Bringing LinkedIn Learning to Mobile

After LinkedIn acquired Parkside client Lynda.com, Parkside was asked to step in and create apps for LinkedIn's own learning platform, LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn
Business Challenge

Fast track the development of the LinkedIn online learning platform after the acquisition of Lynda.com.

Download Executive Summary

Client

LinkedIn is the world’s largest social networking platform (500 million users) designed for the business community world.

Our approach

We put together an agile team of committed engineers which travelled regularly to San Francisco and Mountain View.

Outcome

Thanks to our experience with video2brain and Lynda.com, the time-to-market for LinkedIn’s iOS and Android apps was significantly reduced. The Android app won the Google Play award for Best Self-Improvement App in 2016. LinkedIn was bought by Microsoft in June 2016 for 26.2 billion US dollars.

For LinkedIn, the Parkside
team achieved

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Feature exploration and product conceptualization

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Engineered critical features in all stages of the iOS and Android development

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Made apps accessible to all audiences

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Realized automated testing

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Setup tracking

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A/B testing

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Reduced time-to-market

Screen captures of the LinkedIn learning mobile experience.

10 years of experience

After LinkedIn bought Lynda.com, they created their own learning platform called LinkedIn Learning. We maintained our relationship with the new owner and used our knowledge from developing online learning platforms for more than ten years to help LinkedIn with their iOS and Android apps. By contributing with the talent of four of our best mobile developers, we became an extension of LinkedIn’s own mobile team.

After the acquisition of Lynda, LinkedIn continuously relied on our developer team.

Accessibility is important

Working with one of Silicon Valley‘s biggest tech companies certainly presents its own set of challenges, but it also creates new opportunities. For instance, many companies choose not to make accessibility a priority due to budgetary reasons, but one of our many jobs for LinkedIn was to make their apps accessible to all audiences. Furthermore, it was riveting to get to know not only the daily routines of one of Silicon Valley’s big players but also their development stack.

We worked with LinkedIn on their mobile learning apps for almost two years. This included numerous trips to their offices in San Francisco and Mountain View. We can highly recommend checking out their office in Mountain View – especially the cafeteria with their breakfast and lunch buffets.

At the time, we would have never predicted that LinkedIn, the owner of our former clients Lynda.com and video2brain, would itself be bought out one day. After all, they were among the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Nonetheless, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016 for 26.2 billion US dollars and our client was once again handed over to a bigger company.

A new challenge was to help LinkedIn make their apps accessible to all audiences.

Delivered work & key features

Parkside was responsible for the iOS and Android apps for LinkedIn Learning, enabling users to do things such as

watching videos and courses,
gaining new skills,
creating learning paths,
getting personalized recommendations,
using the app with Chromecast and
receiving certificates from courses that can be displayed on LinkedIn.

Technologies Utilized

Java / Swift

Platforms

iOS / Android

In a nutshell

After LinkedIn bought Lynda.com, we maintained our relationship with the new owner. With more than 10 years of experience in developing online learning platforms, we supported LinkedIn with their iOS and Android apps. Our team engineered critical features in all stages of the iOS and Android development and made the apps accessible to all audiences. With our help, LinkedIn reduced their time-to-market substantially.

Download — Executive Summary