Today we have an exciting guest, Yuval Rubin, CEO of Ada Health, – an app made by doctors to check symptoms for thousands of diseases. Usually, our guests have been active in life since college – they run marathons and participate in charity programs… But what about military intelligence?
Exploring Career Pathways
A lot of women are serving their work with a lot of coding. Isn’t that the best way to get experience in data analysis? Yuval worked in the office of the Israeli prime minister, working closely with the Ministry of Health. She was deciding how to anonymize a lot of patient data to provide value on a larger scale, and that was really interesting and also was a very big stepping stone for the collaboration with Pfizer.
If you’re more after ideology or certain values that you want to promote, the public sector is the way to go.
But at the same time – unlike the private sector, the public sector is not dynamic. So Yuval left her position and went to London to study at the London School of Economics – she got a master’s degree in social innovation and entrepreneurship, which was a great way to introduce herself to social startups.
Next was working as a lead data analyst and then CPO, changing my specialization from pure data person to a more business-oriented PM – “I learned to work smarter, not harder.” Ironically, working smarter is “easier” because you do most of the work yourself. And working smarter means learning to delegate work to ensure it gets done well and on time. You have to ask questions without fear of losing credibility if you don’t know something.
People need to have access to the KPIs; they need to be sure that they can refer to them daily and that it helps them make decisions.
Yuval talks about her product – we have a symptom assessment. We also have a test like diagnostic tests in the U.S. we now have some tools to assess your eligibility for covered medications to avoid severe coveting. So we are launching more and more things to help users remain healthy, so on the prevention aspect and focusing on those at high risk of getting comorbidities or any more significant health concerns.
Ada Health educates the user but does not that much into self-medication.
The app is aimed at users who should constantly monitor their vitals. These are patients with diabetes or high blood pressure and the elderly. But healthy people could also benefit from doing health checks. The product uses AI algorithms.
Engineers and designers have much better ideas than product people; the only thing is that you have to work together to make sure it actually happens and sell that idea.
A good product manager needs to have the prioritization skills to make decisions by finding trade-offs. Sustainability is also important – “you’re always kind of in this interchange between business technology and UX.” Finally, you have to be proactive, curious, want to do more, and have good soft skills.
Not making a decision is also a decision, but while we’re not making a decision, the industry is changing; a new competitor is coming.
If you have too much or not enough data, you can delay a decision for a long time, which is detrimental to the business. This is also the problem of the product manager – too much information leaves us very little time. If 20 years ago, people were trying to keep up with the times through discipline, that’s not going to work anymore.
I try to set aside a few hours a day when I’m checking external information so that I can focus on my work during the other hours of the day so it doesn’t bother me all the time.
Yuval sees understanding the audience, as well as building the correct Cultural Map that works for multicultural companies, which Ada Health is, as important success factors. Also, get physically active to relieve your head.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
In this episode, David Moore of Lucira Health discusses the role of a product manager as a skeptical idealist, the importance of separating concerns and defining responsibilities for R&D teams, and working at the intersection of different teams.
During his undergrad, David chose science because it intrigued him, and he enjoyed it. At the same time, he saw San Diego as an emerging biotech hub. This was in 1996, and the industry was really taking off. However, he noticed a trend: there were many brilliant scientific minds and impressive work, but there was a lack of business guidance and people to help create a business case for these scientific ideas. That’s when he pivoted and pursued an MBA, transitioning from the lab environment to the world of business. This change marked his shift from biology to business.
David’s first opportunity in product management came at Cardinal Health. He transitioned from an internship to managing software for Cardinal Health’s infusion pumps, specifically for Alaris Infusion Pumps. The company eventually spun off and was later acquired by another firm. He mentions,
It was really a lot of education about what a product actually does in the hospital, the impact you have on the end users and also the logistics of getting that product implemented in a complex hospital system.
Effectively Guiding Multiple Product Managers at the Intersection
Managing a group of product managers, as well as being a product manager overseeing a team, requires gathering information effectively. David emphasizes,
While it’s natural for people to want their product to succeed and maintain a positive, can-do attitude, it’s also essential to consider the real-world implications. Understanding the consequences of your actions and how they will impact various aspects of the business and different departments is both extremely important and crucial.
Lean Six Sigma Kaizen: When and How?
A Lean Six Sigma Kaizen is ideal for situations where results can be achieved in a short time, such as a week. The goal is to gather everyone in a room for three or four days and emerge with immediately implementable solutions.
You really need to have a cross-functional team in the room. This may sound simple, but challenges arise when someone points out that you’ve overlooked a particular aspect or component of the equation.
Hence, when working with R&D teams, strike a balance between trusting your instincts and relying on data.
But if the data indicates that something is truly important, you likely don’t want to start out with a big mountain of it each time. Instead, you’ll need to convince others that you genuinely don’t require too much.
Being open and honest about your expectations while remaining flexible and understanding of their challenges will lead to a successful partnership and, ultimately, a successful product.
Furthermore, it’s vital to prioritize projects and set realistic goals for your R&D team. As a champion for your product, you must advocate for the essential aspects based on your experiences in the field. Simultaneously, you need to juggle various priorities that are crucial to the entire product portfolio and the company as a whole.
Managing R&D teams and ensuring their work leads to the success of a product or organization requires a combination of strategies and strong leadership. Here is a summary of the key points to remember:
Establish clear goals and expectations: Set realistic objectives for your R&D team, and make sure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.
Prioritize projects: Focus on the most critical features or projects with the most significant impact on your business to ensure your team is working efficiently and effectively.
Monitor progress and adjust strategy: Regular check-ins and progress reports will help you identify potential roadblocks, allocate resources as needed, and keep your team on track.
Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement: Encourage your team members to think creatively, collaborate, and share ideas to drive innovation.
Maintain open communication: Keep lines of communication open between your team, management, and other departments to ensure everyone is aligned with the project’s goals and timeliness.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
We were thrilled to have a distinguished product strategist, team leader, and customer support specialist from the post-acute and long-term care sector join us for today’s episode.
Our guest, BJ Boyle, holds the position of Chief Product Officer at PointClickCare, a top healthcare technology platform dedicated to improving patient outcomes by fostering collaboration and offering real-time insights.
In this discussion, we delve into the following: product strategy formulation, effective team leadership, and expert viewpoints on OKRs.
BJ’s Journey into Product Management
BJ has over 20 years of experience in product management, strategy, and development, witnessing the growth of product management as a career path in digital transformation companies within the healthcare sector. BJ didn’t initially plan to pursue a career in product management; instead, they began as an implementation specialist, traveling to skilled nursing facilities to install and train people on software.
I found great satisfaction in refining processes and collaborating with customers to ensure the delivery of their required solutions.
During an early experience with a client that decided not to move forward with a deal due to dissatisfaction with the software’s reporting features, BJ learned the importance of improving products based on customer feedback. This realization led BJ to work closely with engineering teams and customers to enhance products and ensure they met customer needs. Eventually, BJ’s passion for making things better and working with customers to deliver the best solutions evolved into a successful product management career.
The Transition to Electronic Health Records & Overcoming the Challenges
As a director of social strategy development at Cerner, the transition from traditional pen-and-paper methods to electronic health records (EHRs) in healthcare organizations was a fascinating experience.
Initially, there was considerable resistance to transitioning to digital systems. However, over time, people began recognizing the benefits and efficiencies of digitization.
While that’s true, BJ pointed out that:
There is still much work to be done in utilizing the data from electronic health records and other digital systems to significantly enhance patient care and outcomes.
In the healthcare and technology space, challenges persist due to the complexity of the healthcare system and the involvement of numerous stakeholders. Implementing technology solutions requires not only the technology itself but also integration with existing systems and processes. Ensuring seamless operation remains a challenge. Moreover, effectively leveraging the vast data collected from electronic health records and digital systems to improve patient care and outcomes is still a work in progress. The focus is on using data to make better decisions and achieve better patient outcomes.
The Role of Product Management in Healthcare Integration
In the coming years, the healthcare system will focus on interoperability and seamless integration of new technologies and processes, with collaboration between organizations being crucial. Product management will play a critical role in understanding the challenges faced by healthcare organizations and identifying technological solutions to address them. By working closely with customers, partners, and internal teams, product managers can drive innovation and develop solutions that improve healthcare delivery and experience.
