Product sense: prioritized upgrades to LinkedIn's messaging inbox, with success metrics

You are a product manager for messaging at LinkedIn: the inbox where members exchange direct messages with their connections, and where InMail from people outside their network also arrives. How would you improve it? Decide what the improvement should achieve, choose the users you are designing for, propose and prioritize changes, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Find where conversations end Break a conversation into stages, from deciding to reach out through writing, being noticed, getting a reply and continuing, and look for the stage where most conversations end for the users you chose. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the goal more messages sent, more conversations that get a reply, less time spent managing the inbox, or revenue from paid messaging? - Which users matter most here: job seekers, recruiters, salespeople doing outreach, or members who mostly receive messages? - Is paid InMail from non-connections in scope, or only messages between connections? - Are LinkedIn's separate recruiting and sales tools out of scope, so the focus is the core inbox? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A stated goal for messaging and how it ties to LinkedIn's purpose of connecting professionals - Both senders and recipients considered, with one segment chosen and the reason - Pain points for that segment, each tied to a stage of a conversation and ranked - Solutions compared on impact, effort and the risk of pushing the problem onto the other side of the conversation - A primary metric with guardrails that protect both senders and recipients, plus the main risks ### Follow-up Questions - If you reduce how many cold messages a member sees, how do you keep legitimate recruiters and salespeople from losing reach, and protect paid messaging revenue? - How would you A/B test a change to the recipient's inbox when the outcome you care about is whether senders get replies? - What would you do if your change raised reply rates but cut the total number of conversations started?