Lucka
Bibic
Head of Article Pipeline Management at Springer Nature
"From Spider Venom to Strategy: Why “Zig-Zaggers” Will Lead in the Age of Volatility"
"From Spider Venom to Strategy: Why “Zig-Zaggers” Will Lead in the Age of Volatility"
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Session: From Spider Venom to Strategy: Why “Zig-Zaggers” Will Lead in the Age of Volatility
For years, I thought professional legitimacy in tech came from a clean, linear career story. I couldn't have been more wrong.I started my career in a lab milking spiders for venom. Today, I lead product and data strategy at Springer Nature, helping solve the “speed problem” for thousands of scientific journals by aligning research, techology, and business priorities. What once looked like a career glitch turned out to be the training ground for leading when the rules keep changing.
For a long time, I tried to make my story sound simpler. I thought clarity meant removing complexity. What I learned instead is that complexity, when understood, can become a powerful leadership resource.
We often celebrate specialization - and rightly so. It built the world we depend on today. At the same time, in a world shaped by AI, rapid change, and problems that haven't been named yet, specialization alone carries increasing risk. When conditions shift, leaders are asked to connect ideas across teams, disciplines, and perspectives - and often before the problem is fully defined.
This is where a different kind of leadership becomes important.
I call this capability the Integrated Expert Leader. Less of a title, more as a way of working. It's the ability to combine deep knowledge with structural flexibility to help teams move forward when there is no clear map.
My own career has involved being a pharmacist, PhD researcher, science writer, radio producer, and founder in biotech and virtual reality. This was less of a planned strategy and more a series of decisions made in moments of uncertainty. Over time, those experiences helped me learn how to lead when there is no playbook and when collaboration matters more than control.
At Springer Nature, this approach has supported teams in reducing decision bottlenecks and improving how research, technology, and product groups work together around shared outcomes in an increasingly automated publishing ecosystem.
This talk is not a story about success. It's a story about learning and leading through uncertainty, doubt, and experimentation, especially when organizations feel pressure to move faster than understanding allows.
In this session, I will share a practical framework for recognizing patterns in your own career and using them to lead, authentically. You will not be asked to change who you are. Instead, you will learn how to use what you already carry - your experience, your curiosity, and your ability to connect - as a leadership advantage.
Your career is not confusing. It's proprietary data set - and learning how to read it may be one of the most powerful leadership skills of the coming decade.
Key Takeaways
- The Venom Extraction - A simple way to explain complex or technical experience so that others can clearly see its relevance and impact.
- Ditch the Ladder, Build the Web - A decision model for navigating pivots, maintaining credibility across transitions, and building authority without relying on linear progression.
- The 3 C’s: Curiosity, Courage, and Creativity - These are not personality traits, but learnable leadership capabilities for solving problems that don’t yet have solutions.
- Your Experience is Your Data Set: A pattern-mapping exercise to help you understand what your career has been preparing you for.
- The Leadership Lab Mindset: How to guide teams through uncertainty by experimenting intentionally, combining scientific precision with entrepreneurial imagination in AI-driven environments.
Bio
Dr. Lučka Bibič is a leader and a scientist who uses her own non-linear career as a living case study for how women in tech can lead across uncertainty, AI disruption, and organizational complexity. Currently leading product and data strategy at Springer Nature, Lučka works at the intersection of research, technology, and digital innovation to improve how scientific knowledge moves through the world.With a background spanning pharmaceutical science, PhD research, science communication, and startup founding in biotech and VR, Lučka brings a rare cross-disciplinary perspective on leadership in volatile systems. She empowers women in tech to stop hiding their unconventional backgrounds and start using them as strategic advantage in an automated future.
