The product chief of the professional social network is leading the introduction artificial intelligence to the firm’s internal development processes and enhance services for users.
Tomer Cohen is the chief product officer at LinkedIn. He oversees teams that are responsible for product management and user experience, design, and customer service. Tomer Cohen’s journey to the C-suite began after he admired the company from afar.
Cohen, originally from Israel, moved to Silicon Valley to study at Stanford University in 2008. He attended a talk on the power of social networking in the engineering school, with entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg and LinkedIn’s co-founder Reid Hoffman. Cohen recalls being astonished by the power of a professional network, even though Facebook was the platform of choice.
He tells Computer Weekly in the London office of the firm near Farringdon Station that “my LinkedIn fandom began there.” “I joined the firm later. I started a business right after graduating from school, and then worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence for a venture capital company. I joined LinkedIn following a conversation with my current boss. We discussed how we could make LinkedIn a mobile app.”
At the time he joined, the LinkedIn platform was only available on desktops. Cohen, who had built mobile products for startups in the past, saw the opportunity to grow. “We discussed my vision of how LinkedIn could become a mobile app. “Why don’t come here and build this?” was the question he was asked. That was the beginning of his LinkedIn journey.
Cohen was responsible for the transition from desktop to mobile platforms, and then moved on to work with the company’s feeds and engagement-focused product. In June 2020, after working in senior positions in the consumer products division he will become chief product officer. Cohen, who has been with the company for 13 years, is still excited about the future.
The reason I love working here and am still so bullish on the company is the same reason I was when I first met Reid Hoffman in 2008. It’s the power of connecting people with the professional network. That capability can open up tremendous opportunities,” he explains. “I can show how everything we are building aligns with this purpose.”
Exploring New Opportunities
There has been a lot of change since Cohen joined the Company. LinkedIn has now more than 1 billion members. The platform has also changed the types of engagement. He says that people use the app to grow their careers, and their businesses.
He says, “Now you can make a living by talking about your craft on LinkedIn.” “There has been a gradual evolution. It has been built brick by brick. It was a superpower that LinkedIn could be. My job as CPO is to help you understand that superpower. As he sought to encourage engagement, Cohen focused on helping people easily share knowledge and build a network. During this decade-long journey, I have helped LinkedIn transform from a job board to something more.
“LinkedIn can be your superpower – and my job, as CPO, is to help you expose that superpower and make it simple to understand how LinkedIn can help you achieve your outcomes”
Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn
“Jobs are a big part of LinkedIn, and rightfully so,” he says. “But the idea that you can do more on the platform grew over the last decade. When you ask members today how they think of LinkedIn, many will say, ‘It’s my daily work tool.’ That wasn’t the case in the past, and I’m proud of how we’ve made LinkedIn a productivity tool that can help you throughout the day versus something transactional you use every few years when you’re looking for jobs.”
Cohen points to some important product developments. His team spent time and resources honing the individual feed experience. They also focused on developing pages to allow organisations to create professional experiences on LinkedIn that focus more on updates and content, and less on basic information.
These product developments have been tailored by gradually learning what works for members. Cohen says a successful CPO thinks carefully about how to turn a company’s vision into a product strategy. He gives the example of individual feed experiences at LinkedIn and how his team explored how the feed could help people create new opportunities.
“CPOs must translate the company’s vision into value and develop the product strategy behind that process. So we measure success by things like, ‘Was a person able to build influence? Were they able to get a job? Are they getting engagements?’”
He gives an example from his professional life: “I met one of my professors from Stanford six months ago, and he said, ‘I started sharing things regularly on LinkedIn because somebody told me this would be a good way to get my ideas out. Now I’m getting approached for speaking engagements.’”
Collapsing a stack
Cohen took on the CPO role when the coronavirus epidemic was raging. He says that the new working styles, such as hybrids and remote approaches, still have an impact on today’s workforce.
He says, “Suddenly you can get a work anywhere because you can do it from anywhere.” “That’s an important change. We are experiencing unprecedented changes in the world of employment. You don’t have time to prepare playbooks for the changing world of work. Right now, regardless of whether professionals are considering changing their role, they will be changing their job.
Cohen cites LinkedIn research which suggests that 70% of skills required for today’s jobs will change by 2030. “That’s staggering,” says Cohen. “That’s only four-and-a half years, and it’s not much time.” As CPO, I have to think about how I can help members navigate the change successfully.
One key accelerator for change is
Artificial intelligence (AI)Cohen says that technology always creates new solutions for overcoming challenges on a professional and personal level, particularly in a large business like LinkedIn. He says that the AI transformation is much more dramatic, and people need to adapt quickly and effectively.
Cohen cites an example from his own department. Full Stack Builders
LinkedIn launched last year and uses AI for product development. Product development is now done by a single professional, assisted by AI tools, which include coding assistance, product management, and other services.
We have the opportunity to collapse the stack and say that development requires creativity and an idea, but also other things such as, how to code your product, what specifications should you use, and how to design it. With FSB, we see that AI can do many things, allowing us to push the frontier of product creation,” he says.
When you zoom out, you empower people to build whatever they want. In our organization, we are allowing people to begin doing this work. We are experimenting with the concept that you can work full stack. You’re no longer hired for a single role. Instead, you can work across experience to build a new product, which wasn’t the case before.”
A full-stack developer uses emerging technologies to collapse a multi-disciplinary, complex process into an activity that is completed by just one person. This approach is powered by proprietary technology, Microsoft Services and a variety of large language models.
Now I can use AI and say, “Hey, this is my specification. This is what I’m trying to build. Can you build it for me? Can you design it?’ Then, from the design, you can go to code. You can have an entire design. The technology enables our people to build without friction in the middle process.”
Cohen:
Implementing agentic service
AI-enabled approaches aim to add agility to the development process in order to create new high-quality products. He acknowledges that introducing new technology can require a significant cultural shift for professionals who are already using these tools every day. LinkedIn must use AI as part of the normal course of business.
He says, “It is everyone’s responsibility.” “We have a fantastic IT team. They are responsible for bringing the best tools that meet our standards and governance to LinkedIn. Our developers are eager to find the latest and greatest tools. They also make sure that these tools are part our DNA, that they are trustworthy, that there are no privacy or security concerns, and that they work well with our stack.
Now, we’re trying out the idea of working full stack. You’re no longer hired for a single role. Instead, you can work on the experience to create a product.
Tomer, LinkedIn
LinkedIn continues to use AI for its internal working practices and to improve its external services. What will these advancements mean for the company? Cohen suggests that the endpoint will be personalisation. He expects that the company will develop more tailored tools over the next 24 months.
He says, “What you want from LinkedIn is different than what I want.” How can you give them the best, personalized experience when they open the application? This capability requires us build faster and with a higher quality so you get the experience you want instead of the general experience we are building across our app.
Late in 2024, LinkedIn launched their first AI agent to assist recruiters working on the platform.
Hiring Assistant can perform a variety of recruitment tasks. It can do everything from managing administrative tasks to sourcing candidates and engaging them. Cohen says he is in the UK to help launch the new service. He says that these early explorations demonstrate the potential of agentic AI.
With that agentic experience we can go market by segment and you’ll have a agent to complete the work on your behalf,” says he. “The AI does everything – it finds, sources, contacts and vets candidates. The technology has already led to efficiency gains of between 15% and 47% for those who use it. This technology makes work more efficient.”
Read more about Social Media TechnologyBy Adrian Bridgwater.
