Upwork’s work marketplace announcement is confusing

Like most Upwork users, I woke up today to an email from Upwork’s CEO Hayden Brown on their “biggest news yet”. You can read the whole announcement here, but the TLDR of the email is :

1- Upwork introduces the new industry category “work marketplace”
2- New Brand & Logo
3- New Ad campaign

The last two points were easy enough to grasp, but to be perfectly honest…I didn’t get what “work marketplace” was referring to:

• Was “work marketplace” a new feature or menu item?
• A new way freelancers could market themselves?
• A new product for businesses?
• A change in how Upwork does business?

Based on several reddit threads, I wasn’t the only confused Upwork user and it doesn’t sound like a lot is changing in terms of features or day to day business.

Business Wire’s press release defines the “work marketplace” as “a complete ecosystem that offers numerous ways for freelancers and companies to connect and work together.” The article continues to describe features that exist today, so I was really lost as to what this new “ecosystem” was. Was it even new?

After much, much reading in between the lines… I’m now interpreting “work marketplace” as : Upwork is redefining their brand in order to attract bigger businesses with bigger projects. This is great! I’m certainly one of those professionals looking for bigger projects (Anyone need long form articles like this one?) and long term working relationships.

The point of my rambling is to point out how much effort it took me — someone in the business of words — to understand what this phrase meant. My twelve years working with corporate lingo didn't help me decipher what it meant either, but my experience did help me realize I wasn’t going mad.

Writing with clarity is a lesson that Shani Raja’s wonderful writing courses hammered into my brain. If you’re looking for a good writing course, I highly recommend his Udemy or LinkedIn classes. Reading something should be effortless for a reader. If I’m making the reader go back and forth as they try to decipher my message, there’s probably ways to improve my writing.

In Upwork’s case, a quick definition of what an “industry category” is would have helped immensely. After that, a confirmation that the “work marketplace” change is not affecting how the site works would have also saved me and others a lot of time. We Puerto Rican’s have a saying: “explicar en arroz y habichuelas” (literally, “to explain in rice and beans”). If your explanation is more complex than rice and beans , you can simplify further.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Upwork’s “work marketplace” evolves and if it does turn into any tangible improvements for businesses and professionals already on Upwork. In the meantime, I’ll be figuring out how to use my free monthly Upwork connects.

Are you on Upwork?
How are you interpreting the “work marketplace” announcement?