Entering a new industry with fresh perspectives allows product managers to ask better questions and listen more effectively to users and potential buyers. Instead of seeking affirmation for preconceived answers, focusing on genuinely understanding the customers’ needs helps in identifying the right problems to solve, ultimately leading to better solutions.
At Point Click Care, which holds a leadership position in long-term post-acute care with a 70% market share, the focus is on being the engine that helps customers and future customers thrive in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape.
Point Click Care recognizes that healthcare is not limited to a physical location and seeks to connect senior care customers to the broader healthcare ecosystem, ensuring a seamless journey for patients from emergency departments to rehab centers, senior living facilities, and beyond.
BJ adds:
Healthcare is centered around individuals; it was vital for us to integrate our senior care customers into the larger healthcare ecosystem.
How to Reduce Silos and Unnecessary Work in Health Tech Systems
The primary goal is to provide the best possible care and achieve the highest outcomes for patients, while ensuring healthcare providers get paid for their services. As healthcare becomes increasingly complex, especially with value-based care models and multiple stakeholders, it is important to identify and remove friction points in the processes.
One example is streamlining the flow of information between hospitals and long-term care facilities to avoid medication errors and readmissions.
By leveraging technology and adopting electronic data transfer, Point Click Care successfully eliminated double documentation and significantly improved the accuracy and efficiency of the process, demonstrating the critical role of product management in healthcare innovation.
Regarding effective approaches, healthcare teams can focus on the following key aspects:
Meaningful Transitions
Improve data flow and validation during patient transfers from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities
Medication Reconciliation
Nurses and admissions coordinators should perform real-time medication reconciliation to reduce readmissions.
Focus on Impact
Product leaders should prioritize making a meaningful impact and measuring it rather than just completing tasks.
Translating Strategy
Understand the art and science of product management to convert solution strategies into tangible actions.
Adapting to Organizational Growth
Recognize that methods used at lower levels may not be as effective as one moves up in the organization.
Aligning Team Mindsets
Communicate the right mindset to different teams with varying goals, using appropriate frameworks and processes.
Enhancing Transparency in Post-Care Facilities Feedback
We have to grasp the personas, roles, and titles of those involved to help create a better connection to their workflow processes. First-hand experiences, such as shadowing staff or observing daily routines, reveal the importance of these interactions in real-life situations.
According to Mr. Boyle:
Engaging with our customers, partners, and end-users is essential for understanding the personas, roles, and titles of our target audience, particularly in healthcare and health tech product management.
For instance, witnessing a medication nurse being frequently interrupted while administering medications highlights the need for better solutions. Early career experiences with point-of-care kiosks in skilled nursing facilities emphasize the importance of efficiency and user experience. Observing and learning from these situations helps improve health tech products and the overall user experience.
Summary
As product management continues to evolve alongside the rapid advancements in technology, there are still untapped opportunities awaiting exploration. To ensure ongoing progress and success, product managers must remain mindful of key considerations and best practices in their field.
Here are the key take homes:
Utilizing electronic health records and digital systems data can enhance patient care and outcomes but requires further development.
Product management is crucial for healthcare integration, driving innovation, and creating solutions that address challenges faced by healthcare organizations.
Streamlining information flow between healthcare providers and adopting electronic data transfer can reduce silos and improve efficiency.
Engaging with customers, partners, and end-users helps understand target audience personas, roles, and titles, enhancing transparency in post-care facilities feedback.
Observing real-life situations helps improve health tech products and user experiences by understanding users’ needs and experiences.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
During this episode of our Careminds podcast, we discuss the complexities of product management and go-to-market strategies with our guest, Donna Cichani. Donna has a background in product management, A/B testing, and data analysis, and has worked with notable organizations such as Johns Hopkins Medicine, KPMG US, and JP Morgan. Currently, she is the lead product manager at Heal.
Our conversation with Donna covers topics like data analysis and strategic product planning, the differing mindsets between 0 to 1 and one to end product development, and methods to increase user engagement and product optimization. Drawing from her diverse experience in industries like healthcare, technology, banking, and finance, Donna shares her thoughts on the importance of strategic planning in product management.
Defining Success Criteria for Product Stages
When determining the success of a product, you consider both the user perspective and the business perspective. Using the example of an RPM solution called Pulse, designed for chronic disease management at Heal, we can explore the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that matter most.
Firstly, there are patient-centric KPIs that focus on adoption and usage. Monitoring how often users engage with the solution to record their vitals and biometrics is crucial. The main goal is to encourage patients to stay proactive in managing their chronic conditions by using the solution more frequently.
User centricity is key, focusing on how you are improving life and the experience for the end user.
Secondly, clinical outcomes are also important. By tracking improvements in specific health measures, such as A1C levels for diabetic patients or maintaining healthy blood pressure ranges for hypertensive patients, we can gauge the effectiveness of the solution in promoting better health.
Also, business KPIs, such as attribution, play a significant role. For the RPM solution, it is important to know what percentage of patients using the solution are attributed to Heal for their primary care doctors.
Defining the best approach for optimizing a product depends on the specific product and its maturity curve. Take, for example, the RPM solution mentioned earlier. The primary goal of any RPM solution is to encourage users to engage with it consistently and measure their biometrics routinely.
At one point, the team behind the RPM solution considered expanding its features to include medication refill reminders, envisioning a more comprehensive ecosystem for patient monitoring. However, they quickly recognized the importance of perfecting their core RPM capabilities before adding secondary features. By maintaining focus on their core competency, they ensured they wouldn’t dilute the solution’s main purpose.
Optimization often involves considering the user experience, especially when it comes to healthcare solutions. In the case of the RPM solution, refining its core features contributed significantly to increased patient engagement. This example highlights the importance of prioritizing the optimization of a product’s primary functions before expanding its scope.
When to Focus on New Features or Enhancements in Product Development
You should invest heavily in user research as it’s crucial for driving customer adoption and engagement. During the discovery phase, our team spent considerable time observing patients in their natural environments, using existing products like glucometers, and capturing their day-to-day experiences. This research also included understanding how nurses, doctors, and other providers utilized data points during home visits.
By conducting ethnography studies, user research, and interviews, we were able to identify key pain points, which we then translated into enhancements and feature opportunities to drive engagement. To ensure customer adoption, it’s essential to focus on understanding users’ pain points, observe their interactions with your product or similar products, and avoid relying solely on secondary sources or high-level questions.
I don’t think that user research for usability testing ends during the discovery phase.
It’s important to note that user research and usability testing don’t end during the discovery phase. After creating our first prototype, we went through two additional rounds of usability testing to validate our assumptions, identify any flaws in our user flow, and refine the solution iteratively. This process continued up until the launch of the minimum viable product (MVP).
The ability of product managers to remain detached from their original plans, even after investing significant time and effort, is fascinating. When real data no longer supports the initial plan, it’s crucial to let it go, find a new direction, and create a better product that serves users more effectively. This adaptability is an essential aspect of successful product management.
Effective Optimization Techniques & The Best Ways to Apply Them
Optimization techniques focus on understanding existing processes, examining them through the lens of various stakeholders involved in the end-to-end flow, and identifying opportunities for efficiencies. For instance, by analyzing a process that takes 10 days and involves five stakeholders, you can uncover ways to reduce the number of stakeholders or the time each takes to complete their part.
Process mapping, a technique that visually represents the steps involved in a process, helps identify bottlenecks, redundancies, and areas for improvement. A/B testing is another valuable technique, where two different versions of a feature or product are tested with the target audience to determine which performs better.
In my experience, one of the keys to successful optimization is to involve the entire team in the process.
Involving the entire team, including product, engineering, design, sales, and marketing, leads to a more holistic view of challenges and opportunities, ultimately driving better optimization decisions. Keeping the end user in mind is crucial, as the goal is to enhance their experience.
It’s important to acknowledge that the rapid growth of product management as a career has led to a mix of undisputed go-to practices and those still being defined through trial and error. Sharing experiences and learning from others in the community can help navigate this evolving field and contribute to its development.
