LinkedIn Tool Market — Visualization Framework Options
Purpose: Six ways to visualize the 58-tool LinkedIn market, matched to the 4 questions you want answered. Each format below links to real-world examples so you can see the style before we commit. The final, live version is the LinkedIn Market Interactive Dashboard — one page with all six formats built from the verified data (deployed at hermesvps.pages.dev). Static per-format mockups (pre-commit, from the same kimi-k3-approved data) are in previews.
The 4 questions and which format answers each
| Your question | Best format(s) |
|---|---|
| How crowded is a segment? | Bubble chart (size = tool count) or 2×2 quadrant map (density per cell) |
| At what price points are startups selling? | Price ladder / Gartner-style magic quadrant or bubble chart with $ axis |
| Which ICP wants which tool type? | Persona × Stage heatmap or Sankey/journey river |
| Which stage is irrelevant to which ICP? | Sankey/journey river or heatmap (blank cells = irrelevant) |
| Where’s the white space for GrowReach? | 2×2 quadrant + price ladder combined — the empty cell is the answer |
Format 1 — Bubble chart (crowdedness × price)
Bubble size = number of tools in a segment; position = price band. Instant read on red oceans vs white space.
Examples to look at:
Format 2 — 2×2 quadrant / positioning map
The classic “magic quadrant”. Axes: price (low→high) × buyer maturity (self-serve→enterprise). Each dot = one tool. The empty quadrant IS the white space.
Examples:
- Google Images: Gartner magic quadrant
- Google Images: positioning map
- Storytelling with Data: quadrant charts
Format 3 — Journey river / Sankey diagram
Personas flow through the 5 journey stages (Find → Send → Engage → Publish → Compound). Band width = tool count; personas drop off where a stage is irrelevant to them. Best single view for “who cares about what”.
Examples:
Format 4 — Price ladder
Every segment’s price band on one 0–0–$150 advocacy band (J10 white space).
Examples:
Format 5 — Persona × Stage heatmap
Grid: 9 personas (rows) × 5 stages (columns). Cell shade = relevance (irrelevant → core). Blank/light cells = stages to SKIP for that ICP; purple cells = gap the persona needs but no tool serves. Directly answers “which ICP wants which tool” and “which part of the journey is irrelevant to them”.
Examples:
Format 6 — Compliance × Price scatter
X = price, Y = account-safety (official API/OAuth → risky extension/cookie). Quadrants = Risky-cheap / Risky-premium / Safe-cheap / Safe-enterprise. Answers the 2026 compliance shift question: who sells safely and at what price.
Examples:
Recommended combo for your goals
- 2×2 quadrant map (price × buyer maturity) as the hero visual — shows crowding AND white space in one frame
- Persona × Stage heatmap — answers the ICP targeting questions precisely
- Sankey journey river — shows which stages each ICP traverses (and skips)
- Price ladder — supporting detail for the price-gulf argument
Interactive tooling options if we build the final version: Flourish (no-code, Sankey + scatter + bubble), Observable/D3 (fully custom), Datawrapper (quick embeddable charts), or Mermaid (markdown-native, good for the GitHub repo).