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OPINION
How LinkedIn went from creepy to cool
First: Product vision, AI & feeds. Now? Notifications.
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Going on LinkedIn used to feel like having to speak to your distant uncle at a funeral.
Weird.
Awkward.
Necessary.
Nowadays, I’m on there all the time.
At least 5 times a day.
I get most of my clients from LinkedIn. I get most of my newsletter subscribers from LinkedIn. And I learn a lot from others on there.
Turns out it’s not just me. So do many other consultants, business owners and creators.
This turnaround is clear in their metrics too.
As of 2024, LinkedIn have over one billion users.
One billion.
That’s 1 in 8 people in the world.
As well as user growth, the tech giant shows strong engagement and revenue metrics in 2024, with:
- 1.5 million content interactions per minute
- 7 people hired per minute
- 138 hours of learning consumed per minute
- 10% year-on-year growth in revenue
- 51% increase in premium sign ups
Whilst there’s still a lot of cringe content on LinkedIn — described by Business Insider as virtual work high-fives, AI stumbles, or “crying CEOs” videos (lol) — there’s a huge amount of value on the platform.
So, what’s changed?
Turns out it was a mix of culture, mission, ambition, AI and a whole lot else.
We’ll run through how LinkedIn has shifted their UX to make the platform feel much less creepy and way more cool. We’ll see how they refined their Jobs to be Done (JTBD), improved their feed…
