About Surya

The Short Version

I'm Surya Suravarapu, Senior Director of Product at Optum. I lead AI marketplace, API portfolio, and platform solutions that connect healthcare's biggest challenges with practical technology.

After 10 years as an engineer learning to build things right, I spent the next decade in product learning to build the right things. Now I share what works, what doesn't, and what's next in AI-powered product development.

The Journey from Code to Customer

I started my career debugging code at 2 AM. Today, I debug market strategies and customer problems.

My first decade taught me how systems break. As an engineer and architect in my prior life, I learned that perfect code means nothing if it solves the wrong problem. I've built systems that scaled to millions of transactions. I've also built technically brilliant solutions that nobody wanted.

That's why I made the pivot to product.

At Portico (acquired by McKesson), then Change Healthcare, and now Optum, I've led products that move beyond features to actual outcomes. Healthcare isn't just another vertical. When your product decisions affect patient care, provider workflows, and payer systems, every choice carries weight.

What I Build Now

Currently at Optum, I'm focused on solutions that impact payer, provider, and partner workflows:

AI Marketplace: Making AI accessible to healthcare organizations that need results, not more experiments. Go-to-market and commercialization of AI assets.

API Portfolio and Platform Solutions: Building the connective tissue between healthcare's siloed systems. Creating foundations that let other teams ship faster.

The work spans from proof-of-concept to production-grade high-scale systems. Each product starts the same way: understanding what keeps our customers up at night.

Why I Write

Product management in the AI era is uniquely challenging. You're balancing legacy systems with cutting-edge technology, stakeholder expectations with user needs, and the pressure to ship fast with the responsibility to ship right.

I write daily because learning compounds. Every experiment with a new AI tool, every learning and insight, every failed hypothesis teaches something worth sharing. This blog captures those lessons in real-time.

Whether you're in healthcare, fintech, or building the next consumer app, the fundamentals remain the same. We're all trying to find product-market fit, scale sustainably, and create value for both customers and business.

The difference now? AI changes the game weekly. New models, new capabilities, new possibilities. Keeping up isn't optional anymore.

This blog is my learning journal made public. It's for product managers navigating technical complexity, engineers stepping into product roles, and anyone building technology that needs to deliver real outcomes.

The Product Philosophy

I believe the top product managers create exponential impact. They achieve this by applying first-principles thinking to deconstruct problems and using systems thinking to find high-leverage solutions. It's about working smarter, not harder.

Great products start with three questions:

1. What is the single biggest obstacle preventing your customer's success today?
2. How does solving it drive your business forward?
3. What's the smallest bet you can make to test your hypothesis? Iterate.

In healthcare tech, we add a fourth question: How does this improve someone's health journey?

The best product managers do not just ship features. They connect customer pain to business value through technology that actually works. After two decades in tech, I have learned that the magic happens at the intersection of what's technically possible, what customers desperately need, and what the business can sustain.

Beyond the Day Job

Based in Atlanta, I spend my time experimenting with new AI tools and advising startups. Outside of my work, I prioritize family time and enjoy hiking through the north Georgia mountains. I also like reading non-fiction.

My passion is applying the "what if we tried it differently?" mindset to a wide range of challenges. This work matters. That's what gets me up in the morning.

Connect

I'm always interested in connecting with product and tech professionals, especially those working on meaningful problems in healthcare. Find me on LinkedIn or email me.

If you're building something that matters or wrestling with product challenges in complex domains, reach out. The best insights come from conversations with people doing the work.