Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Linden Lab is now hiring a senior level director in charge of strategic insights:

We are looking for an experienced and analytical professional with deep expertise in leveraging advanced analytics to drive strategic business initiatives and operational efficiency. As the Director, Strategic Insights, you will utilize detailed data analysis, experimentation, statistical modeling, forecasting, and the development of key reporting tools and metrics to guide business decisions.

This is the first senior level hire by Linden Lab since 2021, when the company went in search of a VP of Engineering. And Philip Rosedale returning as CTO, of course.

The actual job description is somewhat vague, so I asked Linden Lab Chair Brad Oberwager for an example of what "strategic insights" would actually entail in this role.

"A hypothetical example would be learning how to make the mobile app better," he tells me. "Analyzing use cases and seeing what residents are using the app to accomplish, and then putting it into strategic planning."

And this is a pretty serious budget outlay for Linden Lab, since the salary is around $250,000/year plus benefits.

"We are investing in creating products that the residents want," Oberwager explains. "The more they use those products, like mobile, the more we invest in them.

The reason they need someone to lead strategic insights is that the features/updates that are most loudly asked for by the existing user community are not necessarily what grows overall usage:

"Investing in product development is important and scary, "as Brad puts it. "We have invested a lot of money into things people asked for that had little to no impact. I want to invest in the things that people really use."

Much more here. I'd love to see a longtime SLer/virtual world enthusiast get this role, so if I know your work well (and you think it might help), I'm happy to offer personal endorsements to highly qualified candidates. No promises, but feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.