How WHY ME! verification works
A Perspective is only worth something if you can trust where it came from. Here is exactly what WHY ME! checks, what each label means, and what we deliberately refuse to do.
The process
- 01
The profile owner requests a Perspective
You choose the person and tell us how you believe you worked together. Nobody is added to WHY ME! without being asked, and no profile is ever created for someone else.
- 02
The reviewer confirms they own the email address
The invitation link is single-purpose and unguessable, and the reviewer confirms a one-time code sent to the invited address before any question is shown.
- 03
The reviewer independently confirms or corrects the relationship
The reviewer — not the owner — states the relationship type, the organization, the approximate dates, and how closely you worked. If the owner described it differently, the reviewer's version is what counts and the correction is recorded.
- 04
The reviewer receives the questionnaire for that exact relationship
A direct report is asked about coaching, fairness and pressure. A client is asked about trust, responsiveness and value delivered. Question sets are fixed per relationship so answers stay comparable and honest.
- 05
Relationship evidence is assessed
Evidence can include matching organization and date context between both parties, a current company-domain email address, an optional reviewer-supplied LinkedIn profile as supporting evidence, other legitimate evidence the reviewer chooses to provide, or a manual review by WHY ME!. LinkedIn alone never verifies the relationship.
- 06
The Perspective publishes on a fixed clock
An eligible submitted Perspective publishes automatically exactly 72 hours after submission. The owner never sees it before publication and can never edit it. The reviewer may correct or withdraw it at any time — before or after publication.
What each label means
Labels describe the evidence we actually have. They are never upgraded for marketing reasons, and they never imply more certainty than the evidence supports.
- Email Confirmed
- The reviewer entered a one-time code sent to the address they were invited at, so we know they control that mailbox. It says nothing yet about the working relationship itself.
- Relationship Corroborated
- In addition to confirming their email, the reviewer independently described the organization, dates and context, and that description is consistent with the profile owner's professional context. It is supporting evidence, not proof.
- Professional Relationship Verified
- Email ownership is confirmed, the independently stated relationship is corroborated, and at least one further legitimate signal supports it — for example a current company-domain address, a reviewer-supplied LinkedIn profile matching the stated context, or a completed manual review.
- Relationship Verification Pending
- The Perspective met every publication requirement — confirmed email, reviewer consent, a public profile, no policy hold — but relationship evidence is still incomplete. It publishes with a restrained pending note, carries no verified badge, and is excluded from every verified metric.
The evidence we can use
Current company-domain email
A reviewer confirming from an address at the organization in question is strong evidence for a current relationship, and nothing more than that.
Organization and date overlap
When the reviewer's independently stated organization and dates line up with the owner's professional context, that overlap corroborates the relationship.
Optional LinkedIn profile match
A reviewer may voluntarily provide a LinkedIn profile URL as supporting evidence. It is optional, it is never required, and it is only ever one signal among several.
Manual review
Former, confidential, contractor and cross-organization relationships often cannot be corroborated automatically. Those go to a human review path instead of being overstated.
What WHY ME! will never do
We never scrape LinkedIn
We do not crawl, import, or mine LinkedIn, and we never claim a Perspective is "Verified by LinkedIn." LinkedIn is optional supporting evidence a reviewer chooses to share.
We never sell verification
Verification cannot be purchased, upgraded, expedited, or sponsored. There is no paid placement and no paid badge.
Owners never edit reviewer words
A profile owner cannot write, rewrite, soften, or approve the wording of a Perspective about them.
Owners cannot selectively hide legitimate feedback
An owner can make their entire profile private, but they cannot pick and choose which legitimate published Perspectives remain visible.
We never invent reputation
WHY ME! does not generate, seed, estimate, or simulate feedback, ratings, or counts. No demo reviews appear on any real profile.
We do not rank professionals
WHY ME! is not a "top professionals" list, a directory, or an award. It reports what specific people said about working with you.
Corrections, holds and withdrawal
Reviewer corrections
A reviewer can correct their own Perspective at any time from Manage My Perspective. Corrections are versioned privately so the record stays honest.
Policy holds
A Perspective that appears to breach policy — harassment, protected-class content, confidential information — is placed on hold and does not publish while it is reviewed.
Replacement submissions
Only one active public Perspective exists per reviewer and profile pair. A replacement supersedes the previous one rather than stacking duplicates.
Withdrawal at any time
A reviewer can withdraw at any time, during the 72-hour window or years later. Withdrawn content is hidden immediately, excluded from every metric, and never republished.
Build a profile backed by people who have actually seen your work, then invite them yourself.