Deeper job satisfaction and work–life balance: How a career move from Big Pharma to femtech has positively impacted Kym Jacks-Bryant, director of medical affairs and partnerships at Flo
I previously worked at a pharmaceutical company, and when we began working from home during the pandemic, I found it so much more productive. It made me realise that I wanted to work somewhere that was flexible enough but also collaborative. Here I answer the kinds of questions I’m often asked by people interested in working in femtech, and explain how working at Flo has allowed me to fulfil my ambitions, while maintaining a healthy balance.
Interviewed by Laura Potter.
What attracted you to working at Flo?
It was an opportunity to make a difference to women and people who menstruate. I worked previously at a pharmaceutical company with similar goals; you help people with medicines, but you don’t get that feedback. You don’t get many people coming to tell you, “Your drug was really great, and this is what it did.” With Flo, you get that direct feedback, whether it’s from users’ reviews or via social media, which I love.
Was work–life balance a consideration?
Absolutely. During COVID, I found that I was more productive working at home, so I wanted to work somewhere that was at least hybrid. My second child was six months old, and maternity leave had given me a chance to think about my career. I realised I wanted to do something different. Working remotely for Flo meant I wouldn’t be commuting an hour and a half each way, so suddenly, I could gain that time back with my children. The fact that the majority of people are remote also means they‘re very collaborative and used to that communication style. In contrast, I’ve found that if you’ve got a big mix of people who are in the office and only a few who are remote, the communication styles can clash.
Did you have any early challenges finding the balance?
It’s easy to be on Slack 24/7 or to work while cooking dinner if you lack discipline. It can be tricky to hold your own boundaries, but if I try to push too much in a day, if I’m constantly “on”, my brain can’t work efficiently. I might be doing a load more hours, but the output is significantly less than if I just rested my brain a little bit. I’ve now set Slack so it doesn’t send me notifications outside of some core hours. People can still get in touch if something’s urgent because they can push an extra button to send the notification anyway, but it’s not triggering all the time, so I can shut the laptop and walk away. Also, people work from various countries at Flo, so nobody is thinking, “It’s 9 AM your time. You should be online.” You’re measured on output, not how many hours you put in.
Have you ever needed extra support or flexibility?
When my children bring home the plague from school and I feel OK but my husband, who is a stay-at-home parent, doesn’t feel well, there is the ability to have sick leave because your dependants are sick. I’ve been in other companies where there was no understanding as to why I would need time off if my husband was there, so to have the support and understanding from my boss really helps. Also, being measured on output means I can go to the school Nativity play or do a drop-off if I need to without guilt, and I can pick up the work later in the day.
How does Flo feel satisfying?
Flo is growing, which means there’s so much opportunity. When I started, my role was to look after the partnerships with our health organisations and our experts. However, it’s evolved quickly into looking after lots of different areas: health care professional communication, expanding into commercial partnerships, and experimenting with new revenue streams, and that expansion of the role is really satisfying. It gives me opportunities to learn and to use different skills. I have the autonomy to grow my role, but the best thing about Flo is that they value people who want to push. People who aren’t ambitious and entrepreneurial might struggle.
Stories from users give me the most satisfaction. Individuals who have learned that certain things that happen with their body are not normal, and they finally manage to get some help from a healthcare professional. It’s really satisfying to work on something that has that impact.
Do you ever need to work to get people on board with your ideas and innovations?
All the time, but I like that they’re questioning. We have so much we could do; prioritisation is key. They are trying to understand what benefits there are, and do they beat the benefits of something else we could do? I have to make my best case, making sure I have the experiment-based data, the market data, or anything else I can pull in to support what I’m suggesting. But sometimes, it’s about understanding that it’s not a priority because it can’t bring in the revenue, growth, or value for users.
I really like that at Flo everyone is open and honest in terms of their communication. They’re not blindly following, which I found frustrating in other roles. We hire great people, so I want their guidance. I would much rather my team push back than have doubts but not speak up.
How do you cope in high-stress periods?
I have to discipline myself to stick with one thing at a time. I may have a million other things coming at me, but I put on my big headphones, do the most urgent thing first and ignore everything else, knowing it will get done a hundred times quicker than if I try to answer every message. Tuning out all the pings and notifications can be hard, but it’s the way to get through work. It’s also about spreading the load and picking people who can do something quickly or who have the expertise.
Who do you go to when you need support or advice at work?
Chief content editor Annie O’Leary and director of medical accuracy Dr. Claudia Pastides are both great people to ask how I should approach something. I can also say to people on my team ”Can you just help me for five minutes to work this out?” I also have some external mentors — great female leaders in pharma and bioscience that I’ve worked with previously — that I really like calling and saying, “Help!” Talking things through is a great way to see what the answer is, and sometimes, just the listening ear helps.
How often do you get together with colleagues face to face?
We have a planning week every quarter where we all get together. A lot of my team members are in Lithuania, so they may come to the UK, or I may go there. In addition to planning, I include social activities for team building. In January, we went to Brighton, where I introduced the team to fudge, which was a mistake because now I need to take it to Lithuania every time I visit! I also make an effort to go into the office for some face-to-face time, and we have FloFest, where we all get together as a company to celebrate what we do and get to know people from completely different departments.
What advice would you give someone looking at a role in femtech?
Firstly, learn data and metrics quickly. For a lot of other corporate jobs, data might be a part of it, but not to the same extent as in the femtech space. The earlier you can learn that and use it consistently, the easier it is when you come into a role. Also, get a breadth of experience because while roles are defined, you’ll always end up picking up something else, so if you have experience with lots of different things, it’s much easier to apply that. I learned to code, and that helps when I’m communicating with the engineering teams or the web team because I can speak that language. I also did a lot of work in Excel, which has helped with business cases that wouldn’t necessarily be in the remit of my previous roles. Add strings to your bow.
Any other career lessons?
Learn to sell yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself enough to present yourself in a positive way, you’ll get fewer opportunities and less advancement. If you can’t go into your year-end review and say, “This is everything I’ve achieved, and I’m really proud of it,” nobody else will. If you can’t volunteer for things that might be slightly outside your comfort zone, but you believe you can do them, you’ll get stuck. Women can have a tendency to think that unless they have 100% of the skills required, they shouldn’t push, but a lot of the time, you learn by doing. My background is in marketing in pharmaceuticals, so stepping into a role that’s called “medical” was well outside of my comfort zone. In pharmaceuticals, medical and marketing argue all the time, so crossing that fence was a leap, but it was absolutely the right decision.
