In 'unsexy' yet vital industries like finance and healthcare, product success requires mastering complex regulations while simultaneously transforming user fear into engagement through delightful, educational experiences. The mission's profound impact justifies the difficulty and attracts talent.
Instead of competing with OpenAI's mass-market ChatGPT, Anthropic focuses on the enterprise market. By prioritizing safety, reliability, and governance, it targets regulated industries like finance, legal, and healthcare, creating a defensible B2B niche as the "enterprise safety and reliability leader."
Making high-stakes products (finance, health) easy and engaging risks encouraging overuse or uninformed decisions. The solution isn't restricting access but embedding education into the user journey to empower informed choices without being paternalistic.
Product 'taste' is often narrowly defined as aesthetics. A better analogy is a restaurant: great food (visuals) is necessary but not sufficient. Taste encompasses the entire end-to-end user journey, from being greeted at the door to paying the check. Every interaction must feel crafted and delightful.
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.
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.
Instead of treating legal and compliance as departments that add friction, Robinhood PMs get them to buy into the product's vision. When legal partners are excited about the product, they become effective problem-solvers who find ways to enable the best customer experience, rather than blockers.
Consumers are trained by food packaging to look for simple, bold 'macros' (e.g., '7g Protein,' 'Gluten-Free'). Applying this concept to non-food items by clearly stating key attributes ('Chemical-Free,' 'Plant-Based') on the packaging can rapidly educate consumers at the point of purchase and differentiate the product.
Delight goes beyond surface-level features. It's about creating products that solve practical problems while also addressing users' emotional states, like reducing stress or creating joy. This is achieved by removing friction, anticipating needs, and exceeding expectations.
In sectors like finance or healthcare, bypass initial regulatory hurdles by implementing AI on non-sensitive, public information, such as analyzing a company podcast. This builds momentum and demonstrates value while more complex, high-risk applications are vetted by legal and IT teams.
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.