Leader Emulators
Build runnable models of the sharpest people you've worked with, then boot the right one when you're stuck.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Vora maintains mental 'emulators' of specific leaders she has worked with — compressed models of how each one thinks. When she is stumped, she loads a person into her head and asks how they would approach the problem. Each emulator is a distinct lens, and having several means she is never limited to her own default reasoning style.
Origin
Vora's own practice, built from working with an unusually varied set of leaders at Facebook. Her three most-used emulators are Eric Antonow (story, metaphor, analogy creation), Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth (principled decision-making and trade-offs — if we played this out, what principles are we using, and if we kept using them, what would happen?), and Rob Goldman, a metrics and growth product leader ('look at the dashboard').
Core principles
- 01You cannot install another person's skill, but you can install a model of their reasoning.
- 02Every emulator is a lens; more lenses means more toolkits when you're stuck.
- 03The emulators should be genuinely different from each other and from you — a set of clones adds nothing.
- 04Curiosity is the fuel: running someone else's mind on your problem is also the cure for boredom.
- 05The same technique works for customers, not just colleagues.
How to run it
- 1
Choose people with distinct reasoning styles
Pick leaders whose thinking differs sharply from yours and from each other — a narrative thinker, a first-principles thinker, a metrics thinker.
Pro tip Three is enough to start. Vora's core set is exactly three.
- 2
Compress each into a single question
Reduce each person to the one question they always ask. Antonow: how does this make you feel, and when did you last feel that way? Boz: what principles are we using, and where do they lead if we keep using them? Goldman: have you looked at the dashboard?
Pro tip If you cannot compress them to one question, you don't know them well enough yet — go observe more.
- 3
Boot the emulator when stuck
When you don't know how to solve a problem, explicitly load one in: 'I don't know how to solve this — how would Eric describe this?' Play their reaction forward: what would they say next, what would they push on, why?
Pro tip Cycle through all three. The one that produces the most friction with your instinct is usually the one to follow.
- 4
Run the emulator's instruction
Actually do what the emulator says. Goldman says look at the dashboard — so go look at the dashboard. The value is in executing the lens, not admiring it.
- 5
Build a customer emulator
Do the same for specific customers you have talked to — a customer on your shoulder. When you show them this product or this strategy, what do they say?
Pro tip This is the practice that gave Vora the confidence to have strategic opinions: unique knowledge of the customer, retrievable on demand.
Watch out The emulator is only as good as the raw material. It requires real, repeated exposure — you cannot emulate a customer you have never met.
In the wild
Stuck on a problem, Vora asks what Rob Goldman would say. The answer is always: look at the dashboard. Have I looked at the dashboard? No. Okay — go look at the dashboard.
→ A borrowed skill set becomes a reliable default action, and 'look at the dashboard' becomes what she calls a great central rooting part of her life.
Vora talks to specific customers until she can simulate them: 'I talked to this person working in this job — here's what they would say if I showed them this product or this strategy.'
→ Talking to customers became her biggest unlock for feeling confident enough to declare a strategy, replacing the impostor feeling of 'who am I to say how the world will develop'.
Common mistakes
Collecting emulators who all think like you
The point is a fresh lens. If every model in your head reaches the conclusion you already had, the exercise is self-confirmation with extra steps.
Consulting the emulator and then ignoring it
Running the simulation is worthless if you don't take the action it produces. The value shows up when 'have I looked at the dashboard' actually sends you to the dashboard.
Is it for you?
Best for
Operators who have worked with a range of strong leaders and want to keep those perspectives available after leaving the org or the relationship.
Not ideal for
Anyone early enough in their career that they haven't yet observed distinct leaders closely enough to model them faithfully — go get the exposure first.
From the transcript
“and one thing I like to do is try to build like an emulator for different people in my head”
“I don't know how to solve this problem can I load this other person into my head and how would they approach it and that…”
“when I'm stumped on something I can be like what would Rob Goldman say he'd say look at the dashboard have I looked at the…”
From the episode
Making an impact through authenticity and curiosity
Ami Vora (CPO at Faire, ex-WhatsApp, FB, IG)