Women in Tech @Tufts University 2021 conference presentation by Karen Donoghue and Laura Holly: UX and PM Career Paths

KAREN DONOGHUE & LAURA HOLLY - UX & PM CAREER PATHS WIT@TUFTS 2021
UX & PM
CAREER PATHS
Karen Donoghue and Laura Holly
Women in Tech at Tufts University 2021

Hello, I’m Karen
● Founder of global user experience
design practice HumanLogic
● Developer of the Local Haze app
● Career in technology in Product
Design and UX Design
● Author of two business books on UX
● MS MIT Media Laboratory
● Tufts BSCS, taught in CS dept
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kdonoghue/

9/11/2021
3
Hello, I’m Laura
Companies
• Olympus Medical
• Image Stream Medical
• Lantern Hill Group
• Philips Medical
• Brix Networks
• …
Roles
• Software Engineer, Architect
• Product Management, product marketing
• Innovation and Market Development
• Corporate Marketing
• Business owner/leader
• Consulting
MIT | MBA – General Management
Smith College | BA psychology / CS
Education
• BPMA Mentor Program
• Sport training my German Shepherds
Skills / Interests
• SaaS, software business models
• Medical device
• Healthcare IT
• Machine Learning, data insights
• Intrapreneurship
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraholly/
Outside of work

PRODUCT
What does it mean?

SHIP
Designing, building and shipping products

Product careers
● Product Management (PM)
● User Experience (UI/UX)
● Engineering

What’s involved in shipping a new product?
Imprivata Cortext is a secure
communications platform for
healthcare and allows physicians,
nurses, and patients to connect,
communicate, and collaborate
securely from any workstation or
mobile device.

Product Management key at each phase in product
realization
Ideation Assessment
Release
Planning
Execution Availability Launch
Product Management
Research & Development
Internal stakeholders - sales,
marketing, executives...
Regional
Marketing
Lifecycle
UX & Design
Users, key opinion leaders

What is User Experience (UI/UX) in the real world?
● Envisioning products from the POV
of the end user
● Designing new products or
improving existing ones
● Working and navigating against
constraints (pre-existing products,
organizational, etc)
● UI is what the user interacts with, UX
is the entire experience of the
product to achieve some value
Many form factors:
○ Phones
○ Laptops
○ Tablets
○ Robots
○ Pens
○ Glasses
○ Wearables

What does a product manager do IRL?
It depends….
• Type of company
• Size of company
• Type of industry
• Phase of product life cycle
• Your supporting cast
But you always know:
• Your product
• Your users
• Your market
• Your competition
Better than anyone else

For a Product Manager, no two days are the same...
•Writing, reviewing technical documentation or user-facing collateral
•Validation testing
•Making go-no go decisions - ship, end of life, read to incubate
•Communication - bug triage, scrum dailies, cross functional team
•Creating, reviewing wireframes, conceptual models
•Backlog development, grooming, roadmap management
•Sales ride-alongs, customer futures presentations
•Pitching new product idea to the CEO
•Developing/delivering sales training
•Running advisory boards
•Supporting, speaking at trade shows
•Evangelizing to press, influencing KOLs
Tactical
Strategic
Internal
External

Crowdsources air quality
sensor readings worldwide
and rates sensor accuracy.
Target users are consumers
who are also citizen scientists.

Particulate Matter < 2.5 micrometers in
diameter pose a risk to health
Source:EPA Source: © Encyclopédie de l’Environnement

Who is the user of your product?
WHO

Consumers that are also technical citizen
scientists
END USERS

Frustrations and pain points
“I have a family member with asthma.”
“I am concerned about my local air quality.”
PERSONA

Conduct user research (UXR) by interviewing people
Photos: Robert McCarthy
● Spend time with end users
● Ask open-ended questions about
their needs and workflows
● Observe how they use the product
● Identify problems and propose
solutions
● Advocate for users’ needs
● Prove/disprove persona hypotheses

Foundation of Product Management
User needs
• Who…specific person(a)
• What…does the user need to do, including
context?
• Where … is the user physically or virtually?
• When …how often will the user need to do
this?
• Why … is this important to the user?
• Best Alternative …what does user use
today? Workaround?
*Supporting evidence….pictures, mock-ups, research
reports, competitive product screens
Priority
• Impact of doing/not doing
• Who wants this?
• Would they buy it? How many?
• Feasibility?

