How and why did you go from sales to product management?

One of my best friends is a software developer, and one day we got to talking. I realized I wanted to work in tech and at a startup. I just needed to get my foot in somewhere.

Working at a startup opened my eyes to a whole new world. Before that, I’d done a little bit of everything—new home construction sales, public schools, oil and gas. I’d held a lot of jobs, but I didn’t really have a career path. At the startup, I started playing around with SQL on my own, building dashboards, and I realized, oh, I actually really enjoy this.

I went back to my friend, who is self-taught in software development, and asked him, “What should I do first? How do I get started?” He pointed me to a few resources, including a local coding boot camp. They offered eight-week courses with a certificate at the end. The only one available at the time was a data analysis course. I thought, you know what? It’s something—I’ll give it a shot. I signed up, and I ended up loving it. We learned some SQL and a bit of a language called R for data analysis.

After I finished the course, I had a few published analyses I could show around. I started looking for data roles. Around that time, my friend—he works at a hospital—called me one night and said, “Hey, someone we hired just backed out. We need to fill this role fast. You should apply.” So I did.

Before that, I had also gone to a local startup community event, where I met the founder of another startup. We hit it off, and he learned I was working at a startup myself. After I’d already started the hospital interview process, that same founder reached out to grab coffee. He said, “I remember you were interested in software development, and I know you’ve got some good startup experience. What if we created a hybrid role—part software development, part customer relations?”

I ended up interviewing with them, too, but the hospital came through with an offer after the second interview, and I accepted it.

At the hospital, I started doing data work using our EHR (electronic health record) system, Cerner. It has its own SQL-like language, and I was writing reports and scripts to pull data for custom pages we build for physicians. I was extracting data all day. It was great—they brought me in even though I didn’t have any development experience, just that eight-week course. But they had a need, and I had someone who could vouch for me. There was a lot of luck involved for me to be where I’m at.

Around that time, I also got into a software development boot camp. But I didn’t enjoy it as much—it wasn’t nearly as hands-on as the data course had been. That first boot camp had us writing code two nights a week for two hours straight. I learn best that way. This new one was mostly lectures. So, I found other ways to learn. The biggest thing for me has always been to just look for opportunity.

One big opportunity came from something called ServiceDesk—it’s our GitHub-based ticketing system. Users submit requests there, but it wasn’t getting much attention. I asked my supervisor if I could take it over. I saw it as a great chance to learn our codebase by tweaking existing things, instead of having to build something entirely new from scratch. He said yes, and I ran with it for about eight months.

I also found out that one reason they hired me was to help grow the hospital’s side company, which contracts with other hospitals to build custom pages. My startup background and sales experience put me in a unique spot—I could understand the technical side and translate it for people who weren’t technical.

As the side company started growing, we realized we needed to expand the team. The CTO of the side company—who’s also the hospital’s software architect—said he wanted to bring on a product manager to free up his time. One day, I stopped by his office and said, “Hey, I heard you want to hire a product manager. That’s actually the direction I want to grow in. If you’re open to it, I’d love to take on that role—and then we could hire another developer instead.”

He said he’d think about it. A month or two went by, and I didn’t hear anything. But then, during my one-year review, he told me, “I talked to the CIO. We’re doing it. You’re going to be the new product manager, and we’ll bring in another developer.”

It’s been challenging and a lot of fun. I still have a ton to learn, but I’m excited to keep growing and really master the role.

What does the role look like for you on a day-to-day basis?

This role didn’t even exist at the organization a year ago—it’s still being defined to this day. Right now, one of my main responsibilities is managing our scrum board. I make sure tickets are created for the work we need to tackle during each two-week sprint, though those priorities can shift pretty often.

My day usually starts with checking emails and handling anything that’s high priority. After that, it really depends on where we are in the development cycle. For example, about a month ago, we launched a new page for our vein center. So my day then looked like: checking emails, answering what I could, and then getting into QA—testing the new page, flagging issues, and helping troubleshoot.

I was also working directly with end users as they tested the page—answering their questions, explaining how things work, and making sure everything was running smoothly. I’m also still writing code on the side.

Recently, we opened a shared space with another hospital, which meant we needed to build an interface that allows patient data to cross over into our system. That way, we can support things like dietary needs and other services for those patients. I’ve taken on a lot of the troubleshooting—either fixing issues myself or escalating them to the right person.

I also spend a good chunk of my time responding to user emails. It’s often someone saying, “Hey, this isn’t working—can you look into this?” I’ll triage those to figure out what’s actually broken versus what’s functioning as expected but just needs a little clarification. A lot of the time, it’s just helping the user understand how to do x, y, or z.

Why did you decide that being a product manager was your five-year plan?

It plays to my strengths. I have a skill that not a lot of developers typically bring to the table—I’m comfortable talking to people. I can understand the technical side of things, but I’m also able to explain it in a way that makes sense to end users. That kind of communication is a big part of what makes a good product manager, and that’s what drew me to the role.

What were some mistakes you made early on, and what did you learn from them?

One of the biggest mistakes I made was setting unrealistic expectations for myself. I thought, If I do this every day for a year, I’ll be good to go. But on the coding side especially, I’m not even close to where I thought I’d be by now. It’s been humbling, in that regard, because it’s tough. Looking back, I think I would’ve been better off going in with no expectations at all—just focusing on learning. That way, there’s less pressure, and you don’t have anywhere to go but up.

Would you like to stay in the healthcare industry, or go somewhere else?

I enjoy working in healthcare. It was all brand new to me when I started, and in the beginning, I was bombarding people with questions—What does this mean? What does this medication do? What are CPT codes? There’s still a big learning curve, even now. I’ve been at the hospital for two years, and I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface.

What makes it exciting is that there’s so much in healthcare that can—and needs to—change. In a lot of ways, it feels like working at a startup. I think we’re going to see a massive overhaul of the healthcare system in the next 10 to 15 years, and I’m excited to be part of that. Once that change starts to happen, I’m curious to see how we can innovate and keep up with everything that comes next.

What are some things you think are going to change?

I think we’re going to see a major push to re-evaluate the private healthcare system—especially when it comes to how inefficient some of the processes are. For example, at our hospital, getting authorization for procedures can be a huge bottleneck. You might have a patient right in front of you who needs a procedure, but you can’t schedule it until their insurance approves it. At the same time, you don’t want to leave them hanging—especially if it’s something serious that’s already causing them anxiety.

On top of that, healthcare is really starting to lean into technology, and AI is becoming a big part of that shift. One thing we’ve done is build an AI model to help predict ER charges. It estimates what we’ll likely need to bill for, which makes our process a lot more efficient. When we tested it, the model was 98% accurate—which was pretty incredible.

What’s your advice for others?

The biggest thing is to network. Try to connect with people who are in roles you’d like to be in someday. Be genuine, but let them know what you're working toward. That’s honestly how I got to where I am. A friend of mine worked at a company that had a need, and I was in a position to fill it. Without that connection, I probably wouldn’t have gotten hired there—but I also would have been able to land the startup job because I had gone to an event, met the founder, and made a good impression.

LinkedIn can be a great tool for networking, too. If someone shares an article you find interesting, comment on it or send them a message—something like, “I really liked this part. What are your thoughts?” It’s a simple way to start a conversation.

Ultimately, it’s about building relationships. I’d guess that 75–80% of people get jobs through someone they know. It plays a huge role in how opportunities open up.