At BiteLabs, we teach healthcare professionals the skills required to build impactful health tech products. We're profiling some of the amazing clinicians who already work in the field — enjoy!
Johanna Frost — Product Manager in Digital Health
What is the job?
I'm a product manager in digital health. Since I took the step away from regular clinician work I have had roles such as business consultant, product owner and physiotherapist with development and educational responsibilities. All of the roles have been similar in that I have been the bridge between users (healthcare professionals and/or patients) and the system, or the developers of the system.
As a product manager I do a lot of different things, but amongst other things, I spend my days understanding and representing user needs, aligning different stakeholders and prioritising product features to go into development. In other words: a lot of communication with different people!
How and why did you get into it?
- •At the same time as I started working as a physiotherapist in primary care a lot of things were happening in the digital health area and I wanted to be a part of that. There were a few different things motivating me:
- •It was exciting
- •In primary care your days are very controlled by time and meetings with patients
- •There is often a long waiting list for patients to get a physiotherapy appointment (6 weeks of waiting wasn't unusual)
- •Some of my work was repetitive and not all consultations necessitated a face to face session
- •Mostly all systems we used were quite old, not at all smart and not user friendly
- •So I wanted, and still want to, be part of changing these things for the better.
How is it related to medicine — why were you suitable?
Communication. After having worked as a physio for a while I had realised it wasn't so much about having specific knowledge, creating great programs or manual treatments as it was about communicating and listening. What does this patient expect? What problems do they experience? Why is this bothering them? What are their goals? All of these questions can be used as a product manager asking your users about what they experience or problems they want solved.
I also think you use prioritisation skills in both roles — if we can just do 1 thing now what would be the most important one?
How do enjoyment and work life balance compare to your clinical career?
To a much greater degree I can decide how, when and where I want to work. Not being so tied to specific times, as I was as a physio, also makes me enjoy more time with colleagues — building long term relationships with people I work with which feels more meaningful to me. So, in short, this career transition has helped me enjoy my workdays more and given me a better work life balance.
How could someone go about getting into your field?
I started out with keeping an eye on companies I thought were interesting and looking at the different roles they had. Some companies invite applications to their product team so I would just send them an application and ask if I could get a junior role.
Some bigger EHR companies have young professional programmes where you can apply when you're earlier in your career. This was my way into the health tech world; after getting hired I was able to change across into the role I was most interested in.
What can I earn?
I've been hired in both Sweden and in Great Britain. In Sweden the salary for a Product manager can be somewhere around 35k to 52k SEK (and rising with experience). Compared to being a physiotherapist, the salary is an average of 27k SEK with a slow increase with experience.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I won't lie and say that my career transition was all hard work from my part. I've also been very lucky in getting into the roles I described above. I've applied to jobs, been headhunted, I've gone through a bankruptcy with one company and recently being made redundant. But each of these different experiences has led me to something better. And I've always felt safe taking bets since I have an education in healthcare to fall back on if needed — there will always be patients needing our help. So what I want to say is this: try. Apply to that job, invite that manager for a lunch — if you really want to change your career you will probably succeed in one way or the other.
