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Grant
Elliott
Founder & CPO
SimplAI Product
Grant Elliott is the co-founder and CEO of SimplAI Product, where he focuses on applying AI to strengthen product leadership, decision making, and strategic clarity. His work centers on restoring product management’s role as a driver of business outcomes, not just delivery execution. Grant has spent over two decades building and leading product organizations across SaaS, security, healthcare, and telecommunications. He previously co-founded and led Ostendio, a venture-backed SaaS company, and held executive roles at Voxiva, a global digital health pioneer. Earlier in his career, Grant served as Product Director at AT&T, where he managed a $500 million global data and IP product portfolio. In parallel, Grant is a co-founder of M2I Learning, where he develops leadership, product, and AI training programs designed to help organizations build stronger product judgment, operate effectively in ambiguity, and responsibly apply AI in real-world decision making. Grant is also an Adjunct Professor at the Pratt Institute, where he teaches post-graduate students on leadership, business strategy, and entrepreneurship. Grant writes and speaks frequently on the evolution of product management, the changing economics of software development, and the role of AI in modern product leadership. Originally from Scotland, Grant now resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and three children. For more details on his professional background, visit linkedin.com/in/grantelliott.
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28 January 2026 11:30 - 12:00
Why product management lost its voice, and how AI can help get it back
During last year’s Product-Led Summit, I explored how Silicon Valley culture and tech-first thinking reshaped product management—and gradually eroded its influence. This session builds on that foundation to ask a harder question: why did product management lose its voice inside organizations, and what would it take to get it back? As software became faster and cheaper to build, the balance between product and engineering effort quietly shifted. It became easier to build, test, fail, and rebuild than to invest deeply in traditional product management work. Over time, this changed how decisions were made, diluted the product role, and created a leadership vacuum. In many organizations, that vacuum was filled by technology leadership. Expanded CTO mandates and hybrid roles like CPTO improved execution, but also introduced new tensions around strategy, ambiguity, and customer focus. This session examines how these dynamics emerged, why they matter, and what was lost along the way. It then looks ahead to how AI is changing the underlying economics again not as hype or automation, but as a practical support system. One that may allow product leaders to reclaim influence by doing what they do best: navigating uncertainty, synthesizing insight, and bringing clarity to complex decisions. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of how product management evolved and how product leadership can reassert itself in an AI-enabled world.