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LinkedIn Groups Collaboration and Task Management Feature
1. Project Three
LinkedIn Groups Collaboration and Task
Management Feature
Case Study
Created by: Michael Shai-Hee
Sydney, Australia 2014
2. Introduction
Companies are beginning to realise many employees have other skills that may not be applicable in their own industry but could be
utilised in other companies of a different industry they are collaborating with. The benefit for the company allowing its own employee to
share his or her other skills to the collaborating company is the employee will understand the different perspectives and objectives from
each company and communicate the issues to his or her employer to work out a consensus that will benefit both companies. A possible
outcome is companies will have empathy for each other instead of pushing their own agendas without regards for other company’s well
being.!
!
The benefit to the employee is their other skills are being recognised and put into practice which helps to maintain their skill standard. It
brings variety in their work where their main occupation can lead to boredom if he/she is doing the same task all the time. Increase in
career satisfaction, skill acquisition and personal well being are further positive outcomes for the employee.!
!
Such a proposal will be win/win for both employer and employee.!
!
However, to fulfil this objective, the following key business goals must be met to be viable:!
!
1.
!
2.
!
3.
!
Reduce the time and monetary costs compared with sourcing outside workers (e.g. contractors), whereby those skills could already
be available within the company’s employees when that company is collaborating with other companies requiring those skills.!
Such a system should efficiently manage tasks of these multi-skilled workers when collaborating with other companies.!
Reduce employee turnover.!
The platform considered to achieve these goals and objectives is the LinkedIn website. LinkedIn holds the largest number of member
professionals in the world which increases the likelihood of finding the right multi-skills match. To realise this goal, LinkedIn will boost its
“Groups” feature by adding collaboration and task management for companies and co-workers. It will initially be developed for the Apple
iPad device.!
!
3. Competitive Analysis
LinkedIn compared with other professional networking sites.!
!
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites!
Name
Description/Focus
Ryze
Business
XING
Business (primarily Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland))
Meettheboss
Business and Finance community, worldwide.
LinkedIn
Business and professional networking
Elixio
Business executives jet set and global elite.
Talkbiznow
Business networking
Focus.com
Business to Business, worldwide
Registered Users
500,000
11,100,000
200,000,000
80,000
850,000
Compared with other professional networking sites, LinkedIn outweighs its competitors in number
of registered users and brand awareness.!
!
LinkedIn will be the platform of choice for implementing the collaboration and task management
tools for companies and co-workers.
4. User Survey Research
A survey was sent out to address the issue of other skills LinkedIn members may have but are not
recognised. It seeks to find out if this is an issue that may have engaged members but doesn’t appear to
have been publicly discussed. It asks about how they feel about the lack of recognition of their other
skills, not practicing it and problems with LinkedIn in dealing with this conundrum.!
!
The following show the list of questions asked and the results from the participants.!
!
5. User Survey Questions
1. Other than your main professional title, do you have other skills
you could offer but believe there is no opportunity to do so within
your work environment? *
!
2. What is/are the reason(s)?
!
3. If you have other skills, do you believe you would have more
career satisfaction if you could apply your multiple skills in your
workplace?
!
4. Do you think there is any real benefit for companies utilizing the
multiple skilled employee?
!
5. Would you consider yourself a slashie?
!
6. Are you registered with LinkedIn? *
6. User Survey Questions (continued)
7. Do you feel the main profession listed in your profile pulls
attention away from your other skills?
!
8. Do you give additional information about yourself in the other
categories such as "Interests" and "Additional Organizations”?
!
9. Does the information reveal anything about your additional skills?
!
10.Do you believe mentioning your skills in these other categories
gives the perception of a "hobby" even though you may be
professionally skilled in these areas?
!
11.Do you believe LinkedIn falls short of addressing recognition of
multiple professional skills?
!
12.Would you like LinkedIn to address this issue?
!
13.Any further thoughts:
13. User Survey Response Analysis
Analysing the results from the survey response, approximately 50% of responses do believe their
other skills are being overlooked their employers.!
!
The LinkedIn site does not cater for workers who may have dual or more careers at the same time.!
!
Observing the analysis, the proposed idea of LinkedIn adopting a collaboration and task
management tool used by company directors to support workers in these situations warrants merit.
14. Persona - Jack Whiten
Database Administrator
|
Male
|
37
“It would be helpful if there was a way for LinkedIn to promote my other skills.”
Jack is a database administrator with around 10 years experience with a investment bank called
Track Investments. His day mainly involves installing and configuring new systems and maintaining
them once it starts operation. The role also requires him to program in SQL and C# .NET to
develop new applications for the system database as customers have become more demanding
for easier access, response times and more information.
!
