Leah Tharin: A Leading AI Product Management Expert at Product Drive 2025

With over 20 years of experience in product management, product-led growth, and organizational scaling, Leah Tharin, Head of Product at Jua.ai and recognized PLG expert, has helped scale some of today’s most successful B2B businesses through innovative AI-powered strategies.

In this article, we’ll dive into Leah’s background and highlight some of her most influential frameworks to prepare you for her upcoming talk at Userpilot’s Product Drive conference: “AI and its Impact on Product Management.” Her insights will be invaluable for teams looking to implement customer-led growth in an AI-driven world.

Who is Leah Tharin?

Leah Tharin is one of Europe’s product-led growth experts and AI product strategists. Working with high-growth companies, including Smallpdf, GotPhoto, and Jua.ai, she has influenced and executed growth strategies that transformed startups into industry giants with over 50 million monthly active users.

Leah is a serial entrepreneur with 4 startups under her belt, a board member, and a recognized industry leader in bringing product-led growth and sales together in B2B. She teaches PLG courses at Maven and has written the most referenced Product-led Growth material to date. Her expertise spans from user acquisition strategies to PLG frameworks for scaling B2B businesses.

Currently, she works as Head of Product at Jua.ai, where she leads the AI-native weather prediction platform that delivers superior forecasts through machine learning. This achievement showcases her mastery of AI product management and technical product strategy.

Leah’s journey in product-led growth and AI

Leah’s career journey has taken her through various roles that have shaped her unique perspective on scaling AI-powered companies. Currently at Jua.ai, she previously served as Head of Product at Smallpdf, where she skyrocketed user engagement to over 50 million monthly active users in just 3 years. Before that, she led product teams at DeinDeal.ch (successfully pushing Groupon out of the Swiss market) and built GotPhoto into a 20M+ ARR scale-up.

She has also held leadership positions across multiple successful exits and serves as a portfolio advisor for Notion Capital, focusing on European Series A+ SaaS and Cloud startups. Her expertise spans from customer onboarding strategies to complex product growth frameworks in AI environments.

Leah’s journey began in qualitative user research before transitioning to product management, where she discovered her passion for bridging user experience with scalable business models. This hands-on approach to understanding customer success patterns became her signature advantage in AI product development.

Leah’s thought leadership: Essential frameworks for AI product professionals

Leah maintains an active presence through her newsletter “Leah’s ProducTea” at leahtharin.com, where she shares cutting-edge insights on AI product strategies and frameworks. Her content often explores the intersection of customer success onboarding and AI-powered user activation. Bringing over two decades of operator and executive experience, here are some of her most influential contributions:

Product-Led Growth Guide 3.0: Leah authored the most comprehensive PLG guide that helps companies understand when and how to implement PLG strategies effectively. Her framework identifies three core moments: Setup, Aha, Eureka, and Habit moments, helping teams focus on building lasting competitive advantages through PLG motions.

AI Product Management Framework: Through her work at Jua.ai, Leah developed insights into how product management differs in AI/ML companies. She teaches that AI product managers need strong technical foundations while emphasizing that domain expertise isn’t always necessary. Her approach focuses on user onboarding that converts prospects into engaged users in complex technical products. Check the LinkedIn post.

B2B PLG Scaling Model: Leah’s framework addresses how product-led growth should evolve at different company stages, from startup to scale-up. She notably emphasizes that retention is the heart of PLG, requiring exceptional product experiences rather than just distribution tactics.

Leah’s podcast appearances and speaking engagements

Leah continues sharing her expertise across various podcasts, conferences, and industry events. Ranked #5 in Marketing & Sales in Switzerland and #29 on LinkedIn in Switzerland, her insights on product-led growth strategy and AI product management are highly sought after. She also facilitates workshops with premium rates of $15,000-$20,000 per day. Here are a few highlights you can access right away:

• Mind the Product Conference 2025: “The Key Principles of PLG” – Leah shared actionable insights on how PLG distribution succeeds in competitive markets and why modern PLG puts customer success at the center. She emphasized how AI changes product-led sales motions and the importance of specialized product management.
• One Knight in Product Podcast: “Is Product-Led Growth Really For You?” – Leah discussed her content creation process, how to determine if PLG fits your business, and practical steps for getting started. She highlighted the importance of PLG strategies that focus on organizational alignment rather than just growth tactics.
• Product Quest Podcast: “Product Led Growth with Leah Tharin” – Leah talked about her direct communication style on product challenges and leadership, sharing lessons about building customer onboarding strategies that scale. She emphasized the role of customer success onboarding in AI product development.

Join Leah live at Product Drive

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from one of the leading voices in AI product management. Leah will be sharing her latest insights and frameworks at Product Drive during her talk, “AI and its Impact on Product Management.”

Leah will explore how AI reshapes discovery, prioritization, and strategy in product management. She’ll cover practical applications from synthetic research and opportunity scoring to dynamic roadmaps and outcome metrics. The focus? Clear examples of where AI helps, where it harms, and how to keep teams focused on value creation rather than novelty—essential for modern user onboarding and product development.

“AI won’t replace product managers—but PMs who wield AI will replace those who don’t” – Leah Tharin

Register for Product Drive to join Leah Tharin and other experts live and be part of the conversation that’s shaping the future of AI-powered product management. The participation is free, but the seats are limited. Save your spot fast!