How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Gamma, Merge and WorkOS, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with Tomer Cohen, chief product officer at LinkedIn, about the strategy behind LinkedIn's turnaround into a feed people check ten times a day. Cohen starts backwards from potential: LinkedIn is a platform for economic opportunity on a strong social graph, so the feed's new purpose was people that matter talking about things you care about professionally - not a springboard for other products, not a traffic jumpstart, not an upsell feed. His signature Tomerism, we might be wrong but we are not confused, came from a founder on the brink of failure whose team kept hedging after deciding a path: pulling in one direction does not guarantee success, but confusion guarantees failure, and the phrase became so ingrained he no longer needs to say it. He also shares the mindset behind his fast rise and his go-back-to-the-objective approach to new technology. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the strategy and leadership ideas; the mobile and feed mechanics are not covered. These are Cohen's own views, not independently verified.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Gamma, Merge and WorkOS, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with Tomer Cohen, chief product officer at LinkedIn, about the strategy behind LinkedIn's turnaround into a feed people check ten times a day. Cohen starts backwards from potential: LinkedIn is a platform for economic opportunity on a strong social graph, so the feed's new purpose was people that matter talking about things you care about professionally - not a springboard for other products, not a traffic jumpstart, not an upsell feed. His signature Tomerism, we might be wrong but we are not confused, came from a founder on the brink of failure whose team kept hedging after deciding a path: pulling in one direction does not guarantee success, but confusion guarantees failure, and the phrase became so ingrained he no longer needs to say it. He also shares the mindset behind his fast rise and his go-back-to-the-objective approach to new technology. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the strategy and leadership ideas; the mobile and feed mechanics are not covered. These are Cohen's own views, not independently verified.