What Drives a Product Manager: The Exciting Facets of a PM’s Career
Effective management in product management involves three key aspects. First, tailor your approach to the needs of each individual on your team, recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Second, invest in the long-term career growth of your team members, extending beyond the scope of your organization, by providing mentorship and opportunities for personal and professional development.
The third aspect involves being able to oversee the work of your team without micromanaging, while still being prepared to jump in and help when necessary. Balancing trust and autonomy with support is essential for successful management.
It’s an exciting time for all the PMs because we are focusing on doing good and building impactful products and services that can make people’s lives better.
In terms of current excitement in the field, AI and machine learning are opening many doors in product management. There’s a rewarding shift in focus in both healthcare and fintech industries. In fintech, increased emphasis on financial literacy and access to banking products for the unbanked population is driving positive change. Meanwhile, healthcare is moving towards value-based care, focusing on preventative measures and overall population health, which reduces costs and the burden on the healthcare system. This is an exciting time for product managers as they work on building impactful products and services that improve people’s lives.
As product managers continue to navigate this rapidly evolving field, learning from industry experts like Donna and sharing experiences within the community will be invaluable in driving growth and creating impactful products that make a difference in people’s lives. Key takeaways from our conversation include:
Defining success criteria for product stages: It’s crucial to consider both user and business perspectives when determining the success of a product.
Focusing on core competencies in optimization: Prioritize optimizing a product’s primary functions before expanding its scope or adding new features.
Conducting user research and embracing adaptability: Engage in user research, usability testing, and iterate on your product based on data and feedback, and remain open to change when necessary.
Effective management and exciting developments in the field: Tailor your approach to individual team members, invest in their long-term career growth, and maintain a balance between autonomy and support. Embrace the exciting opportunities in AI, machine learning, and the shifting focus of various industries.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
In our CareMinds series, we’re all about showcasing the many paths to success in health tech product development. Today, we have the pleasure of sharing Laura Furman’s unique story. Laura, currently a senior product manager at Oura, kicked off her leadership journey with Students Agencies.
Laura opens up about her everyday work. She emphasizes the importance of AI and machine learning tools in her role, particularly during the product discovery phase, contributing significantly to the product’s development.
We hope you find Laura’s story as captivating as we did. Happy reading!
Is Product Development a Bold Claim or a Logical Step?
“The student agency’s experience is something that keeps coming back and keeps coming up as something that was really unique and an interesting foundation.”
Laura Furman – Senior Product Manager at Oura
Conventional wisdom may suggest that early experiences become less relevant as a professional journey progresses. However, Laura finds that her involvement with Student Agencies continually resurfaces as an integral part of her career. Student Agencies is a non-profit educational institution that provided Laura with first-hand business management experience during her college years. It comprised several diverse, student-run businesses, offering services from real estate property management to tutoring, marketing, and even a full-service moving company.
In this unique setting, Laura served as the general manager of one business for a year before stepping up to become the corporation’s president. Although not directly related to product management, this entrepreneurial experience provided Laura with an invaluable perspective on running a business from top to bottom, including direct customer interaction and budgeting.
In her role as president of Student Agencies, she created the first CTO role, utilizing the skills of the engineering students to enhance business performance. Despite the annual turnover inherent to the student-run structure, Laura credits an experienced CEO’s guidance for the continuity of the businesses. This end-to-end entrepreneurship experience, she believes, is a great asset for anyone entering product management, as it provides a comprehensive understanding of business strategy.
Transitioning to Product Management: A Personal Account
“I think a lot of people when they’re transitioning have a hard time, sort of filling the gap between where they are now and the skills they need to have as a product manager.”
Laura Furman – Senior Product Manager at Oura
Laura embarked on her career journey with uncertainty, opting for the retail industry as her starting point. She joined Gap’s management rotational program, and was tasked with e-commerce merchandising. Her role entailed strategizing the customer experience on Gap’s website, from product discovery to checkout.
As she delved deeper into her role, Laura identified a problem within one of the categories she was managing. This challenge provided an opportunity for her to explore business analytics extensively. She carefully examined every SKU, tracked trends across the assortment, and used this data to analyze the state of the business.
The most significant shift in her career occurred when she led a design sprint to rectify the problem in her managed category. This experience lit up her path towards product management, leading her to investigate job descriptions and key skills required for a product manager role. With several skills already under her belt and a drive to fill the gaps in her resume through projects and side assignments, she was ready to transition into product management.
The Evolving Role of a Product Manager
“My belief is we will produce the best ideas if we collaborate, I don’t think the PM should be coming up with all the solutions themselves, the solution should arise out of collaboration with the team”
Laura Furman – Senior Product Manager at Oura
The core of a product manager’s role is being the voice of the customer. It’s about understanding their needs, not just through face-to-face discussions but also through data analysis. As you step into it, remember that it’s not only about the customer’s desires, but also about striking the right balance with the business’s expectations.
When you craft your strategy, your ability to bring people onboard will be invaluable. Drawing from Laura’s experiences and skills in debate and negotiation, you’ll find that seeing multiple perspectives and effectively persuading others to join your journey can be a game changer. Additionally, remember that growing to be a product manager involves constant learning and iteration. You’d have to negate lengthy product road maps and promote a culture of continual testing and analysis.
Tools and Resources for Aspiring Product Managers
Taking the reins on your professional growth can be an empowering experience. One effective strategy to foster continuous learning is to dedicate each quarter to a specific focus area. This could start with understanding data analytics, mastering SQL, and becoming adept with tools such as Google BigQuery and Looker. This disciplined approach provides an opportunity to delve deeper into each field, enhancing your overall skillset.
Secondly, the value of mentorship in your journey cannot be overstated. A supportive and knowledgeable mentor can accelerate your growth, guide you through uncharted territory, and provide you with essential industry insights. Building connections within your organization is a beneficial way to learn from others and gain diverse perspectives.
Lastly, don’t let the fear of appearing unknowledgeable hold you back from asking questions. It’s a common misconception that asking basic questions exposes a lack of knowledge. In reality, it often leads to constructive conversations and enhances understanding. It’s essential to comprehend the bigger picture, particularly in understanding the system architecture. Spending time with engineers to grasp how different components of the system interconnect can provide invaluable insights. This broader understanding will be key in interpreting project estimates accurately.
How AI and Machine Learning Are Impacting Product Development
“The AI and machine learning tools that you use in your day to day…it provides an uncanny ability to tap into a problem, a domain that you don’t necessarily know a lot about. And it could quickly kind of guide you towards some potential solutions that could be applied to a certain identified problem if you don’t have a deep enough context to it.”
Laura Furman – Senior Product Manager at Oura
Mercari, a popular Japanese peer-to-peer marketplace akin to eBay, has an intriguing blend of challenges and experiences. The platform accommodates a broad array of categories, including clothing, technology, home goods, and handmade crafts. With this vast spectrum of products, one interesting challenge is managing User Generated Content (UGC). The diversity in UGC listings and searches can lead to discrepancies and inconsistencies due to differences in syntax, which in turn could reduce the visibility of items in search results, thereby affecting sales.
One notable project tackled at Mercari was enhancing the search and listing experience based on the brand and category of an item. The goal was to pre-populate custom attribute fields specific to the item type being listed. For instance, if a user is listing an iPhone, they could specify the model and size, allowing potential buyers to filter down their searches effectively. This approach was particularly useful in more subjective categories like clothing, where the search could be as specific as ‘straight leg jeans.’
To add another layer of sophistication, machine learning was brought into the mix. This technology helped predict necessary custom attribute fields based on the brand and category. It also fed these attributes into Mercari’s search taxonomy to optimize search results. Towards the end, the project began to utilize computer vision to guess the category and subcategory of clothing based on the photo. While this presented new challenges due to the variety of user-submitted photos, it also offered a fascinating direction for further enhancing user experience on the platform.
Sure AI and ML Complement Product Development, But How Can Managers Put Them to Effective Use?
First, from a day-to-day operational perspective, AI could serve as a sounding board, albeit it may not replace the nuanced understanding and context that comes from someone deeply familiar with the product. The idea here is that AI tools might not fully grasp the complexity of the product and its dynamics like a human member of the team who is immersed in the project.
