Lakshman Somasundaram

CEO

San Francisco, California, United States9 yrs 1 mo experience
Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

  • Led innovative projects at LinkedIn.
  • Created impactful products for firstline workers.
  • Drove significant user growth through strategic initiatives.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS Product Management Leader with a focus on user engagement and innovative solutions.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Product ManagementLeadershipProduct StrategyPublic Policy

Other Skills

StrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct DesignBusiness DevelopmentProduct MarketingMarketing StrategyBusiness StrategyStrategic PlanningProject ManagementResearchAnalyticsGraphic DesignPowerPointMicrosoft Excel

About

Helping build the future of LinkedIn. No matter where my career has taken me, I’ve always focused on one thing: creating economic opportunity for the people who will benefit from it the most.

Experience

Linkedin

8 roles

Senior Director of Product Management

Promoted

Apr 2025Present · 11 mos

  • Having a blast leading the Video, Games, and Moonshots organizations at LinkedIn. We're taking bold bets to reimagine how the world finds economic opportunity.
  • Our team is home to world-class product managers, engineers, designers, marketers, researchers, business analysts, data scientists, news editors, puzzle constructors, community builders, and partnership experts. I'm always looking for smart, kind, and highly-driven people to join us — please reach out if this is you!
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Director of Product Management

Promoted

Apr 2023Mar 2025 · 1 yr 11 mos

  • Went all-in on venture bets, starting and leading our Moonshots organization. This is now the organization where we ideate, launch, and scale LinkedIn's most radical and impactful venture bets.
  • Highlights from this time include creating LinkedIn Games (helping members deepen and reignite professional relationships through the power of play!) and Collaborative Articles (enabling users to tap into the 10 billion years of experience our members have — this was the first at-scale application of GPT-4 in the world). As reported by The Verge: "This project is a milestone, and may herald the start of a wider revolution for the web."
  • As the team's impact grew, I also started leading our Video organization — driving our shift towards making LinkedIn a video-first platform.
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Group Product Manager

Promoted

Apr 2021Mar 2023 · 1 yr 11 mos

  • Led our Segments organization (team of 120, 7 direct reports), responsible for both core and venture audience segments for the company. The products we built directly drove 30% of LinkedIn’s Weekly Active User (WAU) growth in FY 2022 — one of the 4 core metrics that the company is held accountable for.
  • On the core segments front, we focused on “infrequent members”: members who have signed up for LinkedIn, but haven’t yet found meaningful value. We built brand new UX experiences, AI models, and growth platforms to turn infrequent members into frequent members — resulting in record WAU growth for the company.
  • On the venture segments front, we focused our efforts on firstline workers. We built new content/community features, creating some of the best virtual support communities in the world for workers in industries like retail, customer service, and food service.
  • As the team grew, I transitioned to become a manager of people managers, and simultaneously built up a new team (Collaborative Articles) to evolve how members find and share knowledge on LinkedIn.
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Senior Product Manager

Apr 2020Mar 2021 · 11 mos

  • We launched a new suite of features to change the way firstline workers get jobs, and we got companies like Walgreens, Apple, and Macy’s to use LinkedIn to hire firstline workers for the first time in LinkedIn’s 17-year history.
  • We also began efforts for our second venture segment (underconnected youth) and saw strong initial performance, but the disruptions that COVID-19 brought to the world and to LinkedIn motivated me to re-focus 100% of our team on our firstline workers segment, which became our most urgent opportunity in a world changed by the pandemic.
  • In addition to leading our overall Venture Segments efforts, I formally transitioned into people management during this time — hiring, coaching, and developing a team of awesome product managers who are now taking things to the next level!
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Product Manager

Promoted

Apr 2019Mar 2020 · 11 mos

  • We launched 30+ new features for firstline workers, drove up our true north metric by over 80% y/y, and doubled our team from 21 to 43 over the course of a year.
  • In addition to leading our firstline worker efforts, I helped build a small new team focused on underconnected youth: individuals between 16 and 24 who don’t have access to strong professional networks simply because of where they grew up or where they went to school. This led to the creation of our umbrella team, Venture Segments, encompassing both the firstline worker and underconnected youth audiences.
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Associate Product Manager

Promoted

Jul 2018Mar 2019 · 8 mos

  • Built a team of 21 passionate, highly-driven contributors from scratch. We shipped 40+ features in just a few months and drastically improved the LinkedIn experience for firstline workers, covering everything from the underlying data in our taxonomies, to the fields on the LinkedIn profile, to the algorithms that power our job recommendations. As a result, we drove up our true north metric by over 60% y/y.
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Public Policy and Product Strategy Associate

Promoted

Jul 2017Jun 2018 · 11 mos

  • After graduation from college, I created a role for myself across our Public Policy and Product teams, to do a detailed study on how LinkedIn could solve the core needs of firstline workers. I put together a product strategy for this space, then pitched it to our executive team. The proposal was approved, along with funding to build a team of 21 people that would turn the strategy into reality.
  • After I got the funding to start the team, I moved fully into our Product Management organization to build and lead our new-found team.
Product ManagementLeadershipStrategyData AnalysisUser ExperienceProduct Design+23

Various Roles (During College)

Sep 2015Jun 2017 · 1 yr 9 mos

  • During the summer of 2015 after my sophomore year in college, I took part in a hackathon at LinkedIn. One thing led to another, and I was offered the opportunity to work for LinkedIn remotely from school during my junior year.
  • Over the next two years, I worked from my dorm room on product marketing, business operations, and public policy projects — focused on LinkedIn’s very first test initiatives in the firstline worker space (>80% of the workforce; i.e., hourly/vocational workers). We failed fast and learned a ton, and I became determined to turn LinkedIn into a product that every firstline worker would get value from.
Public PolicyProduct StrategyResearchData AnalysisCommunication

First round capital

2 roles

Investments Intern

Sep 2015May 2016 · 8 mos

  • Sourced and reviewed potential investments from my dorm room.

Community and Investments Intern

May 2015Aug 2015 · 3 mos

  • Sourced and reviewed potential investments, developed theses on disruptive technologies (AR/VR, autonomous vehicles, CRISPR), and provided support to portfolio companies.

Dalberg global development advisors

Summer Consultant Intern

May 2014Jul 2014 · 2 mos · Mumbai

  • Consulted for the Government of China and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Built models to estimate emission reductions from stove intervention programs, drafted policy recommendations, and designed pilot studies.

Nationswell

Marketing and Business Development Intern

Dec 2013Jan 2014 · 1 mo · New York City

  • Analyzed competitors, created marketing materials, and developed methods for readers to respond to stories for this digital news organization focused on sharing stories of creative solutions to national challenges.

Education

Yale University

Bachelor's Degree

Salesianum School

High School Diploma

Tower Hill School

Middle School Diploma

Stackforce found 100+ more professionals with Product Management & Leadership

Explore similar profiles based on matching skills and experience