Explain the Strategic Value of Complete Member Profiles to LinkedIn

Explain why LinkedIn cares so much about its members completing their profiles. Consider what a complete profile changes for the people who use LinkedIn and for LinkedIn as a company. ```hint Follow the profile through the product List the LinkedIn experiences and paying customers that rely on profile data, then ask what each of them loses when a member's profile is thin or out of date. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "profile completion" mean filling in a profile after joining, keeping it up to date afterward, or both? - Which fields count toward a complete profile, for example photo, headline, current role, work history, education, skills and location? - Should the answer cover LinkedIn's paying customers, such as recruiters and advertisers, as well as members? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - LinkedIn's mission and the multi-sided network it serves, with the profile's role for each side. - Specific product experiences that depend on profile data, and how a thin profile degrades them. - The chain from complete, current profiles to engagement, network effects and LinkedIn's revenue lines. - How completion and its value would be measured, including the correlation-versus-causation problem, and the risks of pushing completion too hard. ### Follow-up Questions - Most members fill in their profile when they join but rarely update it afterward. Why does that matter, and what would you do about it? - How would you show that completing a profile causes higher engagement, rather than engaged members simply being the ones who complete their profiles? - If you could get members to fill in only one more profile field, which would you choose, and why?