The second application is more exciting: using AI tools to create prototypes. This could be especially beneficial for non-technical PMs who don’t have coding skills. They could potentially leverage AI to write code and thus develop prototypes, enhancing their ability to demonstrate their ideas beyond mere words. While there’s skepticism that AI could generate a feature-ready piece of code given the uniqueness and standards of any given codebase, using AI to create initial prototypes could be an innovative approach that empowers PMs to delve more into the technical side.
It is also believed that AI could streamline the process of creating a prototype, saving valuable time. This makes AI an attractive tool in the product management space, not just for its potential to enhance the overall workflow, but also to empower product managers with new capabilities.
From Novelty to Necessity: Does a Fresh Perspective Matter When Companies Hire?
Laura’s journey to AA three years prior was primarily driven by a long-standing personal passion for health and wellness. After reading “Why We Sleep” by Matt Walker, she developed an interest in the importance of sleep for mental performance and overall wellbeing. Tracking sleep with an “Oura” ring and studying the data became an obsession, eventually leading her to a position within the company. Her shared vision with the company’s CEO, who viewed sleep as the foundational pillar of health much like personal training, created a strong connection.
Her career transition strategy involved balancing industry experience and role skills as two vital variables. Initially, she drew upon her retail industry experience while developing necessary product skills. In the next move to AA, she utilized these newly acquired skills despite not having prior industry experience. Laura believed that possessing either industry experience or role-specific skills could facilitate a successful transition.
Laura’s perspective emphasizes seeing personal strengths as valuable contributions to her role and not being discouraged by perceived shortcomings. This outlook, particularly essential in product management, is about leveraging unique experiences and skills to meet new challenges in different industries. She also understands the importance of this mindset in successfully navigating work within a remote team, such as the Finnish-based company AA.
Understanding and Improving Predictable Delivery
Working across different time zones and geographies is challenging. While Laura has experience in this from her time at Merri, dealing with a 10-hour time difference at her current company has brought new challenges. She has realized the importance of well-prepared and efficient meetings, especially given that her early morning is the end of the workday for her colleagues in Finland. A critical success factor in such settings is robust asynchronous communication, making sure everyone is fully prepared and discussions are fruitful. In addition, they have implemented a system of reviewing and improving their workflow at the end of every cycle, accepting the reality of time differences but striving to make it better with each iteration.
One key learning Laura shared is the downside of over-relying on Slack for communication. It can create confusion, lead to critical information being missed, and ultimately decrease overall happiness within the team. Instead, they have focused on making communication more structured and traceable, using tools like Sigma, Jira, and Confluence to comment directly on project documents, ensuring a clear source of truth. If there is an excessive use of Slack, it’s often a sign that the project is experiencing chaos and needs attention.
When it comes to product improvement, Laura’s approach is guided by lessons from her mentor from Google. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) should be ambitious, and achieving 70% of an OKR is a commendable feat. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used more at the feature level, measuring specific outcomes. She emphasizes the importance of treating the development of a feature as a hypothesis – if they do X, they should see Y outcome in the data. This approach then allows them to review and learn from the outcome, guiding the development of future features.
Here are the most important points from our conversation with Laura Furman:
Early experiences matter
Laura’s involvement with Student Agencies during her college years, a non-profit educational institution that provided first-hand business management experience, played a crucial role in shaping her professional journey.
Transitioning is possible with the right skills and drive
Despite starting in a seemingly unrelated field (retail industry), Laura managed to transition to product management by building on the skills she had and bridging gaps through projects and side assignments.
Adaptability and continual learning are key in product management
The product manager’s role is not stagnant; it evolves with customer needs and business expectations. It also involves continuous learning, testing, and analyzing to stay ahead.
AI and ML are powerful tools in product development
These technologies not only assist in operational efficiency but also empower product managers, especially those with limited technical skills, to visualize and prototype their ideas.
Personal strengths and unique perspectives are valuable asset
Even if you lack industry experience, personal strengths, skills, and a fresh perspective can be instrumental in succeeding in new roles and different industries.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
In this episode, we had a chat with Rany El Diwany, who’s the Director, Product Management at Athena Health, about handling payments from patients and dealing with insurance issues.
Rany told us about how problem-solving and managing products are related. He also talked about the usual hurdles he comes across in his job managing products.
The article below presents a summary of our conversation.
Companies’ Endless Pursuit of Solutions without Problem Clarity
In product management, the focus is not solely on building software but rather on solving business problems. As a product manager, your role is to lead a team in understanding and addressing these key problems. One effective approach is to explain the problem in a simplified manner, ensuring everyone involved shares a common understanding of the issue.
“Always start by making sure you have a full understanding of the problem before even getting to the very first solution that you want to think through.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
However, it is crucial to remember that before jumping into solutions, you must thoroughly understand the problem. Take a step back and examine the problem from different angles, exploring its nuances and complexities. This is where the double diamond principle comes into play.
Exploring the Double Diamond Principle
The double diamond principle is a framework that consists of two diamonds, each representing a specific phase: discovery and definition.
The first diamond, the discovery phase, involves gathering a wide range of qualitative and quantitative information. You’ll want to collect customer feedback, stay informed about industry trends, and analyze relevant data. This phase aims to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the problem space.
During the discovery phase, patterns and recurring themes will emerge from the gathered information. These indications of convergence signal that you are getting closer to identifying the core aspects of the problem. It’s important to pay attention to these signals as they will guide your next steps.
Convergence leads you into the second diamond, the definition phase. At this point, you organize the collected information into different work streams, horizons, or categories. With a clearer picture of the problem, you can begin prioritizing the identified areas. Prioritization is especially critical in complex domains like healthcare, where limited resources must be allocated effectively.
Once you’ve prioritized the areas, you transition from the discovery phase to the definition phase. You select the highest priority item for further analysis and solution development during this stage. While other areas are temporarily set aside, they remain in your peripheral vision for future consideration.
“If you haven’t aligned with what you’re trying to solve and agreed on what the definition of success is to start, you’re certainly gonna arrive at an end state where not everyone is happy.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
Mr. Diwany understands the significance of grasping and aligning with the problem at hand. He believes that measuring success and achieving alignment among team members heavily relies on a solid understanding of the problem being solved. Moving forward as a cohesive unit is challenging without a shared comprehension of the problem and its definition.
At Athena, Rany‘s preferred method for building alignment is by utilizing pitch decks. These decks serve as comprehensive presentations that outline the why, how, and overall plan for addressing a specific problem. They provide a foundation for sharing information and conducting readouts with stakeholders, including leadership, customers, and partners.
In Mr. Diwany‘s view, alignment is not a one-time event but an ongoing effort throughout the product development journey. Regular check-ins, discussions, and feedback loops are essential to maintaining alignment and adjusting the course if needed. By continuously revisiting and refining the understanding of the problem, the product team can stay on track and adapt as necessary to ensure that their solutions effectively address the needs of the business and its stakeholders.
By thoroughly understanding the problem space before diving into solutions, you establish a solid foundation for your work as a product manager. This approach allows for a more focused and effective product development process. You can confidently explore solutions, knowing that you clearly understand the problem you’re trying to solve. This ultimately increases your chances of developing a successful product that addresses the needs of your customers and your business.
Strategies for Analyzing and Understanding Complex Problems
From Mr. Diwany‘s perspective, objectivity is a key principle when making decisions. Emotions should not drive choices; rather, data should be the guiding force. To achieve this, asking the right questions and gathering qualitative and quantitative data is crucial.
Identifying the broad categories of the problem is only the initial step. Delving deeper and analyzing the underlying layers is equally important. This can be achieved by utilizing well-known practices such as the “five whys” technique, which helps uncover the root causes and significance of the problem. Product managers can gain a clearer perspective by breaking down complex issues into simpler components and developing an intimate understanding of the problem’s intricacies.
Effective communication is paramount throughout this process. As a product manager, you are responsible for conveying the problem to various stakeholders, including customers, leaders, and team members such as engineers and UX professionals. The goal is to ensure everyone involved shares a common understanding of the problem. Any misalignment in problem perception can lead to challenges and hinder efforts to solve the problem effectively.
