LinkedIn Exec: Mobile 'Gives You A Chance To Reinvent Yourself'

But merely growing traffic is a limiting way to think of the effect mobile can have on your business, Joff Redfern, LinkedIn's mobile product chief, and Deep Nishar, the professional network's top product executive, said in an on-stage interview at Business Insider's Ignition Mobile conference Thursday.

Because LinkedIn's mobile usage was relatively small in 2011, when Redfern joined, there was low risk in trying radical new designs, he told interviewer Nicholas Carlson.

"Mobile gives you a chance to reinvent yourself," said Redfern. "Deep [Nishar] said this was an opportunity to reimagine what LinkedIn could be."

LinkedIn's mobile apps then informed the design of its desktop website, which in turn inspired new versions of its mobile apps. This back-and-forth between mobile and desktop culminated in a sweeping redesign of the site last year.