530: How to craft your path from IC to Product VP – with Elizabeth Samara-Rubio

 Product management is the best path to senior leadership Watch on YouTube TLDR In my recent interview with Elizabeth Samara-Rubio, Chief Business Officer at SiMa.ai, we explored the journey from product management to senior leadership. Elizabeth shared how her product management experience at HP and other companies shaped her approach to business leadership. She emphasized the importance of setting a clear North Star for teams, challenging assumptions with data, and creating a culture that embraces calculated risk-taking. Her insights on Edge AI applications revealed how companies are gaining competitive advantages through both product-focused and process-focused AI integration strategies. Key Topics * How product management experience provides a foundation for executive leadership * Setting direction as a senior leader through clear vision and metrics * Edge AI applications and benefits: privacy, security, and cost advantages * Creating customer value through innovation and “getting your own truth” * Building a data-driven leadership culture * Two approaches to AI integration: product-focused and process-focused * Advice for product managers aspiring to senior leadership roles Introduction When you meet an exceptional product manager – a product master – you’re often seeing a future business leader in the making. They have a spark – an obsession with customer needs, a knack for strategy, an ability to unite teams around a vision – it’s the same DNA that builds great companies. Our guest today embodies this evolution, taking her product management foundation to pioneer AI innovation and lead high-growth companies.  From launching products at HP in the late 90s to driving AI innovation today, Elizabeth Samara-Rubio’s journey offers unique insights into how product management shapes business leadership. As Chief Business Officer at SiMa.ai, she’s now at the forefront of Edge AI technology, bringing artificial intelligence directly to devices where decisions need to be made. In this discussion, we’ll explore how Elizabeth’s early product management experience influences her approach to building high-growth, customer-focused companies. We’ll also dive into her perspective on AI’s transformative impact on industries, drawn from her work at the intersection of strategy, product, and artificial intelligence.  Whether you’re a product manager looking to expand your influence or a business leader interested in the impact of AI on your industry, Elizabeth’s insights bridge the gap between product thinking and company building.  From Product Manager to Business Leader Product managers are prepared to be leaders, as the challenges of balancing multiple stakeholders, making data-driven decisions, and keeping customers at the center of everything you do are experiences that translate directly to executive roles. The transition from managing products to leading businesses isn’t automatic, however. It requires developing new skills while leveraging the product mindset that made you successful in the first place. As Elizabeth’s journey shows, product managers who successfully make this leap often maintain their customer focus and data-driven approach while expanding their vision to encompass the entire business. Throughout our discussion,