<Photo>
Due to the nature of his job, he doesn’t get much chance to go out and meet new people within
the company since he is always needed to fix some problem with the database system. Because
the system is accessed by clients around the world, it needs to be in working order 24 hours per
day. If not, the business may lose customers and eventually revenue.
!
Jack is an easy going person who enjoys helping people solve their IT problems. He is very
thorough in making sure the client is happy with their problems solved. To Jack, this validation is
very important to him.
!
Jack is a married to Belinda (age 32) with 2 children Nancy (age 10) and Paul (age 9) and in
Lindfield, north of Sydney. Belinda works part time from home for a large company. This gives her
the flexibility to drive the children to and from school in her own time.
!
During his leisure weekends, Jack likes to spend time with his family going to places such as the
park and the beach. He likes to watch movies that tell a good story and appreciates art and
design.
!
Another interest and skill he has outside of his work profession is video production. When he goes
on short trips and holidays with his family, he likes to take videos of them and when he gets home,
edits them into a narrative and uploads them onto YouTube. Outside of family time, he has spent
time consistently practicing and studying video production to the point his work is almost on par
with professionals. At home, he has an array of video equipment and a few subscription magazines
dedicated to video production.
!
Sometimes he feels his job doesn't allow him to fulfil his potential but working on his video
productions helps alleviate that feeling.
15. Persona - Peter Lank
Manager
|
Male
|
45
“I would like to better manage and leverage the skills of my staff”
<Photo>
Peter Lank is a manager at an investment bank called Track Investments with around 15 years
experience. He manages a staff of 20 people in his division, whom Jack Whiten is a member of. He
is somewhat strict in getting things done but does allow his staff to take breaks whenever it suits
them. His strictness is due to the tight schedule he needs to follow set by the company to achieve
objectives but is sympathetic to those who may feel they may not cope. It also means he does not
usually have the time to get know everyone in his staff on a more personal level but wishes he
could.
!
Peter lives in Neutral Bay with his wife Melissa (40) and two high school aged children Emma (15)
and Samantha (17). Melissa works full time as a secretary at a doctor’s surgery. The children make
their way to school on their own using public transport busses.
!
Because the children are somewhat older, they don’t go on family holiday trips are much as they
used to as the girls will sometimes go on holidays with their friends. This leaves Peter to spend
more time with his wife only as when the children were younger, much of couple’s time was centred
around the children.
!
Peter’s other interests outside his work profession tend to be more of an intellectual nature. He
enjoys reading scientific journals, books and articles about business and finance, and world news
events in newspapers.
16. User Journey - Jack Whiten
Jack, a family man, has for 10 years worked as a database administrator for an investment bank. Even though there may
be times when it gets boring, he very satisfied. His job is secure, earns him a great salary, has health insurance and other
company benefits.!
!
Jack is also a registered LinkedIn user. LinkedIn recently has added a new feature to allow users to register additional
skills they have but may not be related to their profession into their profile but can be considered as serious skills. Jack
adds “Video Producer” as his additional skill.
!
On weekends, Jack loves to take videos of his family, the outdoors and places of interest such tours inside museums.
When he gets home, he edits the videos whereby the final cut quality is just about of a professional standard combined
with good storytelling. He also posts them on high profile websites such as YouTube.
!
One day, Jack's manager Peter comes up to him and asks casually how his family is going. Eventually, Peter mentions he
noticed in his LinkedIn profile, he has skills as a video producer. Peter says he followed the hyperlink to his video portfolio,
viewed some of his videos and noticed they are of very high quality. Peter then tells the reason why he has approached
him. The company has just spent a lot of money with an external video production company to make a video promoting
the bank's qualities to help increase business. He and other managers have seen the videos several times but they were
not satisfied with it, even though it had already been re-edited by the video company many times.
!
Peter asks Jack if he would be interested in collaborating with the video production company in fixing the problems in the
videos. Jack agrees and is excited by the prospect in using his skills in video production.
!
Jack offers the video production company many suggestions and hands on involvement to improve the storyline and
production.
!
Eventually, the final video version is shown to the managers of the company and it is exactly the result they were after.
Jack is congratulated in front of all the company board.
!
One month after the video is public released through television and the internet, business revenue for the company
increases by 30%. Jack receives a recognition award and a bonus is awarded to him.
17. User Journey - Peter Lank
The launch date for the public release of the corporate video is looming fast and there is no still agreement for approval. After
many video edits, the managers of Track Investments are still not happy with the final result. They feel the video doesn't
convey their brand in the right way despite many revisions, edits and narrative changes by the video production company.
!
A few weeks before the launch date, the managers are deliberating on what to do. A lot has been invested in the video project,
monetary and skill wise, but abandoning the project as a sunk cost is not an attractive option.
!
