What are the 5 features/changes you'd most like to see on LinkedIn? Why?

1. In my job history, when I have multiple current jobs, I would like the OPTION to control which one lists first. As currently designed, LinkedIn orders them by start date and there is no alternative. The problem with the current design is, let's say I've been gainfully employed at Company A for the past 5 years and, just this year, I decided offer my skills to a local charity in my spare time. If I choose to list the charity work and call it current, it is forced to the top of the list. This not how I would want my professional image to appear: I want people to see Company A listed at the top. Two ways to accomplish this: (a) implement a unique Primary Job flag which causes that job always to float to the top of the list; or (b) offer optional, user controlled Job Sequence Numbering that would permit reordering of the entire list.

2. Allow me to archive sent invitations. This option was previously available but was taken away. The result is a lot of clutter in my sent invitations folder that I can't do anything about. I sense the reason this option was removed was to punish those who abuse your system by sending excessive numbers of invitations. Unfortunately, at the same time you're also punishing the rest of us who don't abuse the system. This is not great for customer morale.

3. Redesign the the sign-in page: the box for new users covers over half of the page while the sign-in link for existing users is so tiny you can hardly see it. I suggest you take a hint from commercial sites that make these two boxes equal in size on opposite sides of the screen. Or have a single sign-in box with an option within it for new vs. existing users. There are many intelligent interface designs possible. Why force your existing customers to squint???

4. The company news option was a good idea in principle but was not thought through in a logical manner before implementing. I was forced to turn it off because it sent me all kinds of garbage about a company with which I had not been associated for almost 3 years! A more logical design would permit the user to select WHICH company (or even better, companies) they would like to track news about. So you would have to rework your database schema to add this option at the user-company intersection and then place the requisite control on the screen when adding/editing jobs.

5. Last but not least: this one really doesn't affect me personally because I don't tend to send large numbers of invitations. I also discourage people who don't know me from inviting me into their networks. But your behind-the-scenes shenanigans with that damn IDK button does a lot to alienate a lot of people. I add my voice to those others who plead with you to offer 2 distinct "just say no" options, however you chose to word them: (a) I don't want to connect with this person but I don't want him/her to be penalized by my turn-down either; and (b) I consider this invitation to be SPAM and anything you can do to put the sender out of his/hers/its misery, the happier you'll make me.

Finally, not a feature, but a business practice I'd like to see: please stop implementing poorly thought out and even more poorly implemented -- i.e., buggy -- features into the production environment without adequate testing. The excuses we've been offered -- hyper-rapid business growth doesn't permit the time to blah-blah-blah .... -- are simply self-serving justifications for lack of self-discipline. Those of us in software development (in my case, for 3+ decades) have seen and heard it all before. The simple answer is that you'd get done quicker and have a whole lot happier customers (and investors!) if you took the time up front to do it right the first time. To quote the late Lee Simonson, "You either pay me now or you pay me later. If you pay me later it's going to cost you more."

1) Stop limiting networking - in direct opposition to your stated purpose. (e.g., limiting: number of connections, open networking, large/power networkers, groups to 50, number of invitations, posting 'confidential' information like email addresses.
2)Distinguish between type of network (hard/close connection like LI currently espouses, and the more popular loose/open network connection.
3)Have friendly and INFORMATIVE customer service in all areas, that is responsive in a timely manner.
4)Have a real person, not come cryptid lawyer write your next User Agreement.
5)Stop abusing the people that use, not abuse, your site the most.

It would be nice not to have a limit on cover letters for jobs, we are trying to present ourselves properly and some ads are almost 2 pages, you can't condence qualifications for a 2 page ad in the limit sometimes.

Be able to see how many connections a person has, the 500+ is just a wast, so many people are over, just let us see who has how many, what is the big deal with knowing, you used to let us see, go back to that.

The system seems slow, I remember when it loaded faster, no matter if I am at home or work, it remains one of the slowest sites to load up. If you could find a way to speed up the site performance, that would be great.

Christina,

Even though it has been a good thing to find that LI included a Spanish based option for Spanish speaking members, I'd really like to see the LI's advice "Connect with those you know and trust" modified since in my opinion, it is more suitable only for US members.

How could I network (LI hasn't allowed me exactly to do it in the broad sense of the word because of that flaw) with US members if they "conclude" that "don't trust and know me" if that statement doesn't let me try -at least- to send them a serious invitation?

Another wrong feature: When are you going to modify those useless and annoying invitations "Join my network on LI" or "I'd like to add you to my list of contacts"? I've noticed that most "LION's" use those canned invitations forcing me literally to click the IDK button because of their annoying attempts to connect without introducing themselves (I've IDK'd them several times because they simply don't want to introduce themselves). LI could even "force" us somehow to create a more formal invitation where members should write at least 20, 30 words, etc as a valid , readable and acceptable customized invitation.

