Evidence guides every decision. For the EPIC EHR integration at Sutter Health, I shadowed doctors for a week. I watched them navigate through multiple screens to find critical patient data scattered across different views. Those observations became the features that transformed their workflow.

Customer access doesn't always come directly. At Leica Biosystems, I partnered with Healthcare Solution Architects—the product trainers working with pathologists and lab technicians daily. They became my eyes and ears, translating frontline pain points into actionable insights. Whether through direct observation or strategic partnerships, the goal stays the same: understand the real problems before building solutions.

At scale, understanding customers means balancing diverse voices. At Beckman Coulter, I led global microbiology informatics serving 2,000+ clinical labs worldwide. I aligned 15+ stakeholders—from R&D engineers hearing technical constraints to commercial teams reporting customer feedback to regulatory experts ensuring compliance. Each stakeholder brought a different lens on what clinicians needed. By synthesizing these perspectives, we delivered antimicrobial resistance solutions that helped clinicians make faster, evidence-based antibiotic therapy decisions.

These lessons—direct observation, finding alternative paths to customer insight, synthesizing diverse stakeholder voices—I now pass on to emerging product managers through virtual networks and workplace coaching. I teach them that customer understanding isn't a luxury reserved for those with perfect access. It's a discipline that adapts to constraints, navigates ambiguity, and finds truth wherever it lives.

Sutter Health

Direct observation - shadowing clinicians

Beckman Coulter Diagnostics

Improving Antibiotic Therapy Decisions

Cross-Functional Leadership

Uniting stakeholders across R&D and commercial

Evidence-based product development across Sutter Health, Leica Biosystems, and Beckman Coulter (2017-2025)