A few days later, Peter a manager at Track Investments catches up with his friend Bill for a coffee who is a manager at a
different company. As Peter tells Bill of his frustration of the video project getting nowhere, Bill politely asks Peter if he has
checked on LinkedIn for the possibility any of his employees could possess video production skills who could give a fresh
perspective. Peter says no because he thinks it is unlikely and only knows what his workers do under his management. Peter
says the last time he checked up on LinkedIn, it only showed his employees’ main profession and anyway, any other skills
listed are only useful if they are directly relevant or within the scope of their job. Bill tells Peter to get onto LinkedIn, go to the
the Groups section and under a special skills category, search for video production skills within the company with the chance
an employee may have the very skills the company is after.
!
Later that night, Peter checks if video production skills are available in his company using the special LinkedIn Group subfeature. When searching for video production skills, Jack Whiten’s name comes up and finds video production as one of his
greatest skills. Peter is somewhat bemused that it must just be some pastime or hobby but checks out the links to Jack's
videos. When Peter watches Jack's videos, he is surprised by his near professional standard both technically and narratively.!
!
The next day, Peter asks Jack casually how his family is going. Eventually, Peter mentions he noticed on Jack’s LinkedIn
profile, he has skills as a video producer. Peter asks Jack about his videos about how makes them. Jack enthusiastically tells
him the process, the equipment he uses and love of movies with good stories. Peter then tells the reason why he has
approached him. Peter asks Jack if he would be interested in collaborating with the video production company in fixing their
production problems. Jack agrees and is excited by the prospect in using his skills in video production.!
!
Peter assigns Jack to collaborate with the video company temporarily. Jack offers the video production company many
suggestions and hands on involvement to improve the storyline and production.!
!
When Jack returns from the video company. Peter congratulates Jack on finishing the video well and after its public release,
business for the company increases by 30%.
18. User Journeys of Jack and Peter
TIME
Jack’s User Journey
Peter’s User Journey
Point in time where Jack
enters his additional skill
as Video Producer into
LinkedIn
Point in time where
Peter finds out on
LinkedIn that Jack has
skills as a Video
Producer
Point at where the user journey stories
of Jack and Peter converge.
Here Peter asks Jack if he would like to
share his skills as Video Producer for the
collaborating company
The user journeys for Jack and Peter converge when
the video project requires their involvement.
19. User Flow Sketch (1)
User flow sketch for the employee entering additional skills into LinkedIn profile
20. User Flow Sketch (2)
User flow sketch for the company director or manager searching additional skills in LinkedIn
21. User Flow
Home Page of
LinkedIn
Profile Page
Go to page that
allows the user to
enter additional
skills.
Save additional
skills
Back to
profile page.
Back to
Home page
Jack
Your Groups displayed.
Home Page of
Linkedln
Groups link
Peter goes to category link to
find the people with skills the
company needs.
Skills found are
scheduled by the task
management system.
Peter
User flows for Jack and Peter are separate events as they take place at different times.
Back to
Home Page
22. Scenarios
There are basically two types of scenarios:!
!
1. The employee logs into his LinkedIn account and enters additional skills.!
!
2. The company director or manager logs into the company LinkedIn profile and
searches for skills the company may have within its own organisation to use with the
collaborating company. If he finds an employee with the required skill, he uses the
task management tool to schedule the work for that employee with the collaborating
company.
27. First Prototype Version:
Only the role of employee entering additional skills data had been prototyped for the first version due to
time constraints at the time.
28. User Testing
User tests for each person were carried out in the following ways:!
!
•
!
•
!
when entering skills to share, the user assumes the role of employee already logged into his own
LinkedIn account!
when searching for a person with the requested skill, the user assumes the role of company director
already logged into his company’s LinkedIn account!
In the following tests, only the role of employee had been carried out for the first version due to time
constraints in prototyping.
29. User 1!
Suhasini (right)
Agreed that LinkedIn does not easily allow you to visibly show other viable skills you have that can be used in a
professional context. The lack of visibility could limit career opportunities.!
!
To add skills to be recognised by members and companies in the LinkedIn network, the user first selected the Profile link on
the home page. This did not work because the link to the page to add other skills was actually linked the Groups page. This
was rather unintuitive because if the user wanted to add extra information about themselves, he or she would instinctively
go to the Profiles page.!
!
Leading the user to select the Groups link, the page had a Collaboration link which the user felt was a too general name to
be meaningful. This was the link to allow the employee to add their additional skills. There was also a collaboration logo
shown which she felt was misleading in conveying the meaning of the page.!
!
Overall, the user found it confusing.
User 2!
Matthew (right)
When entering information about additional skills, the user felt it should have been placed under the Profile link instead of
the Groups category link. This was same response as for User 1.!
