linkedin projects:

inAdrian Lin | Eric Wagner | Daniel Kim

Linkedin Projects

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Company Background

inDefine Develop NextDiscover

Brand/Company Background

Linkedin is the professional social network

Linked provides a digital space for people to professionally connect with people they want to connect with for reference, advice, job searching, recruiting, or building connections.

LinkedIn launched in 2003 and has since grown to a network of over 400 million members.

The brand has a friendly, yet professional personality that encourages connections.

KPIs

User engagement through number of connections

Number of Premium subscribers

User statistics (profile views, InMail messages)

in

Deliver

Style Guide


HEX #000000

HEX #86888A

HEX #FFFFFF

HEX #CACCCE

HEX #0077B5

HEX #313335

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HEX #8673AA HEX #CD5E4F HEX #D9883AHEX #40A1D9

HEX #896CAE

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HEX #88B800

HEX #CA583E

HEX #E1B400

HEX #86888A

HEX #4E9DE0

HEX #D78900

HEX #CA528B

Corporate Color Palette

Color Palette for Data Viz

Accent Color Palette

Primary Text Family Avenir NextPrimary Text Family Avenir NextPrimary Text Family Avenir NextPrimary Text Family Avenir NextPrimary Text Family Avenir NextPrimary Text Family Avenir Next

Secondary Text Family Helvetica

Secondary Text Family Helvetica

Secondary Text Family Arial

Secondary Text Family Arial

Secondary Text Family Georgia

Key brand messages in headlines and display

copy. Avenir Next must be used for headline and

display text in all offline marketing materials, and select digital materials where the fonts can be

embedded or served online

Helvetica and Arial are used for all body copy.

Alternate fonts when Avenir is not available.

Georgia Italic is the voice font for customer

testimonials and member quotes

Deliverables

inDeliverDefine Develop NextDiscover

Research Report

Style Guide

Personas

User Stories

App Map

Journey Map

Annotated Wireframes

High Fidelity Prototype

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Project Proposal


Initial Problem Statement

People create connections via LinkedIn to build and expand their professional network. Its difficult for people to gain professional experience working on real projects in their desired field, especially if they havent had a great amount of experience. Additionally, its difficult for people who have passion projects outside of work to recruit qualified talent to help make their projects come to life.

Opportunity

LinkedIn recently unrolled separate apps like LinkedIn Jobs for job seeking. The connections made through LinkedIn are underutilized, allowing for an opportunity for people to use their connections for more than just applying for jobs. LinkedIn can provide a space for both professionals and those with less experience to collaborate on projects. This presents an opportunity for professionals to give back to their community, practice teaching and recruit talent to help their passion projects come to life. People with less experience can work on real projects under professionals in their desired field and gain practical work experience.

Project Plan



Executive SummaryLinkedIn is the professional social network. People use LinkedIn to build, expand and utilize their professional network. LinkedIn started as a website and now it is associated with a full suite of apps spanning from companion apps like LinkedIn Jobs to sister apps like Lynda.com.

LinkedIn Projects is an app that fills a void in the collaboration and learning community, specifically in the design community. It is often difficult to gain real-world experience without already having a portfolio of work samples and an impressive resume, yet these are the attributes recruiters seek in order to hire top talent. LinkedIn Projects provides a platform for you to gain experience and learn from someone else in the same expertise while adding to your resume. Additionally, established professionals in the field can realize their dreams by recruiting free talent to work on their passion projects and side projects while learning by teaching others.

For this reason we focused on comparing websites and apps in these the fields of professional networking, mentoring, and portfolio hosting/job boards to see what works, what does not, and what we can borrow from other services in order to define our app in this space.

Our planning process consisted of user research techniques such as affinity mapping coupled with user interviews in order to develop personas. These personas helped us define our archetypal users who we would design for. From these personas we developed user stories and a journey map to show various scenario in which someone would use this app as well as the end-to-end experience from discovery to in-person collaboration.

In order to decide on the functionality we would design, we prioritized certain features according to our personas needs. Through multiple design charrettes, sketches and ideation cycles, we came up our first draft of medium fidelity wireframes. Utilizing the iterative design process we tested these preliminary wires with users, synthesized feedback, and reiterated on these designs.

Lastly, we created high fidelity wireframes of the flow from the perspectives of our two personas. From these wireframes we created an interactive mobile prototype of our LinkedIn Projects app.

In sum, LinkedIn Projects addresses a niche audience in a way that no other app has done before. With this idea, people can connect, learn, and collaborate with others both professionally and personally all within the confines of LinkedIn--the professional social network.

