Rethinking Endorsements

At LinkedIn, we are constantly driven by our mission to create economic opportunity, a mission which many of us believe will be the defining issue of our time

There’s no doubt that the path to economic opportunity is changing.  Not too long ago, we earned a diploma and performed those skills until we retired.  Today, whether we’re impacted by automation, artificial intelligence, youth unemployment or fast changing market needs, we all increasingly realize we need new ways to continuously learn and validate our skills.  

Arguably the most powerful new way to validate new skills over the last decade has been peer reviews, or ways others can vouch for our skills.   Peer reviews have changed who we trust; we feel safe getting in a strangers’ car and staying at their home largely because of reviews.  Peer reviews have changed what we purchase; we are more likely to book a hotel and more likely to purchase a product with an extra star.  Peer reviews have even impacted our unconscious minds; enough positive reviews can even help counteract our biases to trust people more similar to us, as a recent Stanford and Airbnb study found.   

With more than 10 billion endorsements, LinkedIn's peer review product operates at a scale few other systems do.  Earlier this year, we started to wonder what a more trusted form of endorsements might look like. 

Today, we are happy to announce a few changes to LinkedIn’s Endorsements.

• Featured Highlights: Up until now, endorsements worked like most peer review system - they assumed we trust all endorsers equally.  This is not the way the world works offline. We go to friends we feel are good parents when we need a pediatrician and ask our best engineers who they think are smart.  Our new version of endorsements harnesses our network, highlighting endorsements from people you know, people with expertise and more.  
• Smarter Targeting:  With smarter targeting, we ask for endorsements from those who know you and the skill.   The end result is more endorsements that will help you look your best and an ecosystem that will continue to grow in trust.

An incredible team worked hard to build the machine intelligence, relevance & graph capabilities (solutions that have generated numerous patents) underlying this product, as well as design an experience that turns these complex models into an easy to use product.

I want to personally thank Yolanda, Victor, Joey, Jie, Rick, Kyle, Albert, Maria, Nil, Nicole, Suzi, Tatiana, How, Jaewon, Brent & Yinyi for their hard work.  

As excited as I am about this launch, what excites me most about skills & endorsements is what is yet to come. The ability to detect gaps in skills, help members learn those skills, and create new ways of validating those skills creates a powerful way to close the skills gap - ultimately helping create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.