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Elisabeth Ling
Strategic Product Advisor I NED & Board advisor I Product Leadership Coach I ex-PayPal, ex-eBay
Elisabeth Ling is a highly experienced product leader and strategic advisor who currently serves on the Livingbridge Software Advisory Board.1 With over 27 years of experience in the technology industry, she specializes in helping companies unlock their product potential and accelerate growth.5
Professional Background
Elisabeth has held senior product leadership roles across major tech companies including PayPal, eBay, and Elsevier.1 Her expertise spans both B2B and B2C software products, giving her a broad perspective on product strategy and development.
Current Roles
- Strategic Product Advisor: Elisabeth works with startups and scale-ups, advising CEOs, CPOs, and CTOs on accelerating their product strategies.7
- Non-Executive Director: She serves as a board member for software-enabled businesses.6
- Angel Investor: Elisabeth invests in promising software companies.6
Advisory Work
As part of the Livingbridge Software Advisory Board, Elisabeth contributes her extensive product experience to support Livingbridge's portfolio companies.1 She offers valuable insights on complex product situations, providing an outsider perspective to help companies navigate challenges and optimize their product strategies.2
Expertise
Elisabeth's advisory work focuses on:
- Creating product strategies that deliver tangible commercial results3
- Helping B2B software companies scale effectively
- Offering strategic guidance to founders and leaders in the tech industry
Her client base includes a selection of leading startups and scale-ups in the UK, demonstrating her impact on the British tech ecosystem.4
Highlights
Nothing like a brown bag lunch talking about my early days at PayPayl in 2004 to make me smile!
Thanks to the team at Crezco under the helm of Ralph Rogge for inviting me today to share a few lessons about building great software products in financial services.
Key phrases:
- Be super bold in your ambitions
- Act with relentless urgency
- Build products which get out of the way gracefully and let customers do what they want to achieve
- Be a good team buddy
I love to get product and tech teams to think commercially!
So what a joy to share 2 days ago my top tips with 100+ women in leadership roles on how to nail your boardroom presentation on Product and Technology.
💰 Switch mindset: talk to the board about the commercial opportunity, not the features. I used the views of a mountain, one with the team proud to achieve something so difficult: this is the internal product and team view. It's cool.
But when talking to the board and investors, you need to switch to the other view: you're being given funds to conquer a commercially viable market, there is a hefty return on investment expected at the top of the mountain.
💵 Know this costs a lot: product and technology is R&D, it is a costly endeavour, know your numbers and explain clearly how you're spending them.
🔢 🎯 If you want to show a screenshot, or demo, always make sure you show the value of what you've shipped to the clients and the commercial impact. Nobody really cares about the features per se.
I firmly believe that excellence in product leadership revolves around 6 concepts, paired as follows:
- Value Creation and Value Capture
- Time to Market and Commercial Impact
- Vision and Clarity
Next time you present to a board, investors, make sure you nail these concepts.
Finally, the whole afternoon was filled with amazing presentations by wonderful women and I'll make sure to cover in future posts what I have learned in the coming days. Thank you for inspiring me: Cassie Young, Michaela Lehr, Danielle Price, Jolawn Victor, Bethany Ayers, Nicole Fitzgerald, Nela Collins, Carrie Osman, Agata Leliwa Nowicka, Marianne Abib-Pech, Itxaso del Palacio, PhD
🙏 A huge thank you to again to Cassie Young, Ian Ellis, Nicole Fitzgerald for inviting me to speak to this wonderful event, on the recommendation of Maya Moufarek.
Thank you also to the wonderful sponsors, FinTech Innovation Lab London our host there Sacha Brereton, as well as Primary Venture Partners, London Enterprise Tech Meetup, Accenture, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Women in Financial Services.
