In regulated spaces like healthcare, product managers must move beyond surface-level collaboration. They need to develop deep domain knowledge and partner with clinicians who are embedded in the product process, co-writing requirements and ideating on solutions, not just acting as consultants.
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As AI becomes foundational, the PM role will specialize. A new "AI Platform PM" will emerge to own core infrastructure like embeddings and RAG. They will expose these as services to domain-expert PMs who focus on user-facing features, allowing for deeper expertise in both areas.
To transform the complex healthcare industry, product leaders need three key skills. First, use first-principles thinking to deconstruct customer problems. Second, master storytelling to inspire change in large organizations, as data alone is insufficient. Third, evaluate performance on concrete financial, operational, and outcome-based metrics.
To build trust and deliver value, product managers cannot be 'tourists' who drop in on other departments transactionally. They must become 'locals'—deeply integrated, trusted partners who are regulars in cross-functional conversations and are seen as being 'in the battle' together with sales, marketing, and other teams.
Bending Spoons' product lead argues that the ideal PM background is either entrepreneurial, which teaches focus on impactful work, or deeply analytical, which fosters an understanding of root causes. These two paths provide the core skills needed for product leadership.
Contrary to the popular belief that it's always detrimental, for product managers, context switching is a core strength. Fluidly moving between customer, engineering, and marketing conversations is essential for integrating diverse perspectives to bring a product to life.
When pursuing a long-term strategic solution, dedicate product management time to high-level discovery and partner alignment first. This doesn't consume engineering resources, allowing the dev team to remain focused on mitigating the immediate, more visceral aspects of the problem.
Frame the product manager not as a feature owner, but as the central communication hub. Their primary function is to connect business, stakeholders, engineering, and design, navigating complex relationships and translating needs across disparate groups.
As AI automates synthesis and creation, the product manager's core value shifts from managing the development process to deeply contextualizing all available information (market, customer, strategy) to define the *right* product direction.
Great PMs excel by understanding and influencing human behavior. This "people sense" applies to both discerning customer needs to build the right product and to aligning internal teams to bring that vision to life. Every aspect, from product-market fit to go-to-market strategy, ultimately hinges on understanding people.
To create transformational enterprise solutions, focus on the core problems of the key buyers, not just the feature requests of technical users. For healthcare payers, this meant solving strategic issues like care management and risk management, which led to stickier, higher-value products than simply delivering another tool.