Work / LinkedIn / Premium for Service Providers

Premium for Service Providers

A two-sided marketplace monetization feature connecting freelancers and small business owners to 20–30x more leads through a new Premium upsell model — projected to drive $170M in annual revenue.

LinkedIn
2023
Product designer
iOS · Android · Web
Two-sided — buyer & provider

The opportunity hiding in plain sight

LinkedIn's Services Marketplace had quietly become one of the largest freelance platforms in the world — bigger than Upwork and Fiverr combined, with 9 million service providers and 4.5 million active buyers per year. But it wasn't making money. And providers were getting just 0.4 Requests for Services per month on average.

Marketplace

9M

service providers — larger than Upwork and Fiverr

Active buyers

4.5M

per year with no efficient way to find the right provider

The gap

0.4

avg RFS per month per engaged provider

Context — LinkedIn Services Marketplace size and monetization gap
Context — marketplace size and the monetization gap

Research — competitors & current state

I evaluated the current request-for-services flow on competing platforms — Yelp, Upwork, and Thumbtack — to understand the patterns buyers and providers were already familiar with, and where LinkedIn had room to differentiate.

Competitor evaluation — Yelp, Upwork, and Thumbtack request flows
Competitor evaluation — Yelp, Upwork, and Thumbtack request-for-services flows
Premium strategy at LinkedIn — Who Viewed My Profile as the reference model
Premium strategy research — Who Viewed My Profile as the top-performing upsell model

The insight — borrow from what already works

I collaborated with the Premium team to understand which existing upsells performed best. Who Viewed My Profile had the highest click-to-conversion rate — a clear, immediate value exchange. I applied the same model to Services.

Core mechanic

Buyers opt in to share their service request with multiple Premium providers. Providers subscribe to Premium to unlock those shared requests. Both sides benefit; neither feels coerced.

Proposed solution

Proposed solution — buyer opt-in and provider admin view
Proposed solution — buyer opts in at step 4 of the request form; provider sees shared requests in the admin view

A two-sided design problem

Buyer — Cheri

At the end of her 4-step request form, she sees an opt-in to share her project with multiple Premium providers. She gets 4–5 competitive proposals and picks the best fit.

Non-premium provider — Rose

Sees Cheri's request listed — but locked. "Premium providers receive 20x more requests on average." The locked state creates desire without deception. She upgrades.

Premium provider — Jeff

Because Cheri opted in, Jeff received her shared request alongside other Premium providers and can submit a proposal directly.

Cross-team collaboration

Service marketplace, Content Design, Premium, and COR (notifications and emails) all needed to be aligned. I designed email and push notifications alongside the core flows.

Design explorations

I explored multiple approaches to how Premium and direct requests could coexist in the provider admin view — testing different ways to signal value and trigger the upsell without feeling manipulative.

Design explorations — Premium vs non-premium provider admin views
Design explorations — Premium provider (top) vs non-premium provider (bottom) request admin views

UI improvements

The existing requests page was updated to eliminate unnecessary elements and reduce visual clutter — creating a clear hierarchy between Premium and direct requests.

UI improvements — before and after the requests page redesign
Before (left) vs after (right) — cleaner hierarchy, Premium signal, and reduced clutter

Before

Flat list, no hierarchy between request types. No Premium signal. Visual clutter throughout.

After

Clear Premium / Direct sections. Locked state communicates value. Cleaner information hierarchy.

Key user flows

Buyer requests service — 4-step flow with Premium opt-in
Buyer flow — Cheri visits a service provider page and requests services, opting in to share with multiple providers at step 4
Non-premium provider — sees locked requests and Premium upsell
Non-premium provider (Rose) — sees shared requests listed but locked, with a clear upgrade path to Premium
Premium provider — receives shared requests and submits proposals
Premium provider (Jeff) — receives Cheri's shared request and submits a proposal directly
Buyer receives multiple proposals for comparison
Buyer (Cheri) receives 4 competitive proposals and can compare providers side by side

Collaboration with other teams

This project required close alignment across Service marketplace, Content Design, Premium, and COR (notifications and emails) to ensure all touchpoints followed established LinkedIn patterns.

Collaboration — email, push notification, and in-app notification designs
COR team deliverables — email, push notification, and in-app notification designs

Expected impact

For providers

20–30×

more RFS per month for Premium subscribers

For buyers

5–10

competitive proposals per request

For LinkedIn

$4.8M

near-term · $170M annual long-term

projected Premium revenue impact