What is the job?

I work for an early stage SaaS (software-as-a-service) startup in the growing world of health tech. I'm currently transitioning into a more formal product management role, but to date it has been providing a clinical steer to the product (AI simulated patients) alongside product marketing. It's certainly helped to pull the developers and designers together, as they aren't medical but need to understand how things work in healthcare so the product is successful!

How and why did you get into it?

I actually got into it through writing, which is quite an unusual way of entering the market. During medical school, I started to guest post on blogs and then built my own website to host a placement diary, which led to several freelance jobs. One of these was with my current company which essentially gave me exposure to the healthtech startup world. I'd been thinking of a pivot out of clinical medicine for a while, so it was a natural transition.

How is it related to medicine — why were you suitable?

Any health tech product needs clinical expertise — that's a non-negotiable! I'm in an especially good position working with educational products, as my experience of medical school, med-ed teaching and the healthcare environment as a whole allows me to give a steer to the team. There's also the transferable skills like communication, attention-to-detail and empathy (which is great for product management). This is especially true in the start-up world: for me, having to stuff my brain with a ton of new information in a very short space of time is pretty familiar!

If you were starting out without any tech experience, how would you go about getting into the field?

I think the best way to do this is to network: I wouldn't suggest going straight for the CTO of major corporations, but there's a huge network of health tech professionals on places like LinkedIn. Reach out, ask questions and then — the hardest part — actually act on the advice!

Anything else you'd like to add?

I think we can sometimes get bogged down in the world of health tech because there are so many big names, big contracts and a giant pile of jargon! Whenever business meets healthcare there can be friction, so I'd say remember your underlying values and empathy and fight hard to keep hold of that. Ultimately it will benefit you, the business and the users.