LinkedIn

LinkedIn

Designing Strategies for Network Growth

Role

Product Designer

Timeline

May - Aug 2024

Team

PM, EM, UXR

Starting a streak happens when you perform a qualifying streak action on your own.

Streak flame pulses when additional actions are performed the same week.

Reminder notifications in case you forget to maintain your streak.

View your streaks on LinkedIn.com

Background

On the Network Growth team, I led the design of "Catch-up Streaks" from 0-1, from researching the problems to designing for implementation. "Catch-up Streaks" will help users nurture their networks consistently over time to unlock greater value. The feature is on our development roadmap and will soon be rolled out to highly connected users.

Problem

LinkedIn users want to maintain and grow relationships within their existing networks, but struggle to do so consistently.

Outcome

I delivered designs for a new feature, "Catch-up Streaks" to motivate members to catch up with connections consistently, strengthening their network.

Starting a streak happens when you perform a qualifying streak action on your own.

Starting a streak happens when you perform a qualifying streak action on your own.

Streak flame pulses when additional actions are performed the same week.

Streak flame pulses when additional actions are performed the same week.

Reminder notifications in case you forget to maintain your streak.

Reminder notifications in case you forget to maintain your streak.

View your streaks on LinkedIn.com

View your streaks on LinkedIn.com

Grounded in data

Grounded in data

The feature opportunity lies in enabling core user JTBD's and driving key metrics for relationship interactions.

User Goal

As a highly connected member*, I want to feel connected to my network and I want to cultivate relationships with professional contacts.


*500+ connections// 29% of WAU

Business Goal

We can drive +22% RPIA* (a true north metric) if highly connected members interact with 1 more connection per week.

*Relationship Professional Interactions

We can drive +22% RPIA* if highly connected members interact with 1 more connection per week.


*Relationship Professional Interactions

Encouraging interactions

Encouraging interactions

Any interaction, including messaging, reacting, and commenting in the catch up tab counts towards a weekly streak.

Problem Statement

Given the benefits of nurturing your network accrue over time, how might we help users make nurturing a habit?
Establishing design principles

For a new feature, it was helpful to lay out guardrails for what streaks should do, look, and feel like. This was informed from auditing 15 apps with streaks and the LinkedIn product ecoysystem.

1

Gamify with Purpose

Motivate and reinforce desired behaviors without overshadowing the primary catch up experience.

2

Keep it Simple

Prioritize essential features to ensure an intuitive user experience.

3

Pockets of Delight

Infuse delight through color, animation and/ or language.

Competitive & Internal Audit

Component 1

Component 1

Streak Banner

This serves as the entry point into the full details about your streak.

Component 2

Component 2

Stats and People

These metrics aggregate all the connections a user engages with during an active streak, and resets once a streak ends.

Component 3

Component 3

Insights

These provide insight into average number of connections reached, streak length, and % of network reached— as compared with peers.

Component 4

Component 4

Notifications

Reminder push notifications help users establish a habit of catching up weekly.

Component 5

Component 5

Low Relevance

Allowing users to sustain a streak despite low-activity network.

Iterations

Iterations

I explored different entry points and footprint sizes of the feature, and focused on prioritizing simplicity and clarity of visual design.

01 Ephemeral

PROS

  • No impact to catch up tab

  • No strong negative experience if streak lost

CONS

  • Cannot proactively check streak stats

  • Large disruption to user flow 

02 Integrated

PROS

  • Provides access to streak info without overshadowing new relevant updates

  • Entry point matches that of games

CONS

  • Some disruption to catch up updates regardless of placement logic

  • Some users might miss it if they don’t scroll

03 Permanent

PROS

  • Can proactively check streak stats

  • Clear prominent entry point

  • High visibility may encourage more catch up

CONS

  • Pushes rest of catch up tab down, including games

  • Takes up valuable real estate for a metric that only changes weekly 

Future Development

Future Development

Motion and Vision Integration

Delightful interactions and widening streak qualifying actions

Learnings

I learned so much from this project and I felt like I could see myself tangibly improving from the very first week to the final presentation. I was encouraged to do a very thorough design process and start with understanding the context, doing audits, researching, and then diving into the design explorations. Working with product constraints and engineering limitations also pushed me to adapt quickly and produce designs that would accommodate different timelines, and plan out different versions of the same feature. Overall, this was a very rewarding experience and I’m so excited to see it in the app!

Detailed Design Specs

Learnings

I learned so much from this project and I felt like I could see myself tangibly improving from the very first week to the final presentation. I was encouraged to do a very thorough design process and start with understanding the context, doing audits, researching, and then diving into the design explorations. Working with product constraints and engineering limitations also pushed me to adapt quickly and produce designs that would accommodate different timelines, and plan out different versions of the same feature. Overall, this was a very rewarding experience and I’m so excited to see it in the app!

Reviews

Reviews

Naman Goel

Senior Director of Product

Senior Director of Product

"This is the best internship project I have ever seen…Any possibility you want to push back a semester and just keep working here?"

Andrew Rogier

Product Lead, Network Growth

Product Lead, Network Growth

"Jessica– you’ve been an AMAZING partner. Beyond coming up with creative ideas and designs, you brought an enthusiasm and passion that was contagious!"

Problem Statement

Given the benefits of nurturing your network accrue over time, how might we help users make nurturing a habit?

  • More Work More Work

YouTube

Kickstarting the New YouTuber Journey · 2020

YouTube

Kickstarting the New YouTuber Journey · 2020

Glassdoor

Shipped

Redesigning Career Pages for Engagement · 2021

Glassdoor

Shipped

Redesigning Career Pages for Engagement · 2021

  • More Work See

Instagram

Shipped

Tackling Suboptimal Calling Experiences · 2022

Glassdoor

Shipped

Redesigning Career Pages for Engagement · 2021

jessica chou

Establishing design principles

For a new feature, it was helpful to lay out guardrails for what streaks should do, look, and feel like. This was informed from auditing 15 apps with streaks and the LinkedIn product ecoysystem.

1

Gamify with Purpose

Motivate and reinforce desired behaviors without overshadowing the primary catch up experience.

2

Keep it Simple

Prioritize essential features to ensure an intuitive user experience.

3

Pockets of Delight

Infuse delight through color, animation and/ or language.

Establishing design principles

For a new feature, it was helpful to lay out guardrails for what streaks should do, look, and feel like. This was informed from auditing 15 apps with streaks and the LinkedIn product ecoysystem.

1

Gamify with Purpose

Motivate and reinforce desired behaviors without overshadowing the primary catch up experience.

2

Keep it Simple

Prioritize essential features to ensure an intuitive user experience.

3

Pockets of Delight

Infuse delight through color, animation and/ or language.

Establishing design principles

For a new feature, it was helpful to lay out guardrails for what streaks should do, look, and feel like. This was informed from auditing 15 apps with streaks and the LinkedIn product ecoysystem.

1

Gamify with Purpose

Motivate and reinforce desired behaviors without overshadowing the primary catch up experience.

2

Keep it Simple

Prioritize essential features to ensure an intuitive user experience.

3

Pockets of Delight

Infuse delight through color, animation and/ or language.