Simon Zhang shared LinkedIn big data strategy which generating hundreds percentage revenue lift via scalable analytics and data products.

1. How LinkedIn Generates Incremental Revenue via Business Analytics and
Decision Science!
Innovation is the only path!
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

2. Recruiting SolutionsRecruiting SolutionsRecruiting Solutions
2
Simon Zhang
Senior Director, Business Analytics
©2013 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Business Analytics
Simon Zhang
Senior Director, Business Analytics
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/zhangsimon Email: xzhang@linkedin.com
Former Brain Surgeon
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

3. LinkedIn’s Business Model & Why Analytics is
Important
Critical
mass
of data
Relevant
and valuable
products
and services Technology
platform
Member growth
and engagement
3
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

4. 4
Overview of Business Analytics at LinkedIn
70 team members support 4500+ employees
Biz Analytics
Engineering
Sales
OperationsProduct
Customer
Services
Marketing
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics
Data
Analytics
Data
Infra
BI
Biz
Analytics
Data
Scienc
e
Software
Development

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LinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved
Big Data and Big Analytics
5
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

6. What does “big data” mean at LinkedIn?
ERP data…
Social Data…
CRM data…
Web data…
+∞
+∞
Data
Volume
Analytical Challenge & Complexity
0
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 6

7. 3 major data dimensions at LinkedIn
Identity
Data
Social
Data
Behavioral
Data
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 7
Content
Data

8. The definition of analytics:
“Understand Past” vs. “Predict Future”
What will happen?
What happened?
Why it happened?
What is happening?
High
High
Business
Value
Analytical Challenge & Complexity
0
Can we make it better?
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 8

9. The only thing that matters:
9
result!
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

10. 10
Core strategy of big data analytics
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
Create Matrix of
Connections &
Collaborations
Develop
Analytics
Products
Scale
Analytics
Build
the foundation
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

11. Decision
Insights
Deep Analysis
BI & Reporting
Ad-hoc Analysis
Data Mgmt & Data Quality Mgmt
Tracking
Products
Decision
Insights
Deep Analysis
BI & Reporting
Ad-hoc Analysis
Data Mgmt & Data Quality Mgmt
Tracking
Products
Phase I: Build the analytics “pyramid”!
Decision
Insights
Deep Analysis
BI & Reporting
Ad-hoc Analysis
Data Mgmt & Data Quality Mgmt
Tracking
Products
Decision
Insights
Deep Analysis
BI & Reporting
Ad-hoc Analysis
Data Mgmt & Data Quality Mgmt
Tracking
Customers, Products, Marketing, Sales,
Operations, CS…
1. Understand the products first.
2. Implement tracking to ensure data
is useful. 
6. Value!
3. Make sure data is deployed efficiently
with good quality.
5. “Interesting” is not enough, always ask “so what”.
4. Do the actual work…...
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 11

12. Decision
Insights
Deep
Analysis
BI & Reporting
Ad-hoc Analysis
Data Mgmt & Data
Quality Mgmt
Tracking
Customers, Products, Marketing,
Sales, Operations, CS…
Before After
Phase II: Transform “pyramid” to “diamond”
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 12

13. 13
500Why？
Scalability is the king！
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

14. 14
Phase III: Data insights products for ALL LinkedIn members!
Products
Tracking
Data
Mgmt
Ad-hoc
Analysis
BI &
Reporting
Deep
Analysis
Insights
Decision
Before After
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

15. Products
Tracking
Data
Mgmt
Ad-hoc
Analysis
BI &
Reporting
Deep
Analysis
Insights
Decision
15
Phase IV：Build analytics product matrix and connectivity
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Data
product
Before After
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

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LinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved
Monetization Via Analytics
1
6
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

17. Which company?
Who to contact?
How to reach out?
What is the story?
A data driven story for B2B sales & marketing teams!
Which Sales Person?
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 17

18. Web API
The technology recipe: Merlin (B2B sales insights system)
Data
Visualization
Data ELT and
Aggregation
Petabytes
Gigabytes
Megabytes
Terabytes
1
2
3
4
Analytics
Portal
d3
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 18
Kilobytes5

19. How to leverage analytics to identify future subscribers?
Identity Data
Social Data
Behavioral Data
Overall
Audience
Target
Audience
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 19

20. The technology recipe:
MADOOP -- Predictive Modeling Ecosystem
20
Feature
Engineering
Model
Development
& Evaluation
Model
Comparison
& Validation
Model
Deployment
Model
Refinement
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Shaobo Liu & Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

21. Use A/B testing to improve business day by day!
Small improvements on regular bases can make big
changes!
(101%) = ?
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 21
365
(102%) = ?
(103%) = ?
365
365
3,778%
137,741%
4,848,272%

22. Experimental
Design
Experimental
Platform
Metrics Center
Optimization
Engine
Product/Marketing
Ideas
Test
measure
Plan
The technology recipe:
XLNT – A near line A/B Testing System
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics 22
1. 2000+ active online tests
2. 500+ metrics/KPIs
3. 2M+ statistics significances
4. Traffic optimizers for tests
…….

23. 23
Customer
Care
Tickets
Apps
Reviews
Group
Discussions
Twitter feeds,
Etc……
NPS Survey
How to measure our customers’ happiness?
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

24. Building
Platform
Collecting
data
Analyzing
insights
Findings
Making
changes
A text mining analytics solution to understand customer feedbacks
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Lutz Finger, Director Biz Analytics Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics
24

25. The technology recipe
Making customer voices be heard by LinkedIn employees!
25
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics, George Zhang, Analytics Architect

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LinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved
Analytics is not about data or business.
It is about people!
2
6

27. Hire the right people with the right……
27
What else makes a great analyst?
5%
15%
100%
80%
Skills + IQ & EQ + Passion = Good Analyst Great Analyst?
?
0%
+X%
Simon Zhang, Business Analytics

28. The power of belief.
28Simon Zhang, Business Analytics
360-339-7320.360-339-7320.

29. Simon Zhang, Business Analytics 29
Analytical mindset evolution
Think
Do
Share
Think
Do
Share
Think
Do
Share

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AdoptionRate
Speed
30
Speed matters: Three-Second Rule
High
Low
FastSlow
Simon Zhang, Business Analytics

31. We expect analysts beyond “Get It Done” mindset!
31
100%
Almost Done
Get It Done! ABC
-XX%
What is ‘ABC’?
50%
100%
Simon Zhang, Business Analytics

32. ABC = Always Be Closing!
32Simon Zhang, Business Analytics

33. Working as ONE person concept!
33
Decision
Insights
Deep Analysis
BI & Reporting
Ad-hoc Analysis
Data Mgmt & Data Quality Mgmt
Tracking
Products
The importance of team work!
Simon Zhang, Business Analytics

34. A very useful tool to solve complex analytical problems
34
LinkedIn
Team
Me
Me
Team
LinkedIn
• If this is your own business, are you going to do it in this way?
• We are not consultants/advisors, we are business owners!
• Make an offer no one can refuse!
Simon Zhang, Business Analytics

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LinkedIn Confidential ©2013 All Rights Reserved
Data Science?
Data Art?
Philosophy?
Or Imaginations?
3
5

36. The connections among universe, brain and social
network!
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics
3
6

37. Inspired by
37
A brilliant scientist
changed the world!
Nikola Tesla
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics

38. Thank you!
38
©2014 LinkedIn Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Simon Zhang, Sr. Director, Business Analytics
Questions?