could get better on there as well. I hope that people will find value there.
Lenny: What’s the best way to find out about LinkedIn Learning? They just Google LinkedIn Learning and they’ll find the-
Hari Srinivasan: Yeah. Or go to LinkedIn/learning. Yeah.
Lenny: Linkedin.com/learning? Okay. Great. Hari, I feel like we’ve opened the Mind of Hari up on this podcast. I appreciate you being here. Two final questions. Where can folks find you online if they want to reach out, and how can listeners be useful to you?
Hari Srinivasan: Well, you can find me on LinkedIn. That’s an easy one. I do really, really, really appreciate product feedback. I promise you I take it well, for those listening. And two, going back to the heart of this conversation around complexity, it is really hard to know sometimes what everyone’s experience is because you’re living in a very abstracted ecosystem. The more you could just say, hey, this is working or not, and the intentions are coming from a good place, and if you have a moment and you’re not having a great experience, or you are having a great experience, you could write it. I really would appreciate to hear your perspective.
Lenny: Amazing. Hari, thank you so much for being here.
Hari Srinivasan: Thanks, Lenny. It’s great meeting you.
Lenny: You, too. Bye, everyone.
Thank you so much for listening. If you found this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving a review, as that really helps other listeners find the podcast. You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com. See you in the next episode.
Glossary
| English | 中文 |
|---|---|
| An Immense World | 《An Immense World》(动物感官科普著作,保留原文书名) |
| Baby Shark | Baby Shark(儿童品牌/歌曲名称,保留原文) |
| big rocks | 大石头(优先级管理中的核心事项隐喻) |
| Case 63 | Case 63(播客节目名称,保留原文) |
| CPO | CPO(Chief Product Officer,首席产品官,保留原文缩写) |
| Damian | Damian(人名,LinkedIn 增长团队负责人,保留原文写法) |
| Economic Graph | Economic Graph(LinkedIn 发布的公开经济数据平台,保留原文) |
| engagement ecosystem | 用户参与生态系统 |
| Ford | 福特 |
| GM | GM(General Manager,总经理,保留原文缩写) |
| Hari Srinivasan | Hari Srinivasan(人名保留原文写法) |
| hiring business | 招聘业务 |
| Hybrid Escape | Hybrid Escape(福特混合动力车型名称,保留原文写法) |
| Jatin Rajvanshi | Jatin Rajvanshi(人名,保留原文) |
| Jeff | Jeff(人名,指 LinkedIn 时任 CEO Jeff Weiner,保留原文写法) |
| Lenny | Lenny(播客主持人名,保留原文) |
| LinkedIn(保留原文,知名平台无需翻译) | |
| LinkedIn Learning | LinkedIn Learning(LinkedIn 企业学习产品名称,保留原文) |
| Lynda | Lynda(被 LinkedIn 收购的在线学习平台名称,保留原文) |
| marketing solutions business | 营销解决方案业务 |
| marketplace | 市场 |
| members first | 会员优先 |
| Mind of Hari | Mind of Hari(Hari 的个人网站名称,保留原文) |
| North Star | 北极星(指公司核心使命/方向) |
| Open to Internal Work | Open to Internal Work(LinkedIn 内部求职功能名称,保留原文) |
| Open to Work | Open to Work(LinkedIn 功能名称,保留原文) |
| orange and red priorities | 橙色和红色优先级(LinkedIn 内部优先级管理方法) |
| Parallel Universe | Parallel Universe(桌游名称,保留原文) |
| PM | PM(Product Manager,产品经理,保留原文缩写) |
| premium business | 高级会员业务 |
| product university | product university(LinkedIn 内部产品管理培训项目名称,保留原文) |
| profile | 个人档案 |
| RAPID | RAPID(LinkedIn 内部决策框架缩写,R=Recommend 推荐、A=Agree 同意、P=Input/Put in input 提供意见、I=Input 输入、D=Decision 决策,保留原文缩写) |
| Recruiter | Recruiter(LinkedIn 旗舰招聘产品名称,保留原文) |
| Ryan | Ryan(人名,保留原文写法) |
| skills-based hiring | 基于技能的招聘 |
| skills-first hiring | 技能优先招聘 |
| Steven Spielberg | Steven Spielberg(国际知名导演,保留原文写法) |
| Talent Solutions | Talent Solutions(LinkedIn 产品线名称,保留原文) |
| The Curious PM | The Curious PM(Twitter 账号名,保留原文) |
| Thinking in Systems | 《Thinking in Systems》(系统思维经典著作,保留原文书名) |
| Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow | 《Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow》(小说,保留原文书名) |
| Twizzler | Twizzler(美国知名糖果品牌,保留原文) |
Reformatted by reformat_english.py