LinkedIn’s layoffs are coming with changes to some of the company’s operations, according to an internal memo from its chief product officer.
LinkedIn on Wednesday announced in an internal memo from CEO Daniel Shapero that it would lay off employees and scale back some investments. A separate email from Hari Srinivasan, who became “chief people officer of the LinkedIn Ecosystem” in March, outlines three shifts the company is planning amid the changes.
“Our fastest moving teams are focused, have fewer layers, and leverage AI to move quickly,” Srinivasan wrote. “The changes we’re making across our Product orgs are based on creating more agile teams in this model.”
LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, has similarly been making changes to remove management layers and create more focused teams. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood recently sent an internal memo to employees highlighting “increased pace” and “tighter, more accountable squads.”
As part of its plan to get teams to move faster, LinkedIn is also changing how design and research support work, according to the memo. The company is centralizing its user experience design resources so product teams can handle routine work and expert researchers can focus on more complex tasks.
LinkedIn also plans to change how it produces learning content on the site. The company says it is switching from producing large-scale original content in-house to a model in which instructors can produce and monetize their teaching directly on LinkedIn.
Last year, LinkedIn started allowing creators to monetize their content on the network through video, but this appears to be expanding revenue opportunities for instructors.
The current model “is no longer the best model to keep up with what learners want or the more cost effective way to create all our content” and the new model will allow “instructors [to] build a voice on LinkedIn, across multiple tools, and license and monetize their teachings directly on LinkedIn,” Srinivasan wrote.
The change will allow the in-house team to focus on “high-impact, differentiated learning experiences that are best built internally” and rely on content-creating instructors to keep LinkedIn fresh with timely content.
“As part of our regular business planning, we’ve implemented organizational changes to best position ourselves for future success,” a LinkedIn spokesperson told Business Insider.
Read the memo:
“Team,
As you saw in Dan’s note, we’re making changes across Linkedin to simplify how work gets done and focus product investments. This includes the difficult decision to reduce some of Product. I wanted to follow up with why we are doing it, where we will work differently, and what comes next.
Why we are making changes
Linkedin is an incredible platform. Our mission to help people connect to opportunity has never been more relevant. Our engaged community, unique data and diversified business me also position us well in a changing world of Al & technology.
At the same time, two shifts are changing how we need to operate. First, we now have tools that let us ship faster – and we need to ensure we have an organizational structure that allow harness them. Second, our infrastructure costs will grow as we deliver more intelligent products – requiring hard prioritization and tradeoffs.
Where we work differently
These shifts require changes to what & how we build for our members and customers. So we’re evolving our operating model in the following ways:
- Across our Product orgs: Our fastest moving teams are focused, have fewer layers, and leverage AI to move quickly. The changes we’re making across our Product orgs are based on creating more agile teams in this model.
- Architecture: As teams build faster, insights need to scale across the product ecosystem quicker. To support this, we’re evolving our operating model across Content Design and User Research from embedded teams to a shared service; teams can utilize off the shelf UX resources themselves, while expert researchers focus on our most complex work.
- Content: Our current learning content model is built around large-scale original production, but that is no longer the best model to keep up with what learners want or the more cost effective way to create all our content. We are shifting to a new model where instructors can build a voice on Linkedin, across multiple tools, and license and monetize their teachings directly on Linkedin. This allows us to give learners what they want — timely content across multiple formats — and focus our in house content creation on high-impact, differentiated learning experiences that are best built internally. As part of this change, and to align our workplace footprint to our business needs, we will be closing our physical office in Graz, Austria.
What comes next
Those directly impacted, or proposed to be impacted in EMEA & APAC consultative countries, will receive a calendar invitation within the next hour titled “Attendance Required: Product Organizational Updates,” with meetings starting today, May 13 for EMEA and NAMER, followed by APAC on Thursday, May 14 local time. If you do not receive this exact invitation, your role is not impacted or proposed to be impacted.
To those who are leaving, thank you. Your hard work and dedication got us to where we are; a billion people have gotten jobs, learned skills, stayed informed and more because of your contributions. I’m thankful for everything you have given us, and we are committed to supporting you through this transition.
Moments like this are very difficult — but they also remind us why our mission to connect people to economic opportunity matters. Please take the time you need to process this and support one another… and thank you for your continued focus, care, and commitment to building products that matter.
Hari
BCC: Product All: Product Functional Partners; Eng LT; GBO LT, Marketing LT”
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