Research
Understand the problem statistically
I analyzed 50 random feed posts’ sources and found that only 16% of content comes from individuals, among which only 12.5% comes from non-influencer.
* Novice contributors— non-influencers (followers less than 2k)
I'm interested in improving the experience so that non-influencers could share more on Linkedin.
Prep for qualitative research
I observed people who’re currently actively sharing content versus not on Linkedin in my network. Used instant msgs to reach out to both groups. In the end I was able to schedule 3 interviews over Hangout and 4 open surveys.
My goal for the qualitative research:
1. Understand the non-influencers more, in terms of their motivations and challenges
2. Watch out for other contributors to the problem
The research participants that I recruited had varied content sharing experiences on Linkedin. One of the participants never shared any content on Linkedin, and one shares about 2-3 times a month. I believe that this group will give me a spectrum of perspectives. For those who're more active, I'd like to learn what their motivations are, and for people who rarely shares, I want to know what has prevented them from doing more often.
I also went through the user flow myself, trying to catch any usability flaws that might be fixed upfront. I find some minor issues, but don't think those are big contributors to the barriers to sharing.
Problems I found:
1. No way to exit the post window once you click in, which breaks the "forgiving" principle.
2. No consistent post settings across different post formats
Pre-research opportunity area ideation:
1. Use more friendly language
2. Give Inspirations for writing articles
3. Allow groupings in Connections --leading to more segmented post settings, more controls of who you share content with
Overall, I think the mobile experience feels more smooth and user friendly. The post article feature is taken out on mobile which makes sense to me. The Kudos feature allows user to give kudos to coworkers, which is really nice, but it's a bit hidden.
Interviews
I interviewed research participants over hangout, asking about latest experiences sharing content on Linkedin, and probe to see what holds back people from sharing more frequently. I also walked through the sharing content flow with the participants and observe, have them talk through what seems outstanding to them. The open survey is structured the same with the interview questions.
Synthesize research findings via affinity diagramming
Several topics forms organically through the making sense of the notes:
Motivation & Need.
Perception of Feed.
Barriers to sharing
Problems after creation.
Crazy idea.
My focus is on Barriers to sharing, but all other topics are essential in order to have a holistic view of the problem space and the users.
I also found that most participants that I collected data from only post from their desktop, because they want their content to be perfectly curated and edited before sending out. Later, desktop became my focus in design.