Many roles in User Experience discipline
● UX Design (UI Design)
● Interaction Design
● User Experience
Research (UXR)
● Visual Design
● Product Design
● Motion Design
● UX Engineer - e.g. front end
development (Prototyper)
● Branding
● Content Strategy
● “Growth” UX Designer (new)
“I see UX increasingly as synonymous with Product Design, and
see Product Management and Product Design under one Product
Experience umbrella.”
BOB GOODMAN, SVP OF PRODUCT, VIRGIN PULSE
TUFTS ALUM

Just as many in Product Management
• Depends on the industry and
focus of the role:
• Upstream marketing
• Strategic marketing
• Product marketing
• Category or brand manager
• Solution, offering manager
• Marketing manager
• Innovation manager
• Product owner vs. product
manager
Executive
Management
Individual Contributor
Entry Level
▪ Vice President, Product Management
▪ Chief Product Officer
▪ Head of Product
▪ Senior Director, Director Product
Management
▪ Group Manager, Product Management
▪ Product Line Manager
▪ Junior Product Manager
▪ Associate Product Manager
▪ Product Associate, Specialist, Analyst
▪ Intern
▪ Principle, Senior, PM
▪ Technical PM
▪ Product Ops Mgr
▪ Onboarding Mgr
▪ Product Owner

Associate Product Manager - Urology
• Implement business plans for Urology products for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and Non-
Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC)
• Become product and procedure expert in BPH, NMIBC
• Support forecasting, sales tracking, product launches, customer relationship management, product
lifecycle management, internal and external promotional activity.
• Develop collateral, sales training, competitive analysis, technical support, and clinical study
support.
• Communicate market needs for development of new products
• Experience: Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, or related field.
• 2-3 years experience in product development or applications support.
• Work in OR/clinical environment on occasion
Medical Product Management – Entry Level

Medical Product Management – Individual Contributor
Product Manager - Medical Imaging
• Manage day-to-day activities for product portfolio of OR & Office video systems, accessories
• Support product realization activities and deliverables throughout the stage gates with minimal
direction. New product development and lifecycle management.
• Monitor sales forecasts, monitor trends including competition, procedural,
reimbursement,emerging technologies.
• Develop relationships and work closely with health care professionals in clinical situations
• Maintain expertise as the product and clinical specialist by attending procedures, courses,
shows; facilitate design and implementation of clinical studies and white papers
• Experience: Bachelor's degree in business, economics, marketing, engineering, or related field
required. Master's / MBA preferred. 3+ years related experience. 1+ years in new product
development or new product introduction
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 30%, occasional evening/weekend work

Medical Product Management – Sr. Contributor/ First Line Mgr
Sr Global Product Manager – Digital Products
• Develop deep knowledge of customer needs and market landscapes in existing and
emerging markets. Lead voice of customer, product development and introduction, PLM.
• Highly independent execution of all upstream marketing responsibilities in pre-
commercial development of novel software systems and applications.
• Inform on new technology opportunities for R&D development and partnership.
• Drive business through regular interfacing with regional marketing, healthcare
professionals, outside vendors.
• Strategic planning - budgets, timelines, risk assessment, progress, and risk mitigation
• Experience: Bachelor's degree in engineering, or related STEM field required. 7+ years
related experience. 10+ years of business experience.
• MBA or other graduate-level degree strongly preferred. Ability to travel domestically and
internationally 30-40%
• Regular virtual meetings with global colleagues in early morning/evenings.

To Explore Careers in Product Management at Olympus Medical
Spring ‘22 coop and intern
openings posted this fall!!
https://careers.olympusamerica.com

Important skills in UX Design
● Listening and having empathy for users, and asking
good questions
● Working as part of a team (PM and Engineering are
your partners)
● Understanding the business requirements
● Understanding metrics
● Advocating for users’ needs in an organization where
design is one of many competing priorities

Most successful product managers….
Curiosity Technical
Understanding
Someone
else’s
shoes
Eye for
good design
Empath The big
picture
Translation
layer
Achieve
commercial
success
Gain
respect and
credibility
Analytical Communication:
Written &
Verbal
Making
decisions
Ownership,
Responsibility

Karen started her career as a computer scientist
BS in CS Pen & voice UI Master of Science
Tech
Laura started her career as an engineer at a big tech co
BA Psychology / CS Engineer->PM PM/Mkt MBA PM/bus owner BU exec
Med Tech Consulting

Many career paths to User Experience (UI/UX)
● Design training - HCI, school, bootcamp, job experience
● Product Management
● Engineering - e.g. UI Engineer or hw/sw engineering
● Marketing
● Customer Success - especially with SaaS/PLG

Everybody’s path to Product
Management is different
• Technical
• Engineering, R&D
• Product Expert
• Customer support
• Application training or support
• Documentation, learning products
• UX, Design
• Field
• Technical or pre-sales consultant
• Post-sales implementation
• Sales (less typical)
• Domain expert
• Lots of experience in a field or technology
• Initial career step

Closing thoughts
● Circuitous paths to product management and UX
● Breadth of experience is an asset in PM
● Some skills for PM: empathy, curiosity, put yourself in others’
shoes, people who want to “own” the deliverable
● Some skills for UX: listening to and having empathy for users of
the product, collaborating well with partners
● Overlap between PM, UX Design and Engineering
● Plenty of opportunities in the tech business for Product (PM,
UX, Engineering)

Q & A
Please submit questions via chat

THANK YOU!
Women in Tech at Tufts University 2021

Women in Tech @Tufts University 2021 conference presentation by Karen Donoghue and Laura Holly: UX and PM Career Paths

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Women in Tech @Tufts University 2021 conference presentation by Karen Donoghue and Laura Holly: UX and PM Career Paths