LI is making a serious mistake by assuming that LI members should connect with "people they know and trust" because whether you like or not, as a member you can start a SERIOUS networking process with people you didn't met before in your entire life. Networking -in my opinion- works exactly this way.

A final thought: the Customer Service support is really AWFUL. I send them almost three months ago two inquiries and they NEVER replied. Fortunately, I was able to solve by myself the problem I had.

I sincerely hope your question and interest is honest and serious... not another waste of time.

1. Notification when A / B testing is going on... on the actual pages... much turmoil is caused by appearing and disapearing features / formating... will the pdf button be there today? can I hide the news yet?

2. The ability to back up and restore profiles in other formats. pdf is nice, but being able to save the data off in a more easily formatted manner would help ease the mind of those of us who knoe more and more people who have had accounts wiped by accident.

3. Move modules around on the profile and on the home page. I really want to know when new peeps join LI from my college... much more than I care what my followers did 3 days ago.

4. Better 'people who have visited your profile' information... if I refresh the page fast enough I can get the number to jump wildly... or even say there were 20 in 4 days... there were none... there were 3 in 4 days... and then going to the details is more of a game of chance. At least say that X peeps don't want to disclose details so we have an idea if the reature is even working.

5. Better Q&A tie in with groups... so that as a member of a group I know that I can go to a special page and see Q&A related to 'our' area of interest. Maybe even allow people to pose questions to groups they aren't a member of and members get the prompt to opt out of 'public' questions when they ask for membership?

I just want folks to know I'm reading these and passing them along to the right product managers...

Christina,

I just wanted you to know it is greatly appreciated first, that you posed this question and, secondly, that you're reading and passing along the answers.

HOWEVER, in order to overcome the widespread preception that LinkIn's mechanism for dealing with suggestions is a black hole -- all goes in, nothing comes out -- you or your colleagues must take one addtional step: you must provide specific feedback on on specific suggestions. It could be as simple as a 3 point rating system: 1-will implement in a future release; 2-still under consideration/need more information and/or analysis to make a decision; 3-will not implement/not consistent with LI's product strategy and/or not cost effective.

Making a commitment to this type of customer relationship change would shift my own attitude from undecided to hopeful.

1) Bring back the ability to archive invitations - I've now got hundreds of them, and can't remove the ones that have been accepted to see what is left. There isn't even a "next page" option at this screen,only a "select page number" choice. This was there before, why was it removed?

2) Fix the invitation to give users the option to decline without prejudice by adding a "decline" or"no thanks" option. Right now the only options are to accept or to say "don't know" which marks the person as a spammer. I've now had a handful of folks flag my invitations as "don't know"when in reality they DO know me (after all, I used their email address that I got from them to send the invitations) then I get flagged and can't send invitations until I get someone in customer service to fix my account, which takes many days.

3) Add the ability to merge groups. There are sagans of duplicates that got created when the group search didn't exist / work,and now it's a nightmare to get duplicates consolidated into a single group.

4) Fix all the bugs causing the "unexpected error" messages. Right now I get more of those than I get the pages I'm trying to get to. It's VERY frustrating.

5) have live customer service, or at least someone who actually understands your question and gets back to you quickly. After 3 weeks of going around in circles with the last question I had, where the person didn't have a clue what I was talking about, I just gave up.

I've got more, but these are the hot ones right now...

Another of the "lost" features that needs to be restored: On the IMPORTED CONTACTS page there used to be a box to check to show only those contacts that already have LinkedIn accounts.

I refuse to "spam" all my friends with LinkedIn invites unless they either are already members, or ask for an invitation. So when I get new email addresses, I toss them into the import list. Then I send invites only to the folks who have the blue icon by their names. This box used to strip the list down to jsut those names.

I used to delete the names, but now leave them there. Then if they join later, their name will show up on the blue icon list. Or at least it used to when I could get the sublist of members only.

Hi Christina,

We welcome your reach-out and wish some more people would add their requirements. Maybe you should link this webpage or dedicate an area on LinkedIn to get the kind of feedback from the entire user community. There are very good suggestions made, to which I underwrite to almost all of them. Providing the top 5 things you want to see - is it changed or new features, I think you should differentiate between improvement and new development - is not that straight forward, considering I am always in a rush. I have noticed in one of the responses a different approach in achieving this kind of feedback from the user community, which I think makes the most sense. As is with bugs handling and release management of new developments, this kind of "sucking brains" (positive definition) needs a structured approach. I leave it with that because there are examples enough to show best practice.

