This is a popular "improve a product" PM interview question that tests your ability to scope a broad platform, zero in on a specific user segment, and generate prioritized, measurable solutions. Below, our community shows you how to answer this question, common mistakes, and more.

Interviewer: Great, so today the question is — how would you improve LinkedIn for influencers?

Candidate: Thanks. Let me first lay out the structure of how I'd approach this, and then we can go into the detail of each section. Does that work?

Interviewer: Hmm, go ahead.

Candidate: First, I'll cover what LinkedIn is and where it stands today, just to get us aligned. Then I'll ask some clarifying questions to scope the problem. Once we've agreed on which cohort of LinkedIn influencers we're focusing on, I'll map out user segments, pick one, and chart their user journey to identify pain points. I'll then prioritize those pain points and brainstorm solutions.

Interviewer: Great — and would you prioritize the solutions as well?

Candidate: Yes, definitely. After brainstorming, I'll prioritize the solutions, define metrics for the chosen solution, and close with a summary.

Interviewer: Sure, I'm aligned with the structure. Please go ahead.

Step 1: Comprehend the Situation

Candidate: LinkedIn started as a professional networking platform in 2003, founded by Reid Hoffman and colleagues. It has since grown into the world's largest professional network, with over 900 million members across 100+ countries, and was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion. Its primary revenue streams are premium subscriptions, recruitment solutions, and advertising. The platform has evolved to include job postings, company pages, content publishing, and influencer programs. Does that sound like a fair starting point?

Interviewer: Yes, go on.

Candidate: Is there a specific timeline for this improvement?

Interviewer: No.

Candidate: Any budget constraints?

Interviewer: No.

Candidate: Should we focus on a specific type of influencer — business leaders, industry experts, or content creators?

Interviewer: Focus on all users; no preference.

Candidate: Are we improving the experience for influencers, their followers, or both?

Interviewer: Let's focus only on the influencer experience.

Candidate: Are there specific metrics we're aiming to improve — engagement rates, retention?

Interviewer: Let's focus on increasing engagement rate and retention.

Candidate: Should we consider integrations with other platforms, or stay within LinkedIn's native features?

Interviewer: Stay within LinkedIn's existing infrastructure and native features.

Candidate: Perfect. To reiterate: we're looking to improve LinkedIn for influencers across various categories, with a focus on enhancing their experience, increasing engagement with their content, and improving influencer retention — all within LinkedIn's native features. Is that correct?

Interviewer: Correct. Go ahead.

Step 2: Identify Customer Segments and Persona

Candidate: I'd segment LinkedIn influencers into two categories:

Emerging Influencers — professionals who are relatively new to content creation on LinkedIn, with fewer than 10,000 followers, still learning to navigate the platform's features.
Established Influencers — seasoned content creators with more than 10,000 followers, already familiar with the platform and looking to maximize impact and monetization.

Interviewer: Interesting segmentation. Which group would you focus on and why?

Candidate: I'd focus on Emerging Influencers for these reasons:

Growth potential — they represent a larger pool of potential influencers who, with the right tools, could significantly raise overall content quality and engagement on the platform.
Platform loyalty — investing in their growth builds stronger long-term loyalty to LinkedIn as their primary content creation platform.
Diverse content — emerging influencers bring fresh perspectives and niche expertise, which can diversify LinkedIn's content ecosystem.
Network effect — as emerging influencers grow, they attract more professionals to consider content creation, creating a positive feedback loop for the platform.

That said, many improvements for this segment will naturally benefit established influencers too.

Interviewer: That makes sense. Please proceed.

Step 3: Report Customer Needs

Candidate: For emerging influencers on LinkedIn, the core pain points are:

Not knowing how to create engaging content that resonates with their target audience
Struggling to grow their follower base and increase engagement rates
Lacking a consistent personal brand that stands out in their niche
Not knowing how to use LinkedIn's features effectively for maximum visibility

Step 4: Cut Through Prioritization

Candidate: I'd prioritize two needs in particular:

Understanding how to create their first piece of influential content
Knowing what successful influencers in their niche are doing

The reasoning: for someone new to LinkedIn content creation, the immediate benchmark for inspiration is successful influencers in their field. Being able to quickly study what works — and execute on it — is critical. If content creation is slow or confusing, emerging influencers miss early windows to build visibility and momentum.

Step 5: List and Prioritize Solutions

Candidate: For these two pain points, here are my proposed solutions:

To understand what successful influencers are doing:

Capture basic profile information upfront to surface relevant influencers in their niche
Provide curated case studies of successful content strategies from established influencers
Analyze and display engagement/growth patterns at different stages of influencer journeys

For creating their first piece of influential content:

LinkedIn-optimized templates for various content types (text posts, articles, carousels)
An interactive walkthrough of LinkedIn's content creation tools
A "sandbox" mode to practice creating and publishing content without it being visible to the network
Data-driven insights such as "Adding a video could increase your reach by X%" based on similar profile data

Interviewer: Which would you implement first?

Candidate: Using an Impact vs. Effort framework (Impact: 1–10 high; Effort: 1–10 low-to-high, higher = easier to build):

To understand what successful influencers are doing:

Solution	Impact	Effort	Score
Capture profile info to surface relevant influencers	7	6	13
Curated case studies of successful content strategies	8	7	15
Analyze engagement/growth patterns across influencer journeys	7	3	10

For creating first influential content:

Solution	Impact	Effort	Score
LinkedIn-optimized templates	10	8	18
Data-driven insights on content effectiveness	9	4	13
Curated examples and case studies	7	7	14
Sandbox mode for practice	8	7	15

Based on this, my three recommended solutions are:

Curated case studies of successful influencer content strategies
LinkedIn-optimized content templates for quick, professional content creation
Sandbox mode for practicing content creation without network visibility

Interviewer: Cool. Anything else you'd want to cover?

Step 6: Metrics

Candidate: I'd define separate metrics for each solution:

Curated case studies of successful content strategies

North Star metric: Number of users who followed suggestions on the case study page and saw measurable follower growth within 4 weeks
L1 metrics: Time spent on the suggestion page; % follower growth in the 4 weeks before vs. after engaging with case studies

LinkedIn-optimized templates

North Star metric: Number of users creating and posting content via templates as a % of total content posted in one week
L1 metrics: Number of templates available; % of top-used templates adopted by at least 80% of active users

Sandbox mode

North Star metric: Number of users engaging with sandbox mode as a % of total active users per week
L1 metrics: Number of practice sessions completed per user; user retention rate within sandbox mode over time

Step 7: Summarize the Recommendation

Interviewer: Can you please summarize our discussion?

Candidate: We started with the broad question of how to improve LinkedIn for influencers. Through clarifying questions, we scoped the problem to: improving the influencer experience, with no budget or timeline constraints, within LinkedIn's native features, focused on increasing engagement and retention. We split influencers into two segments and chose emerging influencers as our target, given their growth potential and platform-building opportunity. Their two key pain points were understanding successful influencer strategies and creating their first impactful content. We evaluated eight solutions using an Impact vs. Effort matrix and landed on three: curated case studies, LinkedIn-optimized templates, and sandbox mode. We defined north star and L1 metrics for each.

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