LinkedIn’s product evolution and the art of building complex systems | Hari Srinivasan (LinkedIn)

Hari Srinivasan is VP of Product at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, where he oversees LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Jobs, and LinkedIn Learning. He’s also a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University. Previously, he served as the CEO and founder of We Created It, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2014. Hari has a passion for building products, with experience ranging from creating the first U.S. hybrid SUV to developing a No. 1 app and writing a beloved children’s book. In today’s episode, we discuss: • LinkedIn’s unique business model and org structure • How to optimize your LinkedIn experience and improve your chances of getting a PM role • How to adapt to a skills-first talent market • The story of Hari’s failed first product review, and how he pivoted for success • Strategies for building and maintaining complex systems • How to get into product management — Brought to you by Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life | Brave Search API—An independent, global search index you can use to power your search or AI app | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linkedins-product-evolution-and-the Where to find Hari Srinivasan: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsrinivasan1/ • Website: https://www.mindofhari.com/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Hari’s background (05:04) How Twitter brought Lenny and Hari together (06:32) LinkedIn’s positive evolution, and what they did right (10:14) Specific changes that made LinkedIn’s feed more interesting (11:12) Understanding the algorithm and what kinds of content perform best (12:21) The talent solution product (15:46) The shift to skills-first hiring, and how LinkedIn changed their approach (20:24) The open-to-work signal, and the newly released open-to-internal-work signal (22:13) The PM talent landscape, and tips for landing a PM role (24:55) How to optimize your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters (28:38) Hari’s first product review at LinkedIn (30:38) LinkedIn’s North Star, and how to operationalize the North Star at any company (33:24) LinkedIn’s members-first value (35:32) Building and maintaining complex systems (38:09) The RAPID framework and the Five-Day Alignment framework (39:51) What LinkedIn looks for in new hires (40:51) The latest innovations at LinkedIn (43:16) LinkedIn Learning (45:00) Hari’s product management course (48:19) Advice for people hoping to get into product management (50:40) How to level up your PM skills (51:57) Hari’s creative side projects  (55:02) Lightning round Referenced: • Tweet from TheCuriousPM: https://twitter.com/zatin_jatin/status/1658616200560254978?s=20 • The Curious PM on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zatin_jatin • Decision-making at LinkedIn: https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2018/03/scaling-decision-making-across-teams-within-linkedin-engineering • LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning • Thinking in Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557 • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-novel-Gabrielle-Zevin/dp/0593321200 • An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us: https://www.amazon.com/Immense-World-Animal-Senses-Reveal/dp/0593133234 • Star Wars on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/brand/star-wars • Case 63 on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4c9ZKaFtEKweSYOlYvxfvp • E.T. on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/607451/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial • BriteBrush: https://www.amazon.com/BriteBrush-Interactive-Smart-Toothbrush-featuring/dp/B07VLL8QH4 Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.