Ep. 87: Ben Ross, Innovator, Product SME

Leaders, your head will be sore from the technical product learnings Ben will teach us. Ben is an entrepreneur that has built freelance related products for over 10 years. From a technology and product lens, we answered two key questions, what has changed in the last 10 years that makes now the right time for the freelance economy, and what will change in the next 5 years. Hint 1...what changed was (1) consumer behavior with matching related technologies (think the taboo of E-Harmony vs the acceptance of Hinge, this is what's happened with the gig economy being taboo and now freelancing being preferred), (2) Cloud computing enabling digital sourcing and collaboration, (3) effective data science search algorithms. Hint 2...what will change in the next 5 years is (1) bundling of a singular plumbing infrastructure with partnerships between marketplaces built on top, (2) single pains of glass and identity tokens. We know...very geeky, but very important for being able to plan and build for where the puck is going in the freelance economy. 6:18 - Defining where work is going...project based, open 8:38 - The problem with talent acquisition today and where it's going 13:41 - Why the freelance economy isn't already the default 21:26 - How to balance outcomes and process 23:13 - HR needs to change their metrics 30:38 - Why hasn't LinkedIn built a freelance marketplace 35:33 - What's different today 46:32 - What will change in 5 years Find Ben's Leader Portal: humancloud.work/ben-ross