!
The user had to be lead to the Groups link on the Home page to initiate the task of adding the additional skills. He was
looking for some kind of indication of where to put in the additional skills from the Groups page as it was not indicative at all.
Because the user was told the objective was of the employee using their other skills with companies collaborating with each
other, he was able work out the Collaboration link would lead to the page to enter the additional skills. He stated the
Collaboration logo displayed should describe the function of the page. In this case it didn’t, the word “Collaboration” was too
vague.!
!
The user for this test case found the experience confusing
30. User 3!
Arlen (right)
The user the Groups link to enter information on your other skills does not convey that intent. He felt the Groups category
more as a community to socialise and connect with other members. Using the Groups link as the starting point for skills
entry is confusing he said. However, when leading the user to begin from the Groups link, the user was able to navigate
towards the Collaboration link to add the additional skill.!
!
Other than the Groups link issue, the user felt the sites pages flowed in a logical order.!
User 4!
Belinda (right)
The user felt the Profile link should be the place to enter the additional skills. After those skills have been entered into the users
profile, the user felt it should also be displayed alongside next to their main professional title with a secondary emphasis when
their profile is viewed publicly by others. In the Profile section of LinkedIn, it would help to have a separate section where the
employee can enter their other skills.!
!
The user had to be lead to the Groups link, then to Collaboration to enter the additional skills information.!
!
If thinking as an employer was doing a search to find employees with other skills, the user would carry out that action going to
the Search utility at the top of the page. However, this was not considered during the design process and can be considered as
an oversight.
31. Addressing user testing issues in the first prototype
After carrying out the first round of user testing for the first prototype, it was realised that selecting the
Groups link was not the obvious start position for an employee entering information about themselves.
Even though the specifications state the collaboration and task management utilities are to be under
the “Groups” feature, the employee entering their additional skills data into LinkedIn will be done in their
own login profile.!
!
The company will use the collaboration and management utilities under the “Groups” feature when
retrieving information about which workers have the additional skills the company requires under the
company LinkedIn profile. The company director will then be able to assign and manage the tasks for
that employee with the collaborated company.!
!
The following prototype after several iterations, describes the flow of how the user should interact with
the app. This version also adds the role for the company director to find and access information about
other employees who have additional skills the company needs.
32. After several iterations:
Employee enters additional skill into his profile
Adding additional skills within the employee’s own LinkedIn account can be done via the Share Skills
button link.
33. After several iterations (continued):
Employee enters additional skill into his profile (continued)
37. User 5!
Daniel
The user in this case mentions he doesn’t use LinkedIn so he isn’t really familiar how it works. He wasn’t really engaged
during this test case. With the revised prototype version, he followed the intended steps in entering the additional skill for
his profile, i.e. he went from the Profile link, to selecting the “Share Skills” button to enter the Share Skills Profile page. In
role playing as company director in finding the employee with a shared skill, his first reaction was to go to the Search bar at
the top but then had to be lead to the Groups section to start the operation. After that, he found process intuitive following
starting from the Groups link to the Company Skills Share link to the actual page.!
!
Other than the Search issue, the user found the process intuitive to operate the prototype.
User 6!
Luke
The user for this test case was totally engaged. When stating the purpose of this prototype at the start, he began telling me
about the very problems he had in trying define what his main profession or skill is. He is currently working towards to being a
web developer but at the same is a project manager. He uses LinkedIn a lot but is now confused about what actual professional
role to state because LinkedIn only allows him to define one major profession. Other simultaneous skilled roles can’t be stated
with the same importance within the LinkedIn format.!
!
He was able to navigate correctly to enter the additional skill as an employee. Acting as company director searching, he began
from the Search utility but then he had to be lead to start from the Groups link. From there on, he went along with the user flow
of company director and was able to find the employee with the requested other skill.!
!
The prototype was intuitive for the user to use except for the Search utility issue on the Home page. This user test case proved
there is definitely a need in the market to address this issue of recognising other skills employees possess and can share.
38. Key Findings from User Tests
Prototype
Version
Issue
No.
Description of Problem
Issue Type
Severity*
Design Effort*
1
Whenever users were requested to enter additional skills
for the employee, they all instinctively selected the Profiles
link on the Home page instead of the Groups link.
Navigation
5
3
2
Use of the word “collaboration” is too vague to the
employee for it doesn’t really imply anything specific. The
“collaboration” word would be more specific the to
company director to meaning collaborating with other
companies.
Link label
3
2
3
When looking for employees with particular additional
skills, the user begins the search from the Search bar on
the Home page instead of the Groups link hotspot.
Navigation
1
5
1st
Later
iterations
* Ratings range for Severity and Design Effort are from 1 (low) to 5 (high)
