On this first day of the LinkedIn company...

On this first day of the LinkedIn company shutdown, I can't help but reflect on a pattern that just clicked into picture for me this past week. " "" "I've generally found LinkedIn to be a "just-in-time" builder of infrastructure. Unlike other tech companies that I've heard about, which are very proactive and build infrastructure ahead of their product teams, LinkedIn's investments into infrastructure follow an observed need by a product team somewhere. " "" "The problem is that product teams often get hampered and/or blocked by infrastructure that doesn't quite meet their needs. What often happens in those situations, especially for strong product teams, is that they build the infrastructure themselves! " "" "While in the long term, it's clear the product team shouldn't own this piece of infrastructure, having them build it directly allows for the tightest possible integration between infra and product—it's the same team! " "" "A strong product team can also proactively identify other nearby use cases in similar products, ensuring the solution will work beyond the product team's direct need. This creates opportunities for horizontal impact often not otherwise available in product teams, which is an interesting aspect of this seeming dysfunction. " "" "While this strategy seems to work, given LinkedIn's structure, I wish we could be more proactive about infrastructure. I hope the recent organizational changes will help with this!

---

Original post on LinkedIn