Post by Lukas Bänninger Leone

I have been observing lately how #LinkedIn adapts their product, try out things and experiment. For example, how they are experimenting with the so-called #OpenToWork photo frame». I have two hypotheses about that: If I remember correctly, they first tried to sell the frame to users. Hypothesis 1 (for the target group “Swiss people”): Almost nobody bought this. Now it is different: the photo frame is bundled with the option “share [that you are open] with all LinkedIn members”. Hypothesis 2 (again only for Swiss people): This change has resulted in significantly fewer people choosing this option. It would of course be interesting to know the statistics... But how did I get to those hypotheses? I would bet that (well-done) user research would show that for Swiss people who currently DON’T have a job, job hunting is associated with uncomfortable feelings. A lot of people are ashamed of not having a job. Of course, you don't want to keep your “openness” a secret, because then it becomes difficult to find a new one. But you don't want to “market it out loud” and certainly don't want to pay for selling yourself “more visibly”, like at a cattle market (in Switzerland), or how you market a product on eBay. “I am not that desperate!” But as I said, just hypotheses!