So here are my 5 points (in a rush):

1. I put it on top and is as a repeat to aforementioned statements, to stress its importance: Customer Service. Though there has been some improvement, I like to suggest the whole team takes a seminar in stakeholder relation management - no offence, it is really needed. That starts with the human touch. Stop the standardized responses (ok for initial recognition of received requests or reports - but unacceptable to resolution communication, unless the resolution has been proven adequate. That doesn't take away that a good structure and procedures need to be in place within and across your organization - this is not only about Customer Service, but also note other comments on development and releases as aforementioned. My motto - slightly adapted: do the RIGHT things RIGHT the FIRST time.

2. The whole contact feature needs revision and all of the above suggestions should be incorporated. I would like to add one to that: integrate LinkedIn with the optional synch of Plaxo, Zoom and/or Spoke - maybe others exist. It is so funny that all respected social (business) networks and others relate to LinkedIn, but LinkedIn does not use the - in many cases much better - features these specialized sites bring to the end-user. Lets make this clear: there are standards on contact information management or at least the market runners should be followed. I don't think this should be a LinkedIn market setter - stop duplication and messing up of people's address book (see also further, because there is accountability for LinkedIn). Others have already signed collaboration agreements (e.g.: Zoom and Xing).
That all said, there are some very good features or results from the existing functionality, such as the look-up in outlook and the ability to recognize your contacts as LI members, out of network or not at all. I hope they will always remain, because those are great to manage ones contacts. One simple feature to be added to contacts is tagging or segmentation of your contacts in your network. Most people, who respect their network and want to collaborate, organize this today within their outlook or CRM application, but synchronization on-line at LinkedIn would be great to have.

3. OK, here is the hot-burner, which makes so many people upset in either direction. I think this may require a debate here on GetSatisfaction, however, here is my opinion with very valid sustained reasons behind it: enforcing proper use of any data field on LinkedIn, starting with the contact information: name, title, company and address (mandatory country is just one example as LI data synchronization feature with Outlook constantly blanks out the country - no offense, but this is an international network and the world is flat, no matter how you turn it. So Americans and others: know there are more countries in the world then USA - make use of the international standards. Also add a region field to the address block and use the international standards for phone numbers, etceteras). In my honest opinion, I suggest LinkedIn not just enforces the standards but also takes adequate action for non-compliance. Also, note that those taking a loop with the standards, really fool themselves as they exclude themselves in search engines, etceteras. These things would ensure a healthy LinkedIn for professional people who respect their network contacts and do themselves a favor as well.

4. Let us hit the feature of invitations once more: in addition to the above mentioned features people want to see, there is an urgent need for setting up correct metrics on historical performance statistics when it comes to judging a user (by LinkedIn) on its invitation track record and limitations applied to his/her account. LinkedIn's current methods are so in-transparent, unless one looks at the easy process put in place - based on the "don't know" feature. Performance-based criteria would be more correct in reflecting abuse and taking corrective action. The review of procedures here should also include a revision of the invitation quota. The current approach is childish and does not reflect the commercial / business / professional needs of someone that takes business networking serious. This is not about numbers for many, but about the potential to create market for their product / service, at present or in the future. I understand LinkedIn has strategically determined to link this to signing-up for paid account, but is there not more money to be gained from the commercials you are running on LinkedIn... If LinkedIn underwrites OpenInternet then it should give the example. This is one of those features where LinkedIn would proof its stand and make a difference for its community.

5. I don't have a fifth one can you imagine :) – not for now...

Have an ACCELERATing day.
Best regards
Joris Claeys

Managing Director
ACCELERATE Global Supply Chain Solutions
Business, Industry & Market coaching

Collaborative Supply Chain & Marketing Mix Management
for the Extended Enterprise ©

CEO & Founding Partner
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I just have one small feature request:

Can you synchronise the status updates on one of the following: twitter or facebook or pluxo?

I already have my accounts on those synched. So twitter updates feed facebook and pluxo, would be nice if I have linkedin synched as well. I imagine this is not very difficult...

thanks,

Paul

Just ran into another "bug"...

I went to demo LinkedIn to someone on a shared computer and found myself in the middle of someone else's account.

When you log out of LinkedIn, it's a two step process. Unlike any other site I use, logging out logs you out, but leaves your personal information for the next login. If you don't click on the second blue box, the next person who uses that computer to access LinkedIn ends up inside your account!

That's absolutely a security bug and not a feature. IMHO it's a MAJOR security issue that needs to be fixed immediately.

In addition, logging in to LinkedIn from any computer should immediately and completely log you out from any other computer you might be currently logged in from.

If you're using LinkedIn from a shared computer, be it library, unemployment office, outplacement center, church, relative, or whatever, be sure you LOG OFF TWICE.

Group functionality !!!

To start with, simple discussion forum functionality / event management would suffice. Groups in Linkedin are either simple "affinity" groups (in another thread, someone compared it to putting a bumper sticker on your car) or they offer functionality through a third party collaborative tool.

