LinkedIn grew from 500,000 members in 2003 to over 500 million members in 2016 through focusing on quality growth over quantity and investing in multiple scalable growth channels. The company identified viral growth through member connections and search engine optimization of profiles as its initial core growth channels. LinkedIn also emphasized continuous experimentation through A/B testing of new growth strategies and prioritizing efforts based on their potential impact on the core goal of creating economic opportunities for members.

1. How LinkedIn Built a Community
of Half a Billion
Aatif Awan
Vice President, Growth & International Products at LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/in/aatifawan
aatif_awan

2. 201720162015201420132012201120102009200820072006200520042003
What was it like before LinkedIn?

3. 1000x
LinkedIn Grew from 500K to 500 Million in 13 years

4. About me
• VP Growth, International & Data products at LinkedIn
• Have led LinkedIn growth for 6+ years, helping grow
LinkedIn by 400M+ members
• Leading LinkedIn-Microsoft product integrations
www.linkedin.com/in/aatifawan
aatif_awan

5. Story of Growth @ LinkedIn

6. Growth @ LinkedIn: 2003-2007
0.1M 2M 4M 8M
17M
2003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015
LinkedIn Member Growth
Product market fit. Growth built into
product from the start.
Reid Hoffman and team invited well-
connected people in the industry.
Public profiles launch in 2006, became a
second major growth channel due to SEO.

7. Growth @ LinkedIn: 2008-2011
0.1M 2M 4M 8M
17M
33M
55M
89M
145M
2003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015
LinkedIn Member Growth
Dedicated cross-functional growth team
(~15 people) focused on acquisition.
Identified drivers for key channels and
optimized.
International expansion. Saw 100%+ lifts
in growth for most markets where we
translated into local language.

8. Growth @ LinkedIn: 2012- 2016
0.1M 2M 4M 8M 17M
33M
55M
89M
145M
202M
277M
347M
414M
484 M
20032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016
LinkedIn Member Growth
Expanded to cover acquisition, activation,
connections, retention and resurrection,
notifications.
Focus on quality: signups -> quality
signups -> engaged quality members
Invested heavily in mobile and
partnerships and continued international
expansion
Continue international expansion with
focus on China and India.

9. Growth @ LinkedIn: What’s Next?
Product integrations with Microsoft are the biggest growth opportunity

10. Growth Team Organization Today
Discovery (SEO) &
Onboarding
Network Growth
Notifications &
Communications
Core Growth
China
India
New Markets
(Germay, Japan,
Healthcare)
International &
Segment Growth
Experimentation
Reporting
Standardization
Data Products

11. Principles vs. Tactics

12. Ignore the hype about Growth Hacks and Tactics

13. Focus on principles, not tactics
• Principles >> Strategy >> Tactics
• Tactics have a short shelf life.
• If all you know are tactics, you will likely apply them
incorrectly.
• Once you understand the principles, you can find the
right tactics and even come up with your own.

14. What we’ve learned along the way

15. Growth is about accelerating the realization of your vision,
not moving metrics up-and-to-the-right.
• At LinkedIn, our vision is to create
economic opportunity for every member
of the global workforce.
• Growth team accelerates this through
creation of the economic graph that
connects people, companies, jobs and
schools.
• Taking this view led us to focus on
quality signups, not just signups

16. Pick one North Star metric, measure everything
• Define one north star metric that:
• Is aligned with the success of your business
• Measures value for users
• Is summable
• Sometimes, one is not possible. Go for as few as you can.
• Measure everything and tie it back to the north star metric.

17. Good product comes first, growth second
• Investing in growth before you
have a good product is a waste of
resources.
• Measure product goodness with
long-term retention (curve should
flatten over time) and through
customer feedback
• If your retention isn’t good,
nothing else matters. Improve it
by delivering core product value
early and often.
Good retention
Bad retention
%age of users engaging by weeks since signup

18. But we needed to do more…
• For products with network effects or marketplace dynamics
(LinkedIn has both), you need to achieve a good product and
growth simultaneously.
• Products get better with more users and can be useless without a critical mass.
• We solved for this by building two powerful growth engines from
the start.

19. Investing in multiple scalable growth channels multiplies
your odds of success
• Being dependent on a single growth channel
is a strategic liability.
• Have at least one core channel, invest in
strategic channels like new platforms and
have some venture bets.
• We developed two core channels: Viral
growth through members building their
networks by importing contacts and SEO of
people profiles.

20. User Behavior
Identifying Growth Channels
• Do existing users share your product via
word of mouth?
• Are people using search to find a
solution?
• Do users have a high LTV?
Channels to explore
Virality, referrals
SEO, SEM
Paid acquisition
• Does having more users improve the
experience? Virality
• Are your target users already on another
platform? Partnership, Integration

21. Channel
Break down each Channel into Drivers
Virality
Drivers
%age importing contacts,
# of contacts imported,
%age inviting,
# of invites sent,
CTR on invites,
Sign up conversion
Quality signup rate
Measure everything and tie it back to the north star metric.

22. Prioritize
channels and
drivers
Brainstorm
hypotheses
and ideas
Assess
impact on
north star
metric
Prioritize
based on
impact,
probability of
success and
effort
Build, A/B
test and
measure
Growth Requires Continuous Prioritization and Feedback

23. A/B Testing => Always Be Testing
• The more you experiment, the faster you learn and innovate.
• It can resolve long-disputed strategy questions and break down
long-held myths.
• You can A/B test most things
• We’ve done statistically significant tests to measure impact on customer complaints
on an issue with a volume of a few hundred/week
• SEO A/B testing can be very effective
• As your user demographics change over time, repeating old
tests can lead to new insights.

24. Hiring the right people
• Analytical
• Gets shit done
• Curious – asks why?
• Finds new ways to do things – asks why not?
• Prior growth experience is optional

25. Culture
• Data trumps opinions
• Set ambitious goals
• Move fast
• Learn continuously
• Celebrate wins

26. “Don't be satisfied with stories, how
things have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth”
Final thought I’d leave you with…
Rumi

27. Thank you!
Aatif Awan
Vice President, Growth & International Products at LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/in/aatifawan
aatif_awan