LinkedIn Trust PM: Stopping Spam Connection Requests Flooding Top Influencers

You are a product manager on LinkedIn's Trust team. A group of senior influencers on LinkedIn have complained that they are flooded with spam connection requests, far more than they can deal with. They say they will leave the platform, or attack LinkedIn publicly, if nothing changes. The problem affects only influencers, and influencers in every part of the world report it. What do you do? ```hint Why only influencers? The problem hits influencers everywhere but nobody else. Ask what makes these accounts different from ordinary members, and what that suggests about who is sending the requests and why. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is this a recent spike, or a long-standing annoyance that has finally boiled over? Did anything launch or change around the time the complaints began? - What makes a request spam to these influencers: fake or automated accounts, sales pitches, or real people they simply do not know? - Do the requests come from a small cluster of accounts or from a broad, varied set of senders? - Which accounts count as senior influencers, and how many have complained compared with how many are affected? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Immediate handling of the complaining influencers, kept separate from the longer-term fix. - A structured diagnosis of internal causes (launches, recommendations, limits, bugs) and external ones (abuse campaigns, automation, the influencers' own visibility), driven by data on the senders and their requests. - Short-term relief and lasting product changes on both the receiving and sending sides, with their trade-offs. - Metrics that show the influencers' experience improved, with guardrails against blocking legitimate requests. - The balance between protecting prominent members and keeping the network open for everyone. ### Follow-up Questions - New sender limits cut spam to influencers but also reduce legitimate connection requests among ordinary members. How do you decide what to keep? - One influencer goes public before your fix ships. What do you do? - Should influencers get protections that ordinary members do not have?