LinkedIn's $36B UX Mistake (And What Your Product Is Probably Doing Too)

I've scrolled past the job description on a LinkedIn way too many damn times that I started blaming myself.

Turns out the UI is the problem. Thanks LinkedIn…

Why it matters: If the core content on your most important page is collapsed, gated, or just visually buried under features you never asked for, users don't feel helped. They feel handled, and that's the silent murderer of conversion.

If you ever want to know what a company actually values, don't read their mission statement.

Look at what they make you do.

LinkedIn's job listing page is a prime example in this. The most critical piece of information on the page, the actual job description, is collapsed behind an almost invisible "more." Not a button, not a link, a suggestion. I cannot tell you how many times I've scrolled right past it.

Meanwhile the rest of the page is stacked with premium upsells, "people also viewed" modules, and features I don’t give a sh*t about.

That's purpose-poor design. And it's worth $36 billion, which means a lot of products are learning the wrong lessons from it.

Here's the real tell:

When the core content is buried deeper than my grandpa’s grave, you don't get a richer user experience. You get a user who feels man-handled. Then they bounce.

Let's fix that.

I went deep on DoorDash's dark magic strategy that gets people to open their wallets. The (too real) AI b-roll I made for the hook had me cackling. Watch it here

First time reading?

Your page might be hiding the thing users came for.

Most teams don't set out to bury the core content. It happens by accumulation.

The product ships something new, the business wants another monetization hook, and the page gets one more "helpful" widget.

Nobody's doing anything “wrong.” But three months later, the thing the user actually came for is at the bottom of the scroll, or behind a collapsed toggle, or fist fighting with four other things for attention.

The page looks cool, but it’s lacking purpose.

Before you finalize any key page, run this check:

Write the job in one sentence. What is the single thing the user needs to accomplish on this page? One sentence. If you can't write it in one, the page doesn't have a clear job yet.

Find the first piece of information they need. On a job listing, that's the title, seniority, location, salary range, responsibilities, and requirements. Not the "people who viewed this also viewed" widget, not the premium upsell… The actual content.

Run the Scan Test. If a user gives you 8 seconds, can they find the core content without guessing? If they have to click around, that's ugly friction you put there.

Measure time-to-meaning. Not time on page. Not scroll depth. How long does it take the average user to hit the moment where they think "okay, I get it"? That's the metric. When you optimize for everything, you optimize for nothing.

LinkedIn's job listing page is built for LinkedIn's business schemes. That's fine. Every platform makes this tradeoff, but when the primary user goal gets collapsed behind a "more" that most miss, the page stops working for the person using it. Then they leave.

Your users are doing the same thing on your page right now. They just aren't telling you. Exactly why I’m complaining about it for them. 😂

If you want to know exactly where your product is losing people, and what to fix first.👇

A feature-rich page and a purpose-clear page are not the same thing. They're opposites.

Pick one conversion-critical page this week. Write the job in one sentence. Then count how many elements on the page are competing with it. That number is your problem score.

If users are spending time on the page but not converting, they're not confused about your product. They're confused about where to look. Intent First is your fix.

👋 I’ll see ya next week! — Dana

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