Product managers should actively evangelize their comprehension of the problem space to promote a shared understanding. Even in their absence, others discussing the initiatives should be able to explain them consistently and accurately. Ron emphasizes the importance of maintaining a shared language and perception, as it ensures everyone is on the same page and facilitates effective collaboration in solving the problem.
How to Unravel Bias and Build Effective Roadmaps
“Your roadmap should be problem-focused and not solution-focused, especially because you don’t know what you’re going to learn between now and something that you might have queued up.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
Maintaining a problem-focused approach is crucial once the discovery and definition phases are complete and pitch decks and roadmaps are being developed. Ron believes that roadmaps should revolve around the problems that need to be addressed rather than being fixated on specific solutions. This is because, throughout product development, new learnings and insights may emerge, potentially rendering previously planned solutions obsolete.
While it is possible to anticipate future problem areas and prioritize them in the roadmap, the exact solutions may not be known at that stage. As the work progresses and solutions are developed, Mr. Diwany emphasizes the importance of measuring their impact and assessing if they effectively address the critical aspects of the initiative. Defining appropriate metrics to validate the impact and success of the solutions becomes crucial in this context.
“Human bias is there, and it’s easy to get attached to a solution… you need to remove that layer of emotion from the equation and be confident in the metrics that tell a successful story.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
Rany believes that within the realm of product management, it is essential to constantly remind oneself about human bias. It’s natural to become attached to a particular solution and emotionally invested in its success. However, he emphasizes the need to remove emotion from the equation and instead focus on finding the right metrics to gauge success. If a solution fails to yield the desired results, it becomes necessary to pivot and adjust based on data-driven insights.
Similarly, Rany notes that while the agile framework is valuable, it is not a rigid recipe but rather a flexible framework that should be adapted to suit the unique needs of each project. These challenges highlight the complexities inherent in product management. He believes that by recognizing these challenges and remaining open to continuous learning and adaptation, product managers can navigate the dynamic landscape of their role and strive for success.
What Are the Main Drivers of Lack of Transparency Costs in Healthcare?
One of the significant challenges in the healthcare industry revolves around understanding how different insurance companies handle various scenarios. Mr. Diwany acknowledges that each insurance provider has its policies and rules, which adds complexity to building software solutions based on logical patterns. The diverse approaches required by different insurance companies make it difficult to achieve consistency. To tackle this issue, Ron emphasizes the importance of promoting transparency, especially for patients who often have limited visibility into the internal workings of healthcare.
“We want to get to the point where we have transparency… helping patients understand what costs may occur before they actually see the provider.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
Transparency is pivotal in helping patients understand and appreciate the information typically hidden from them. It involves providing patients with upfront cost information, enabling them to make informed decisions. Ron notes that healthcare’s lack of cost visibility sets it apart from other aspects of the US economy, where prices are known before purchasing a product or service. Building trust through transparency becomes crucial, as even professionals within the healthcare industry may have doubts about their healthcare bills.
Trust can be fostered by being clear and upfront with patients about the potential costs associated with their medical encounters. Establishing transparency and trust creates an environment where some of the challenges faced by healthcare practices can be addressed. Overcoming these barriers and transitioning to a system where patients are willing to make payments or down payments for services rendered requires a significant journey.
While progress and efforts are being made to establish transparency and trust, Rany acknowledges there is still a long way to go.
Mr. Diwany explains that several functional aspects are being improved within the focus area of cost transparency.
One of these areas is insurance selection, which can be challenging due to the many insurance companies and the wide variety of insurance packages. Accurately identifying the appropriate insurance for each patient is crucial to ensure successful claims submission and payment.
Patient eligibility is another key component of cost transparency, involving understanding copayments, coinsurance, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits. Having this information is essential for estimating costs accurately.
In addition to cost transparency, Rany emphasizes the importance of enhancing payment options. This includes exploring various methods such as digital wallets and platforms like PayPal and introducing automated payment plans. Offering flexible payment options is particularly important for patients facing financial difficulties, allowing them to pay outstanding bills over time without significant financial strain.
Opportunities and Qualities for Success in HealthTech Companies
As a PM, you’ll collaborate with diverse teams, including developers, user experience experts, analysts, customers, and leadership.
The success of a product hinges on aligning all stakeholders toward solving the identified priority problem and achieving the desired metrics. Building strong relationships and working collaboratively with people from various backgrounds and roles are crucial skills for a PM.
At Athena, the company values respect and intelligence, regardless of cultural, ethnic, or sexual orientation differences. Therefore, having strong communication skills and the ability to work with diverse groups of people are vital in this role.
“Being a PM and then being a PM in the enterprise B2B space and healthcare, there’s definitely some additional work that goes into play. And it’s hard; it’s a hard job, but it’s rewarding.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
Rany highlights that introducing the healthcare dimension adds complexity to the PM role. Unlike the focus in some PM literature, which is often business-to-consumer (B2C), healthcare often involves business-to-business (B2B) interactions. PMs with experience in B2C and enterprise B2B environments understand the thoughtful coordination required when planning, building, and developing solutions.
Athena Health serves a significant number of healthcare providers, and any changes made to their workflows can substantially impact their business operations. Coordinating deployments and providing thorough training and insights to customers is critical to minimizing disruptions and ensuring smooth transitions. Being a PM in the enterprise B2B space within healthcare demands diligent efforts to ensure that solutions enhance workflows rather than hinder them.
While being a PM, particularly in the healthcare industry, comes with challenges, Ron also emphasizes the rewarding aspects of the role. Being a PM in the healthcare industry requires unique skills and a deep understanding of the importance of effective communication and collaboration in driving successful product development.
As a product manager at Athena, Rany is invested in driving company initiatives promoting healthcare transparency. He believes leveraging technology, data, and collaboration can make significant progress in this area. Athena is about creating a system where patients have full visibility, enabling them to make informed decisions and engage in proactive planning.
You Can Foster Psychological Safety With These Two Essentials
Psychological safety is crucial for effective teamwork and innovation. Creating an environment where everyone feels safe to contribute ideas, whether good or bad, fosters creativity and innovation. Mutual respect is key. Rather than an “us versus them” mentality, the focus should be on solving problems collectively.
“One of the most important things is psychological safety, right? No one is bringing a bad idea to the table.”
Rany El Diwany – Director of Product Management at Athena Health
Building motivated and cohesive teams that enjoy working together and are enthusiastic about tackling challenges is essential. Encouraging open dialogue, valuing diverse perspectives, and creating a culture of psychological safety lay the foundation for successful problem-solving and driving innovation within the team.
Which Future Changes Should We Expect in Consumer Cost Management?
When it comes to healthcare practices, understanding and navigating costs can be complex. Practices have contracted rates with payers, but these contracts often involve intricate stipulations. For example, different charges may have different reimbursement percentages, or certain charges may not be reimbursed at all.
Helping practices gain a clear and simplified understanding of the contracted rates in various scenarios is a crucial first step. Currently, efforts are underway to provide practices with easier access to published information from payers.
While Medicare and Medicaid present additional complexities, simplifying the process for practice users to have transparent insights into contractual rates is considered a critical foundational milestone. This step will assist practices in managing costs more effectively and making informed decisions that will sustain them in the future.
Below are three major takeaways from our chat with Mr. Diwany:
Thoroughly understand the problem before diving into solutions: Product managers must invest time in understanding the problem space from different angles before developing solutions.
Transparency and cost management in healthcare: Cost transparency benefits patients and healthcare practices, leading to better financial experiences and streamlined operations.
Psychological safety for effective teamwork and innovation: Creating an environment of psychological safety, encouraging open dialogue, valuing diverse perspectives, and fostering collaboration are essential elements of effective teamwork.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
Welcome to our podcast! Today, we chat with Tamara Snow, who went from working on cancer research clinical trials to being a Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health. We’ll talk about how she moved into product management and how she helps big pharma companies.
Tamara’s wide range of experiences gives her a special viewpoint on these areas, showing us the nitty-gritty of the pharmtech and business worlds.