Attributes

APPLICANT

Discover Projects and People

Search Projects, Work in Progress, People, Teams (studios

like Adobe). Can also search Creatives To Follow, Galleries and

Collections

Search people, projects

Post a portfolio Yes Yes Discover Jobs Search by keyword, location, creative field, or company

Search with location, keyword, specialty, company search

Application Process Click Apply button, apply with your profile, Click SubmitHit apply and it redirects you to

the companies application

POSTER

Post a jobClick Post a Job, pay either $399 per month or $1500 per month for

unlimited posts

Click post job, pay $275 for single, $725 for three jobs,

$1,100 for five jobs, $1,850 for ten jobs

Verify Talent View Applicant's Behance profile Resume and portfolio

Comparative Analysis


AttributesMENTOR

Onboarding Application form/ E-mail/Local mentoring programs User Sign up

Find a Menthe Program coordinator assigns mentee after interview processApply to be mentor or volunteer(community

council, college mentors, raise funds, special projects, committees)

Find the right program Interview with program coordinator Apply at college mentor for kids chapter at your collegeTypes of mentorship Career, education, social Youth

Retrospective Reviews Relationship with mentee/s Testimonials

Location Finder Google maps powered search with 25 mile radius cap Local college campusBackground Check Yes Yes

MENTEEOnboarding Local mentoring programs/Application form N/A

Find a mentor Program coordinator assigns mentee to mentor Through program

Types of mentorship Career, education, social Career, financial literacy, health and wellness, science. technologyLocation Finder Project coordinator N/A

Attributes

Onboarding Sign in with LinkedIn or emailSign in with Facebook

and LinkedIn

Interest CategoriesAdd interests using

keywords, anything from Photography to Private

Equity

Join communities for Seed Investment, Mobile

Developers, Copenhagen Startups,

etc.

Introduction Method

Receive daily batch of people according to

preference and can swipe left or right to dismiss or

meet this person

Swipe left or right through people within a

community

Skills ValidationPulls LinkedIn overview,

past jobs, URL, schooling, interests

Pulls LinkedIn overview, job titles, "grip strength"

www.collegementors.org

Messaging In-app In-app

Grip App

Mentor.org

Shapr App

User Research Interviews


Initial User Research:

In our exploratory user research, 5/7 participants mentioned learning best while applying their skills, especially on projects, and 4/7 users mentioned enjoying working on such projects. 4/7 also mentioned that a sense of community or connection is important to learning. These insights pointed us toward using in-person collaboration on group projects as the primary way our project idea would help people hone their skills.

In addition, 4/7 users mentioned talked about needing or using structure as part of their learning process. This validated our idea of requiring project creators submit project plan details as part of creating a project listing on our site. This requirement should filter out incomplete ideas and increase the likelihood of submitted projects being finished.

ScreenerWe identified the characteristics of the users we wanted to interview and distributed a screener survey to reach a vast amount of people from which we could funnel into qualified participants. We looked for people interested in professional development and who used apps to learn new skills.

InterviewsAfter screening, we had a more manageable amount of responses from people we wanted to interview. Before interviewing, we listed out topics to touch upon and from there, we created questions to guide us in our interview process.

FindingsFrom our user interviews we identified several patterns. Five out of seven users mentioned learning best while applying skills, particularly in group projects. Four out of seven also mentioned that a sense of community was helpful to learning.

User Research & Takeaways


Rachelle

Rachelle has been toying with an idea for a low-budget modular home design to house victims of natural disasters in Mexico. She needs help pushing this idea forward and is looking to collaborate with individuals who share the same passions for social good through design. She works during the day, and in her free time teaches inner-city kids about industrial design. Although shes always on-the-go, she values the personal relationships she makes with others. For this reason, she wants to work with people she sees herself becoming friends with.

Bio

Motivations- Expanding network both professionally and personally- Working with others keeps her on track- Learning new skills

Behavior- Learns by teaching others- Is structured in her approach to learning and projects

Pleasures- Bouncing ideas off others- Forms personal relationships with teammates- Wants to work with people she gets along well with- Wants to work with people with shared interests

How we can serve- Require application process for project listings so she knows she is working with talented people- Integrate with LinkedIn to prepopulate profile details so she can verify their talent- Require applicants to list contact details so she has the option of screening applicants- Allow project creators to structure and head the project

Team lead at Dyson for Product Development, 35 y/o, single

I want to enjoy spending time with the people I work with

Deliver

Personas


Miguel is a Jr. CAD designer from Mexico working at Target in the Housewares department. Hes been working at his first job for two years, but he doesnt get the opportunity to express himself through his design work. Hes learned much of his design skills in college and has taken online courses via Coursera and Codecademy. He wants to further his learning by working on projects he cares about.

