10th
Product context
When I go to Linkedin, 9 times out of 10 I do so with a singular purpose in mind - to see one’s ‘resume’. I generally also like to see ways in which I’m connected to them (degrees of separation, shared contacts, etc.) as I find this info gives me additional useful context about the individual. Linkedin also has some cool and occasionally useful features around skills and jobs.
Resumes, connections, skills and jobs are all fundamentally and sensibly tied to Linkedin’s core function as a professional social network.
What I find surprisingly useless is the Linkedin newsfeed (which, of course, happens to be the home page on the site). The default setting - ‘all updates’ - is a smattering of Twitter updates interspersed with Linkedin events such as profile updates, friend connections, recommendations, etc. To be clear, I’m not at all against the concept of a Linkedin newsfeed - to the contrary, there is real and relevant signal in there. What I don’t like, and what I find crowds out signal in my feed, is the Twitter feed (surprising considering I’m a Twitter power user).
The underlying issue here is a mismatch of *context*. I, and likely the vast majority of users, use Linkedin for a very specific purpose - professional social networking. Things that relate to professional social networking - resumes, professional connections, skills and jobs - fit perfectly well within the context of the site, and a Linkedin newsfeed that focuses on these things would push relevant signal within that context. In stark contrast, I find my Twitter feed on Linkedin completely out of context. Twitter is more general purpose and rarely contains ‘professional social networking’ focused tweets. I go to Tweetdeck, my android Twitter client, or twitter.com to interact with the Twitter feed in context.
Conceptually, I get the appeal of aggregating feeds and being a one stop shop for social interactions - personal, professional, or interest based. But in practice, the one stop shop approach is often ineffective, lacks context and crowds out signal (unless, of course, your context is to be a non-specific aggregator - e.g. Tweetdeck or Seesmic).
The larger, macro issue here is the importance of having a realistic conception of the context (or character/personality/purpose) of a site, service or product. Having this clear conception is critical to inform all product decisions and optimize the offering for usefulness and signal-to-noise ratio.