This article concisely captures key points from our lively dialogue.
A Career Path from Clinical Trials to Leading Pharma Product Management
Tamara has spent over ten years in the healthcare industry, making transitions as she encountered new problems and challenges. Initially, she aspired to be a doctor, gaining exposure to patient care and clinical work as an EMT and clinical research coordinator. She discovered her passion for solving operational and strategic challenges in healthcare environments. One area that surprised her was the manual and expensive nature of clinical trials despite being crucial for innovation in drug development.
After graduating, Tamara pursued a career in life sciences consulting to better understand the economics and strategy behind drug development. During this time, she learned about Flatiron Health, a company working on data sets to streamline decision-making in cancer research. Intrigued by the mission and vision of making clinical trials more efficient, she joined the company in 2017 in a partnership role. While she gained valuable sales and negotiation skills, she felt it took her away from solving the operational and strategic challenges she was passionate about.
“I definitely think the product hat is the one I love the most, and I will definitely continue wanting to play that role in the future.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
Recognizing that the product management role aligned with the problems she wanted to solve, Tamara pivoted to become a product manager at Flatiron Health. She initially focused on scaling one of their real-world data products linked to external genomic data for precision medicine. Seeing the impact of these data products on customers’ clinical and drug development decision-making was rewarding. However, a recurring issue was customers lacked the internal resources and skills to analyze the data products effectively.
In response to this need, Tamara seized the opportunity to expand her scope and build a team to develop dashboards and analytic tools on top of the data products, providing customers with valuable insights. Building and managing this new team has brought fresh challenges, focusing on the user interface and delivering insights alongside the underlying data.
After spending several years in the healthcare industry, Tamara firmly believes that the product management role is the one she loves the most and intends to continue playing in the future. She finds joy in solving operational and strategic challenges and appreciates the ever-changing nature of product management.
The Key Tips for a Successful Transition in Pharma Industry
According to Tamara, there are various ways for individuals to transition into a product role. While it may not be the standard path, she personally achieved it through an internal transfer, a route she has observed others taking as well. Successful internal transfers have come from diverse backgrounds, including business (such as sales and finance) and technical roles (like engineering and data science).
Some major tips for a successful transition into the pharma industry include
Identify a product role or team that aligns with one’s existing skill set.
Seek advice from experienced PMs.
Volunteer for challenging tasks, network, and ask the right questions.
Identifying a product role or team that aligns with one’s existing skill set.
“I also just took the time to teach myself things like Python and just took the liberty to dig into Flatiron and the products on my own and was able to demonstrate my ability to learn a new skill set and willingness to do it.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
Tamara believes the key to a successful transition is identifying a product role or team that aligns with one’s existing skill set. This reduces the risk for the company when transferring an employee to a new function. In her case, coming from a sales and partnerships role, joining an external-facing product team made the most sense. It required a strong understanding of the company’s customers, products, and business model.
However, she also recognized her lack of technical skills, so she took the initiative to teach herself Python and familiarize herself with the company’s products. By demonstrating her willingness to learn and bridging the gap in her skill set, she differentiated herself from others and showcased her abilities.
Tamara acknowledges that there is no perfect science to this transition process. She advises aspiring product managers to seek advice from experienced PMs in roles they are interested in or individuals who have gone through a similar career evolution. Learning from their experiences and strategies can be valuable.
When reaching out to PMs for guidance, Tamara recommends avoiding cold outreach and instead making warm introductions. Personalizing the outreach and offering something in return, such as industry insights or skills, can increase the likelihood of PMs wanting to assist and provide advice.
Volunteer for challenging tasks, network, and ask the right questions.
Tamara appreciates the emphasis on volunteering for challenging tasks, networking, and asking the right questions. These qualities are often associated with successful product managers. She also highlights the importance of building strong relationships and trust with customers, as it facilitates sharing information and understanding their needs. Asking open-ended questions during user research helps uncover the root of the problem and avoid biases. Active listening and focusing on important insights gathered from responses are vital in solving the core problem.
Strategies for Streamlining the Process in Challenging Circumstances
According to Tamara, when it comes to their customers, particularly in the context of a complex linked clinical plus genomic data set, clear training and documentation are crucial for understanding and interrogating the data. It is important to give customers a well-defined understanding of the data product. Additionally, having a robust process for addressing customer questions and resolving issues promptly is essential.
Tamara suggests recognizing when a customer’s question requires more in-depth support, such as scheduling a call and screen sharing to collaboratively work through the problem. The goal is to unblock customers and enable them to conduct effective research using the data product.
“I think having really strong customer support and customer guidance is definitely core.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
Tamara emphasizes the significance of strong customer support and guidance. Providing examples of how others have utilized the data product to answer similar questions, whether through publications or key studies, can be immensely helpful. Sharing these use cases with customers helps them see the practical applications and possibilities of the data product.
The Journey to Becoming a Successful Product Manager
“In those first few months, really build strong trust with your core stakeholders and take the time to have them explain to you how they operate and what their pain points are.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
According to Tamara, being a product manager (PM) involves constant learning and encountering new challenges. Embracing this aspect is part of the fun of being a PM. One important advice Tamara offers to new PMs is to build strong trust with core stakeholders in the first few months.
Understanding their operations and pain points allows the PM to identify tasks they can take off their plate or collaborate on to achieve quick wins. Tamara shares an example of how she learned basic R programming to handle easy client requests, which relieved her data science stakeholders and allowed her to better understand customers and data products.
Tamara also recommends finding a committee of advisors early on, including mentors and other PMs within the organization. These advisors can help tackle issues, provide guidance, and offer insight into the new role and function. Celebrating both wins and failures is another crucial aspect highlighted by Tamara. Acknowledging accomplishments, no matter how small, is important, but it’s equally important to learn from failures and treat them as opportunities for growth.
In the discussion, Tamara mentions that PMs can positively redefine the concept of failure, transforming it into a learning experience and an opportunity for product improvement. This mindset shift can be particularly impactful in the health tech industry. Additionally, the importance of empathy in interactions with stakeholders is highlighted, emphasizing the need to understand their perspectives and needs.
“Regardless, I think there are a few key roles or tasks that I think the business will probably want regardless.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
According to Tamara, the role of a product manager (PM) can vary depending on various factors within a company. These factors include whether the product is internal or external-facing, the stage of the product (early concept or mature business line), and its significance to the company’s overall economics. However, a few key roles and tasks are generally expected from PMs.
Firstly, PMs are responsible for owning the vision and strategy of their product. They need to develop and articulate a compelling vision that justifies the company’s investment in the product. Additionally, PMs should create a strong roadmap aligned with the overall company strategy and vision.
Secondly, PMs act as the voice of the customers, both internally and externally. They must deeply understand the customers and advocate for their needs and insights during product development. PMs are crucial in making challenging product and resource tradeoff decisions, using customer insights to guide their choices.
Thirdly, stakeholder management and collaboration are essential for PMs. They must effectively work with various stakeholders, such as engineering and design teams, to build the product efficiently. In health tech, where a mix of experts like oncologists and clinicians collaborate with engineers, managing stakeholders and consolidating different perspectives into a cohesive vision is particularly important.
Challenging the Problem Space and Unveiling Opportunities to Drive Product Success
According to Tamara, when looking for new opportunities as a PM, it is crucial to engage with stakeholders. The first and most powerful stakeholders to approach are the customers. By actively listening to customers and understanding their needs and preferences, PMs can identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.
In addition to existing customers, expanding to new customers or segments requires consideration. Monitoring competitors’ product offerings and partnerships can reveal potential gaps to address. Staying up to date with industry trends can generate new ideas. Conducting lightweight market research and seeking time with target customers enables direct conversations and a deeper understanding of their requirements.
Tamara suggests clearly defining the problem and opportunity when rallying the team for the job. It is essential to motivate the team by presenting a compelling vision highlighting their work’s impact. Early and regular engagement with stakeholders, including engineers, is crucial to gaining their buy-in and involving them in shaping the project.
Leveraging Data Awareness to Address Pushback in Problem Solving
According to Tamara, data awareness refers to having a solid set of objective data that supports your argument and clearly defines the opportunity and problem space. While data is important, Tamara believes it only takes you so far.