Bio

Motivations- Career development- Sees value in collaboration because it furthers his skills, despite it being less comfortable

Behavior- Skeptical- Prefers to work alone. If he must work with others, he prefers people he knows- Is structured in his approach to learning and projects

Pains- Apprehensive of strangers- Doesnt want people to steal his ideas

How we can serve- Require project listings to detail group sizes and whether work is remote- Allow saving projects to a list so he can consider which to join- Require project listings to have sufficient description of desired skills and project timeline

CAD Designer at Target, 25 y/o, single

I want to work on projects I like but with people I can trustMiguel

We placed insights onto a four quadrant chart of behaviors, motivations, pleasures, and pains in order to identify features of our user groups and create personas to better understand and communicate their needs.

Project posting, including duration, group size, category

Be able to apply to a project Integration with LinkedIn profile Search for candidates/projects

Must

File sharing system Advanced faceted search Chatrooms Video chatrooms Connect projects to job boards

Could Wont teach skills like classroom

setting Wont sell courses Wont require membership fees

Wont

Message system (within project) Scheduling Can close project listing Resume and portfolio

Should

MoSCoW


Platform Choice:

Our platform choice is a native iOS app because this is the mode with which users primarily browse sources of inspiration of activities. AccordingApps that fit this category of browsing include Meetup or Pinterest which, like LinkedIn, both have a desktop and mobile website version, as well as a native mobile app. Users identified a similarity between these apps and our idea for LinkedIn Projects in the modes of interface they interact with these brands. In addition, creating a native app will make the comprehensive Projects experience streamlined and faster than accessing it via LinkedIn.com.

From a marketing standpoint, LinkedIn Projects will be branded as slightly less professional-focused and more casual. It will have an air of excitement and passion that comes from working on skills outside of work but which can also be used professionally. Because of this, it should be a separate app rather than part of the LinkedIn website, which would necessitate it sharing the same branding and style.

Project Platform


As someone looking for experience, I want to learn from someone in the field so I can gain real world experience.

As someone looking for experience, I want to work on a real project so I can add it to my portfolio. As someone looking for experience, I want to work with someone who shares my same interests, so I know were both equally invested in the work.

Looking for experience Project Creator


User Story

As a person with a project idea, I want to find qualified people, so that I can complete these projects on time. As a person with a project idea, I want to find someone talented so that I can learn from them too. As a person with a project idea, I want to find someone passionate about the same things, so that we can work better together as a team.

I want to work with talented people who are also friendly

Applies for projects

Got accepted!

Browses Discover feed and reads project descriptions

Posit

ive

Affe

ct+

Time-

Using LinkedIn ProjectsBefore LinkedIn Projects

Uses faceted search to find qualified candidates

Search Projects by preferences and project categoryI want to protect my

brand and my intellectual property

Creates project, fills in description and adds tags

Accept candidates who fit the criteria

Collaborates and learn from each other

Skys the limit

Closes listing

KeyIdeas and motivation wane and projects arent actualized

User journey using LinkedIn Projects

User Journey


Open app

I want to pursue my passion

I want to create work I care about

Miguel

Rachelle

App Map



First IterationSketch 9:41 AM 100%

Results

Search Discover Projects Me

Results display here

Search

Sketch 9:41 AM 100%

Discover


Project Picture

Project TitleProject Description

Project Picture


Project Picture


Discover

Miguel Santos liked this project

Miguel SantosProject Completed1/3/16Water for humanity

Sketch 9:41 AM 100%

interestsof user here asdf blah blahSearch Discover Projects Me

Rachelle TranProduct Developer

DysonGreater New York City Area

Biography of user here asdf blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Profile ProjectsPast

Project Picture


Sketch 9:41 AM 100%

Project Picture


Project Picture


Project Picture


Project Picture



Current Saved


Annotations of App Version 1

These events seemed to be on equal hierarchy levels and was unclear to users which item belonged to which.

The visual hierarchy was improved in the next iteration.

Fixed information visual hierarchy

1. View past, current and saved projects2. Press floating action button to create a new project


Annotations of App Version 2

2

1

1

1. Project details at a glance2. Relevant information stands out

1. View the activity of your connections at a glance

1 2

1

1

1

1

1

1. Profile information can be populated from LinkedIns API

1

2

1. As a project creator, you can view all pending and approved applicants for a project, as well as the project details.2. Applicant information displays in list so creators can read their contact details to coordinate collaboration or to inquire further.


Final Design

Prototype walkthrough


Interactive prototype


Next Steps

GranularAdd a Save button beside each edit field when editing fields

ConceptualCreate a task management system to delegate and assign tasks and track their completion

Short-TermCreate a chatroom or group messaging system to facilitate coordination between collaboratorsAdd advanced filtering and sorting for Discover feed and faceted Search by categories and group size.Allow project creators to send invites to other people to collaborate on projects

Long-TermDesign for file sharing and storage system for project creators to share task lists, timelines, etc.

Create a responsive web version of this app to integrate into the current LinkedIn.com


SourcesIconsthenounproject.comflaticons.com

Written Materialdezeen.comlinkedin.com

Picturesgettyimages.com

linkedin projects:

Technology