Why PatientPing
I’ve been on the hunt for my first full-time job during my last quarter at Stanford. At the end of this arduous process I’m excited to accept an offer from PatientPing to join their fledging Product team.
After considering a myriad of different opportunities at the intersection of product, engineering, and healthcare, here are a few reasons why PatientPing ultimately feels right after taking a long look at where I am now and reflecting on where and how I want to grow over the next few years:
1. Mentorship
This was in many ways simultaneously the biggest question-mark and an unexpected strength of PatientPing. For me, the most important thing throughout this entire process was whether I’d be able to learn and grow from a strong set of mentors that are willing to invest time and energy into my personal growth. Going into a product-oriented role, the absence of a “Head of Product” was alarming and initially a strong negative signal — how would I know if I’m building the right set of skills in my first full-time product role without the direction and support of an experienced product leader?
Several conversations with both Jay and David helped mitigate these concerns as I became confident that this prospective Head of Product would be their highest priority with the necessary prerequisite to meet Jay, the team’s, and my own high bar of inspiring others with their capabilities.
In the meantime, I would have freedom to help craft my would-be role and have the chance to learn from all ends of the product pipeline before deciding where to settle. In the meantime, I would be working and learning directly from Jay and David in the midst of strategic conversations around product — a process I was excited to join.
2. “A blank slate”
David characterized my role as a blank slate that would adapt and change based on the many opportunities to work cross-functionally at PatientPing. My responsibilities were crafted accordingly to lay the foundation for how I could impact product and develop personally. By inviting me into this process, PatientPing made it clear how intentional they were about defining and designing a set of responsibilities that leveraged my existing set of experiences while providing a clear trajectory to learn a new set of skills.
It was frustrating to not hear the same sense of openness from other companies. Thoughts on personal growth and opportunities to take steps in an unfamiliar direction ended up turning into conversations about how certain elements of [Project A] or responsibilities of [Future Role B] could help address my concerns. At the end of the day, PatientPing made the strongest effort in giving me a blank slate to direct my trajectory for learning, making it immediately clear that they were ready to invest in my desire to grow and learn now.
3. High-growth + Dynamic Environment
I’ve found that I learn and grow more quickly in high-growth environments when presented with a dynamic set of responsibilities that cuts across different work streams. Though this type of environment is not necessarily dependent on the size of a company, the type of growth and particular position that PatientPing has in the healthcare industry presented an invitation to engage directly with difficult problems and various stakeholders in a changing healthcare system — an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of value-based care.
By tackling the costs of coordination in healthcare, PatientPing offered a front-row seat and a backstage pass to tackle some of the most critical and costly issues in healthcare. Here was a product that had the interesting tension of being lightweight enough to bridge the increasingly interconnected/complex scaffold of providers while carrying enough substance to deliver meaningful value to patients and providers alike.
After consulting mentors, friends, and family along with some long deliberations with myself — I’ve come to the conclusion that the most effective way I can deliver value to a fragmented healthcare system in the short-term while building a valuable set of skills towards my long-term goals in healthcare innovation is to join the wonderful team at PatientPing.
I’m excited for this next step and am looking forward to what the future holds!