It is crucial to drive the vision and demonstrate why your team is well-positioned to execute the solution. This involves explaining why the problem needs to be addressed now and highlighting the qualitative aspects of the opportunity, not just the numbers.
“Yeah, in my opinion, if there is a pushback, there is a level of interest.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
As challenges and opposition are expected, anticipating pushback and objections and preparing responses in advance is also important. Tamara emphasizes the need to go beyond a rosy picture and be transparent about the risks, assumptions, and potential challenges associated with the opportunity. You must acknowledge the unknowns and openly discuss the potential bumps along the road.
From her personal experience, Tamara has learned the value of transparency and managing expectations. She further opines that if the opportunity requires collaboration with other parties or forming partnerships, it’s essential to consider company fit and strategic alignment. The terms of the agreement should be carefully evaluated to ensure that collaboration makes sense for the envisioned opportunity.
Defining Product Management and Keeping Abreast of Current Trends in the Health Tech Industry
According to Tamara, staying on top of industry trends involves reading newsletters, participating in industry-specific conversations on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, attending conferences and speaking events, and networking with professionals in the industry. These activities help her stay informed and identify new opportunities.
“The role and the skill sets you need as a PM and how you would define that role, I think, definitely differ depending on where you really sit within the organization and what your product looks like.”
Tamara Snow – Director of Product Management at Flatiron Health
When it comes to defining product management, Tamara believes it is not a one-size-fits-all role. The responsibilities of a product manager depend on the specific needs of the product line. For external-facing products, the PM must be able to pitch, sell, understand customers, filter feedback, and guide and influence the team accordingly. For internal-facing products, the focus is identifying and prioritizing platforms that benefit the broader organization and gathering feedback from various teams.
Tamara emphasizes that a product manager’s role and required skill sets vary based on the position within the organization and the nature of the product. Adapting and shaping oneself based on the product’s needs is important. She mentions Bruce Lee’s quote about being like water, which can take any shape depending on the container. While martial arts and product management may not directly correlate, the idea of being adaptable and flexible resonates with the role of a product manager.
Tamara also notes that the role of a product manager evolves over time. As the product and business line mature, different skills and activities become relevant. The role of a product manager constantly changes, presenting new opportunities and challenges, which Tamara finds exciting.
Below are the major takeaways from our chat with Tamara:
Transitioning into Product Management: Tamara’s career journey from clinical trials to product management highlights the importance of identifying a product role that aligns with one’s existing skill set and passion for solving operational and strategic challenges.
Strategies for Success: Building strong relationships with stakeholders, actively listening to customers, and asking the right questions are crucial for successful product managers. Seeking advice from experienced PMs and making warm introductions can enhance networking opportunities.
Key Roles and Skills of Product Managers: The role of a product manager can vary depending on factors such as the product’s nature, stage, and significance to the company. However, PMs generally own the product vision and strategy, act as the voice of the customers, and collaborate with various stakeholders.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
Our new episode features Lindsay Dornfeld, MBA, Sr. Manager Veradigm – Bachelor’s in Rehabilitation Psychology, Masters in Business Administration, and she’s also a certified health information technology specialist. It’s hard to find a more appropriate education for what she’s doing now. Lindsay began her journey in medicine, working with children with autism. Even though her work is no longer directly related to patients, their happiness with the product is always at the forefront of her mind.
Lindsay Dornfeld’s Journey in Healthcare Management
One of her first jobs as a manager rather than a therapist was involved in leading platform migration training for end users for the climate education process. Here Dornfeld not only taught but also learned how to listen to users and try to consider their wishes and further improve the results.
When you know what you’re doing or why or how you are doing it, but to be able to explain it to someone else is a really invaluable skill.
In her next position, Lindsay is already managing program KPIs, better performance, patient progress metrics, and client portals: “Driving greater transparency starts with everyone agreeing that it’s okay to have roadblocks, it’s okay to refine the data if you’re working on project management, but you’re stuck in thinking it has to be a certain way.”
To account for KPIs, Lindsay uses the colors of a traffic light, where green means all is well, yellow means you may be at risk and red means you are already at risk (of deadlines, budgets, etc.) And green all year round doesn’t mean that by the end of the year, red won’t suddenly show up somewhere, so it’s better to use yellow as a safety net, and you don’t end up in the red zone. After all, always being on your guard is justified for work and your personal life.
Lindsay stresses the importance of communicating with end users to clearly understand their work: “If I’m talking to someone in a nursing home, I might want to speak to a charge nurse. I wasn’t even aware of that detail that would impact her workflow, so looking for that strategic partner and getting the whole team’s buy-in and responsiveness will be beneficial for the whole team needed.”
If you say: “I need this signature by the end of the month because it is 2-5 million dollars,” and it’s critical to the success of our product, that’s a little bit easier to say: “I need this now, I need this right now” all the time.
If I can’t explain why it’s important and urgent, then it probably is something that can wait until tomorrow.
Lindsay shared how she selects people for her team, what a stopgap is, and why. She also shared her vision for her role: “My team is smarter than me. So I’m here as a manager and a leader to break down those barriers for them to get the roadblocks out of the way so that they can come through and do their job, and they do it the best.”
Our guest also explained why she considers NPS (not profit or margin) the main indicator of success. You can’t think you’re doing well if people don’t recommend your product to people they know.
I want to be able to make a doctor’s appointment in less than one minute, and that’s my measure of success.
This means paying attention to the critical errors that get in the way of making a doctor’s appointment in one minute. At the same time, don’t focus on the flaws that don’t affect the inconvenience of the appointment in any way. In this way, the 20 root causes eliminate 80 percent of errors. Involve people, talk, ask questions, and interrogate. So you end up with a car that can go from point A to point B, and whether it has heated seats and a sunroof is secondary.
I keep the business lens, and I see the dollars and the numbers, but I also see the people and the families. The joy, the pain, the reason you know why we do what we do.
The APP Solutionslaunched a podcast,CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels –
Today our guest is Estee Goldschmidt, VP of Product Management at Parsley Health. Her experience varies from launching a startup and fundraising and understanding everything about that culture to managing multi-international product development teams. Estee came to the US at 17 and immediately got involved in the student community, holding responsible positions.
Interestingly, Estee’s first job was a position in the marketing department of a cosmetics company… Estee Lauder. Such concurrencies sometimes happen! One of her most important decisions involved a strategy for distributing free product samples. Instead of making everyone go through the headache of planning samples twice a year, Estee offered to match this with an actual sales pipeline, and it resulted in huge savings for the company.
Even if you’re sort of one person out of thousands, there’s still a way to have an impact and improve things.
Not all of Estee’s decisions were winnable. But she was not discouraged; on the contrary, she made more effort. In particular, she was fired up by the idea of creating a startup. Estee spent a summer in Israel at a startup gas pedal, watching other founders do it. Instead of writing business plans, founding companies, assembling teams, pitching contests, and trying to find funding, they just started creating a product and offering it to customers. And when they got customers, they started saying, how do I make something official out of this? How do I get funding to launch this idea?
Getting people to pay for a product that’s essentially free is brilliant.
Esti then went back to the US and got 4,000 active users within two months-that was the result of creating a sales map, where people open it and see what events are happening near you. Esty shares the experience of reaching goals, “We didn’t have millions of meetings where we were trying to make a lot of different parts of the group happy, it was like whether or not we were doing it, and if we were, we all agreed, and we were working on it.”
The ability to move fast is something that has to be maintained.
In a fast-moving company, there’s a powerful alignment of mission and what needs to be done. In big companies, most of the work that needs to be done is already completed, everything is stable, the processes work, you know it’s a well-oiled machine, so if you bring in a new person or someone comes in, first of all, there are a lot of cases where there’s no work to justify team X, so many teams start working to understand what their purpose is, and that kind of white space can provide opportunities to discover new areas or what can be done better, but it can also lead to places where another big.
You could have the smartest people in the room, the most educated people, the most experienced people, but if everyone’s focused on their own thing or rowing against each other, it’s very hard to accomplish anything.
