Linked In Connect | Concept piece

The business card that’s always by your side

Sept 7, 2016

 
Illustration from Quanta Magazine

Illustration from Quanta Magazine

 
 

Background

Professional networking has many well-known benefits such as nurturing relationships, raising your professional profile, and the satisfaction of helping to grow other peoples’ careers.

But is there a way that networking experience can be improved? Are there any friction points when it comes to networking that can be reduced or eliminated?


 
 

What do we know?

Through discovery research and informal user interviews, I was able to identify some common networking pain points.

Pain Points

  • Social anxiety around meeting new people and jumping into conversations

  • Finding interesting and relevant networking events

  • Making time in schedule to attend events

  • Exchanging contact info

Many of the pain points related to formal networking events. In researching the domain of networking solutions on the market, many aim to address the pain points of formal networking events (eg: Meetup, social media).

However, informal networking opportunities can result in relationships that prove to be just as valuable than those originating at professional events. I decided to focus more closely on this area.

Of the pain points listed above, only one applied to the informal networking scenario.

 
 

Our Goal

Reduce friction around exchanging contact information

 
 

My Role

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Potential Opportunties

  1. I don’t have any business cards

  2. What was their name again? How do you spell it?

  3. When do I follow up?

  4. Should we exchange phone numbers? Emails? Send a LinkedIn request?

  5. When did we meet? How do I know them?

 
 

Solution

A digital business card connected to your LinkedIn account

 
 
 
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Solution benefits

LinkedIn Connect would be a companion app to LinkedIn. It would function as a digital business card. If you scan someone else’s “card", you'll then be instantly connected on LinkedIn. Their contact info would also be stored to your device's contacts, plus any other cloud enabled app that syncs your phone's contacts.

Key Benefits

  • Access

  • Ease

  • Multi-device benefits

 
 
 
 

Results

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Considerations & Next Steps

  • This is a new behavior. Will it be easy and beneficial enough for them to change their current behaviors?

  • Should this be part of the main LinkedIn app? Will people want to download another app?

Originally Published: August 2016