LinkedIn · Product sense · Entry · 45 to 60 minutes

How should LinkedIn signal job seeking?

LinkedIn is a professional network where people manage their work identity, build connections, and find jobs. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

user empathy
product sense
tradeoff analysis
metrics
written communication

The situation

It is mid 2020, and LinkedIn is seeing a surge of members looking for work after widespread layoffs caused by COVID-19. The VP of Product for Jobs has asked you, a PM on the profile and jobs experience, to recommend how LinkedIn should help job seekers get discovered faster. Today, members can quietly tell recruiters they are open to new roles through a setting on their profile, but regular members in their network cannot see that signal. Some leaders believe LinkedIn should make job seeking more visible so employers and hiring managers can act faster. Others worry that public visibility could feel risky for people who are still employed, worried about judgment, or concerned about how they look on a professional network. You need to propose whether LinkedIn should expand this signal beyond recruiters only, and if so, how it should work. Your recommendation should balance speed to help job seekers now with the social and emotional stakes of making career status more visible.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product recommendation memo.

Your answer must

Define the primary user segment you are optimizing for and the core job to be done.
Frame the product problem and the main tradeoff between discoverability and social risk.
Recommend one clear feature approach, including how visibility, controls, and user-facing framing would work.
List 3 to 5 success metrics, including at least one adoption metric, one outcome metric, and one guardrail metric.
Describe the biggest risks and how you would validate or de-risk the idea before and after launch.

Constraints

Your solution must build on LinkedIn's existing profile and job seeking flows, not a brand new standalone product.
The feature must be optional and work for both unemployed members and members who are still employed.
The team needs a practical solution that can be shipped quickly because the need is urgent.
Do not assume recruiters, employers, or member norms outside LinkedIn will change just because the feature exists.

Format

Entry level product sense memo. Use short sections such as user, problem, proposal, metrics, and risks.

How LinkedIn actually played it

Analyzes the Open to Work badge: the problem it targeted, why it split users, and the quiet pivot that followed. Draws lessons on how visibility features feel to the people using them.

Design for how a feature makes users feel, not just what it does
Visibility features need control and framing
Quiet course corrections are part of shipping

Built from LinkedIn's Most Controversial Feature by Sid Arora (JAPM).