In some cases, this makes sense. The group has a "real" world existence or an internet presence that pre-dates Linkedin. But many groups are being newly created on Linkedin and need some kind of collaborative space.

Is it really that difficult to provide? It is pretty standard on Xing and Facebook. I can't understand why Linkedin is letting these users wonder away to yahoo groups or collaborative x. Linkedin right now is like web 1.5....

I own a group with 700+ members. I was led to believe by the constant "we will be providing group functionality soon" communications that something in that direction would come. As a result I have not created a "parallel" forum.

All that came so far was a group directory..... Is something in the works or should I just go ahead an migrate users to another social networking platform?

I almost hate to bring this up until all the removed group and other features are restored...

One thing I've thought would be useful would be a way to list the "most popular 2nd level connections" in my network. My theory is that if a lot of my colleagues, say from a job 5 years ago all know the same person, there is a high probability that I know that person too.

I scan the network changes lists, looking for people in my network that have new connections that might be someone I know, and browse through new connections lists to see if there are any familiar names, but this might be an automated way to find people that I already know and would like to add to my network.

But please fix all the things we've mentioned before starting on nice new features like this.

1. the new groups features: you're still limiting the # of group members I can see. You've upped it to 500, but one of my groups has over 7000 members, seeing only 500 is worthless. And why can't I sort or organize them as I choose? How are they arranged anyway? It appears to go by level of connection and # of connections, which is not really the best. How about alphabetical?

As a group owner, it looks like you're putting copies of all comments and discussions in my Q&A inbox. Not necessary. Add a "groups" feature to the inbox that just shows the count. I can take it from there.

As a group MEMBER, show on the left side of my home page that there's group activity. I have to check each group individually. Yes, I see you've got it listed in the middle column text of "connections updates", but just put the count on the left side, for each group individually. Let me know if that's too rambling and not clear.

2. Q&A: get rid of the damn "best answer" crap already!!!

Some people keep posting the same dumb question over and over again. I hate to flag them and don't, but there should be some limit.

Improve the category selection for what type of question it is.

3. Invites: get rid of the canned "because you're someone I trust" and "I'd like to add you..." and replace with - "type your message here" or "explain why you want to connect here". Believe it or not, new people don't know they can, and should change it. (Another thing that would be in the LI handbook - see below).

Improve the reason list for an intro (expertise request, etc)

Not sure if you're aware of this, but as long as you and another person are both a member of ANY group, you can invite someone to connect by picking any group from the list, even if you don't share the group. I've gotten a couple of invites that way.

And I agree with the other posters - there should be a "no thanks" option that doesn't penalize the sender.

4. Being able to customize my home page and what I see on it.

Ditto on bringing back archiving. Better yet, let's just be able to delete the old stuff. It has to be clogging your servers.

5. Better communicaton with your members: Develop a basic "understanding how IlnkedIn works, getting the most from LI" handbook. For example, this 5 IDKs and you can't invite - where is that written up? Somehow I've heard about this, but new people to LI don't know and probably send out invites to get started and have their priviledges revoked. They also don't realize they are sending invites to everyone in their address book, or at the same company regardless, and that it's a canned invite that gets sent. Explain to people what happens!!

Where is an explanation of how groups work? You sent out a notice that there would be changes. How about an explanation of what they are?

Interesting, LI responds on getsatisfaction, but not when contacted or alerted to an issue via your customer service. Would ya think that's a problem????

Thanks for asking. That's serious progress!!

LIVE HELP! It would be amazing to be able to chat live with someone empowered to actually help with a solution.

1) I'd like LinkedIN to go back to allowing sorting on searched results, sorted by number of connections. LinkedIN disabled this feature with release of their new search function. Bring it back!!!!

2) Give me my city back. A few weeks ago, Linkedin replaced my Chicago location with United States. Even though I can enter a zip code, I no longer appear in Chicago searches.

I've asked LinkedIN customer support about both issues, and have gotten no answer.

Help??????

Simple UI stuff would be nice for the LinkedIn Groups section - to see if there are discussions in our groups - heck, stats that show us any activity in the groups.

I hate to complain, but until the UI improves in this section it's not really a online community so much as a 'fast track to RSI' issue - for those who subscribe to a lot of groups having to click on each link in each group in a time of RSS is kind of...bizarre.

I agree strongly with Bob that the "click here to only see imported contacts only on LinkedIn" was extremely useful and I'm very annoyed that it's gone. I also tend not to invite people to LinkedIn who are already using it (there are exceptions, but in those cases I email them first), so finding out who in my list of contacts is already using it is super useful. I emailed LinkedIn support about this long ago when it happened, but never got a response or a fix, even though another fix I asked for in the same email did get fixed.

I'd like th see all the stuff that was broke inthe great group fiasco of 2008 finally fixed, and decent customer service from LinkedIn. They've gone to hell over the past year.