About the experience at Cerebral: I was working on what needed to be fixed, so in the beginning, I just made sure that our offering was relevant and that everything worked as it was meant to, and that was the first step and the second step was to strategize the following steps, what we offer, how to make what we offer better and stronger by listening to our customers and understanding where their pain points are, what we can fix, what we can take away, so the customer experience is better. The product manager doesn’t have to tell team members how to work, the developers and designers are professionals in their field, and they know better.
When it comes to making product decisions, it seems to me that the answer should always be: what’s best for the customer?
If you follow that path and use that as a guiding star, you’ll have a good strategy. There’s a precise balance in management between “get away from me with your micromanagement” and “I care about feeling your support”-the key is establishing trust.
The last thing you want as a manager is for your team to be afraid of you.
And if something goes wrong and you don’t know about it and then things blow up in your face, you want them to feel safe and be able to say, hey, this is going wrong, and then I’ll help them solve it, because I end up hiring people for work that I don’t want to do for them.
You have the financiers, you have the marketers, you have the doctors, but who represents the customer, and everything is done for the customer, so the job of products is to sit at the table and be that customer, be that voice of the customer.
Three examples of these qualities the most talented professional product managers have been. The most important is an obsession with customers as a guiding star. Another quality is the ability to execute. A third is an ability to step back when necessary and let your associates do their job.
I have a work style and an idea of how to impact things, and ultimately, I want to be in a place that “wants” those skills and recognition instead of hiding and trying to conform to something I am not. You can be great at one place and wrong at another.
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels:
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
In this latest episode of CareMind’s podcast, we delve into the fascinating intersection of psychology and product management. We had the privilege of interviewing Shane Blackman, the Director of Growth at Noom, who brings a unique perspective to the field thanks to his Ph.D. in psychology and social policy.
Shane’s background allows him to provide deeper insights into human relationships in product development and management. Join us as we uncover valuable tips and actionable advice that you can apply to your own career, and learn how understanding the human element can lead to more successful products.
From Psychology to Product Management: Shane Blackman’s Unique Journey
Shane’s path into product management began unexpectedly after getting his Ph.D. in 2014. A colleague from grad school introduced him to the world of user research at Priceline.com, where he eventually started running experiments on the website using his psychology background. Working with designers and developers, Shane found his passion for product management, despite not knowing much about it initially.
Every product manager has a unique story, emphasizing that there is no one-size-fits-all path into the field. Shane’s experience in investigating people’s perception of objectivity, beliefs, opinions, and decision-making within social groups aligns well with the day-to-day responsibilities of a product manager. By chance, during his time at Priceline.com, Shane transitioned from a product manager to the head of product analytics, leveraging his expertise in analytics.
The Importance of Growth Opportunities in Product Management
According to Shane, he began working on opaque hotel booking products, focusing on the front-end user experience. He ran experiments to improve the booking process and achieved success in this area. Shane attributes his accomplishments to his background in statistics and experiment methodology, which allowed him to understand the components of a good experiment and how to interpret the data.
I believe there’s a big opportunity for product managers to apply psychological concepts to their organizational practices, including recruitment, structure, feedback methods, leadership representation, and more.
Shane admits that by embracing opportunities and leveraging his expertise in his passionate area, he discovered the challenges and limitations of the A/B testing infrastructure. This piqued his interest in addressing the problem of determining what was actually good or bad when testing, and how much data was enough to make quick decisions. An opportunity arose to rebuild the core A/B testing infrastructure, which led to collaboration with Booking.com and learning from their advanced experimentation approach.
As more data-oriented opportunities emerged, Shane found his path eventually led to the role of Head of Product Analytics. In this position, he oversaw the A/B testing program, system, and a team of analysts generating insights from product data. He believes the core themes of his journey include curiosity, willingness to leverage strengths, and openness to new opportunities.
Shane emphasizes the importance of amplifying one’s own strengths within the organization and saying yes to opportunities, which allowed for diversified experiences and growth within the product management field. He admits that his focus on data analysis provided valuable insights for decision-making and overall success.
Is Data Necessary for Balancing Objectivity and Ambiguity in Product Management?
Determining good data for a particular outcome involves following the scientific method, starting with a clear hypothesis and then designing experiments to test that hypothesis rigorously.
Good data is data that helps you make a decision and understand whether your hypothesis is true or not.
Avoiding confirmation bias is crucial; be open-minded and willing to change your hypotheses based on the data. Collaboration with stakeholders such as engineers, designers, and data scientists is essential for collecting the right data and interpreting it accurately.
Having a clear and specific core hypothesis protects against inferential muddiness or noisiness that can occur when looking at a set of data. If results outside the core hypothesis emerge, consider discounting, replicating, or generalizing them in new situations.
The key to using data effectively is to establish protections, guardrails, and norms when examining data for the first time and deciding what actions to take based on that data. This approach ensures a more holistic understanding of the problem and better decision-making.
The Product Manager’s Role in Clarifying Hypotheses
It’s important to have a very clear hypothesis and to be clear about what you’re trying to learn from the data, and then to design your experiments, design your tests in a way that will give you the data that you need to make that decision.
Product managers, often seen as the CEOs of their products, are ultimately responsible for various aspects of the product, including setting hypotheses and driving experimentation processes. However, this responsibility doesn’t mean they should work alone. Collaboration with teammates in user research, design, and data science can help refine hypotheses and improve the overall approach.
One of the hardest things to do in product management is identifying the fundamental assumption in a product that must be tested.
To maximize the product’s success, product managers must be open to iterating and learning as they go. Creating a culture of experimentation and learning within the team is also vital. Product managers should facilitate discussions, encourage team members to contribute ideas, and develop ways to test these ideas systematically and rigorously.
Understanding the user’s emotional journey and the psychology behind their experience can significantly improve product development. For instance, when asking for sensitive information from customers, product managers must ensure they can provide an emotional outlet that reassures users about the security and necessity of the information. Additionally, dividing the process into smaller, manageable steps, starting with the easiest, can help build user comfort and commitment.
During a period of rapid growth, product managers may also need to scale agile teams to handle increased workloads and maintain efficiency. By leveraging their skills and working closely with their teams, product managers can effectively navigate the challenges and opportunities that arise in product development.
How Can Product Managers Help Scale Agile Teams?
Scaling a team at high velocity can be a challenging yet exciting time in one’s career. To ensure a successful transformation, you should have clear counterparts in engineering and design, and to empower these team leaders to make decisions independently. Also establishing strong communication and collaboration between team members can help temas grow.
Another thing is maintaining sprint retrospectives even under deadline pressure so that emerging issues can be timely spotted, ensuring that the team continues learning and adapting. Quarterly meetings, such as “persevere versus pivot” sessions, can help teams evaluate their performance, goals, and strategies, and decide whether to continue, pivot, or spin down a team.
The collective experience of team members is invaluable in making informed decisions about the direction and opportunities available to a team. In the context of a health-focused company like Noom, leveraging behavioral science can empower people to take control of their health and manage conditions like stress, anxiety, diabetes, and hypertension through weight management programs.
Managing Team Perspectives During Product Development
Shane’s research suggests that people are predisposed to attribute bias to others who disagree with them, even in subjective domains. This holds true in product management organizations as well. When presenting experiment results and interpreting data, it’s important to be aware of our own biases and how they might affect our reactions to conflicting hypotheses. To counteract this, organizations should cultivate a culture that encourages open discussion, acknowledges biases, and fosters an understanding of how biases can influence decision-making.
Integrating psychology and product management can lead to a deeper understanding of human behavior and collaboration, ultimately resulting in more effective and successful products. Key takeaways for product managers include:
Embracing growth opportunities and leveraging one’s strengths in areas of passion allows for diversified experiences and career growth within the product management field.
Good data is crucial for product managers to balance objectivity and ambiguity; collaboration with stakeholders ensures accurate data collection and interpretation.
Product managers must be open to iterating and learning, fostering a culture of experimentation and collaboration within their teams to maximize product success.
During periods of rapid growth, product managers should focus on clear communication, collaboration, and decision-making processes to effectively scale agile teams and manage challenges
The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.
Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?
Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels.
Listen to our podcast to get some useful tips on your next startup.
