Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello, and welcome Inspired Podcast community.
This is your new episode.
My name is Caroline, and my today's guest isMaria Borisoba, and I'm so happy that she said
yes to our interview.
How are you doing today?
Yeah.
Thank you very much, Caroline, for having me.
(00:21):
I'm doing fantastic.
Today is Tuesday.
So, yeah, start of the week.
Excited for what's to come.
What about you?
How
are you?
Yes.
It's a great day to have a podcast interview,of course, and I would like to introduce you to
the audience.
Okay?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You are a senior product designer and founderof TechMeta Studio with extensive expertise in
(00:47):
health tech and scaling startups to success.
With a background in marketing management, youbring a holistic approach to product design and
growth.
Welcome to the Inspired podcast, Maria.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
What a beautiful name.
We talked a little bit about names already, andI I love words and languages and names as well.
(01:11):
And I learned something from you.
Thank you so much already.
And my first question is, what inspired yourtransition from marketing management to product
design, particularly in the health tech space?
Yeah.
Absolutely, Caroline.
That's that's an amazing question, becauseprobably I should start from the very
(01:34):
beginning.
At that point, when I was deciding totransition from marketing management to design,
I was working in the exciting health carecompany.
So it was a health tech startup, pretty bighealth tech startup, in post-USSR space, and we
were working on medical tourism products.
(01:54):
And I was so excited about the space that,actually, I wanted to shape the product, not
only the marketing efforts and growth of thecompany, but also the product side of it.
And I could not because it was outside of myrealm of responsibilities at that point.
And I didn't even know how to do that because Iwas not a designer at all.
(02:15):
So, gradually, I started learning more and moreabout design.
And from a pretty good marketing managementposition, I decided to switch to a new company,
which was product design, specifically inhealth care.
And since then, so for the past seven years,I've been working only with health care
companies, or, like, let's say, 90% of the timewith health care companies, and I enjoy it a
(02:39):
lot.
Certainly, there is depth in this industry, andif you keep working and working with health
care products, you understand there is so muchto learn, and there is never enough of your
knowledge.
You always are challenged.
You always need to discover, to innovate, andit's not as shallow as just producing something
(02:59):
and seeing it grow organically.
It is shaped every single day by new companies,by new products, by absolutely unimaginable
innovations, especially these years, lastyears, using AI.
So, certainly, I'm absolutely happy with mychoice.
Wow.
What a great answer.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Now I understand.
(03:20):
So you transitioned from marketing manager toproduct designer.
And, of course, you said it was not in yourfield or your responsibility, so you studied
more to have this position.
And now you are so excited and happy to do whatyou are doing.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
(03:40):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
That is so great.
Thank you so much for inspiring us today.
Of course, I have another question.
How has your experience scaling startupsinfluenced your approach to validating and
growing new products?
Yeah.
I think it's an interesting question because inthe health care space, you can always think
(04:03):
about it from two sides.
Right?
So we have the clinical side, always.
So let's imagine doctors, nurses, caregiverswho are producing the service for the patient
side, or just any consumer.
Right?
So, essentially, to be successful within thisspace, you need to understand both sides, how
(04:23):
to make the clinical side happy andoperationally efficient, and at the same time,
surely, you want to keep the consumer and thepatient happy as well.
And on top of that, you must ensure that theservice as such is innovative and efficient, so
the patient gets treated, there are noreadmissions, you are not losing money on
(04:45):
serving the same patient, I don't know, 20times because you didn't manage to do it right
the first time.
So in general, the system as such is quiteholistic, and it's interesting just to
understand the different parts of itcontributing to the common success.
And if you remove one part, it's virtuallyimpossible to make the system work.
(05:07):
Right?
So, certainly, you must grow the whole systemwith the right marketing or sales.
But at the same time, as a product designer,it's already challenging because you must keep
in mind so many different stakeholders, likethe clinical side of it, obviously, the user
side of it, and also on top of that, usuallythere is the state, so legislation, many, many
(05:31):
norms because it's health care, privacy issues.
So, yeah, all of these are probably thecomponents that will make a product successful
or not.
Wow.
This is so great.
Thank you so much.
I think I understood now for the first time theimportance of having an overview.
You talked about the holistic approach as well.
(05:53):
So you always see different perspectives of thesame thing, at least two.
You mentioned the patients and the clinicalside as well and the other stakeholders as
well.
I'm so happy that you are here today as myexpert, our expert for the audience, talking
about new products in health care in the healthcare space.
(06:17):
Right?
And my next question is, what unique challengesdo health tech startups face, and how do you
approach designing solutions for them?
Yeah.
I think innovative challenges.
Honestly, I think health care is one of themost rewarding industries to work in because,
(06:38):
obviously, we have social impact, which meansyou have the ability to affect people a lot,
and it is joined with the responsibility to doit right.
So the challenge is inherent in health care.
Right?
So you are caring for a human being in theirhealth or their life.
(07:00):
So that is a challenge that will be based intoevery single decision that you are making if
you are working in this industry.
Right?
So whether you are selling some product, whichwill affect a person in a good or bad way, you
are responsible for that.
And, certainly, if you are working with theclinicians, you are affecting their decisions.
And we all know that medical errors, they arenot rare, especially if clinicians are tired,
(07:24):
or maybe the information presented isn't quiteright.
So you are responsible also for that, and thatis also an interesting challenge to do this.
Right?
So how do you present information to theclinician for them to make the right decision
for the patient, obviously, and for themselves?
Because they're also human beings, and theywant to work efficiently and be happy within
(07:46):
their work environment.
So they do a burnout, just doing every singlething every single day, and there are many
doctors and many caregivers.
So that is another huge segment of humans.
Wow.
Thank you so much.
I love that you said it is a really rewarding,not challenge.
(08:06):
The task you have that you choose is, not job.
It's not a job.
It's like a calling for you, your purpose.
Right?
You are on a mission to improve the health caresector as well and for all of the parties that
are involved.
And I love also that you talked aboutdecisions.
(08:27):
The responsible persons have to make decisionsall day long.
This is also what this podcast is about.
Inspired Choice, of course, that we do theright choices for our day.
So tell us, please, where can we find you whenpeople want to reach out to you after listening
(08:47):
to this episode?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You can find me on LinkedIn.
Also, I have a free newsletter where I'mwriting about the best products in the health
space or just innovative products, and we canlearn a lot about user engagement, patient
engagement, and, in general, successfulapplications in my newsletter, Tech Matters in
(09:12):
Marion.
So you can also read my weekly insight there.
And, yeah, please feel free to reach out if youhave any questions.
Oh, I love that.
So I'm following you already.
So please reach out to Maria.
She's amazing, and she's so inspiring, I think.
Tell us, please.
Of course, I have another question for you.
(09:34):
It is, do you have coaches or mentors foryourself, and who was the best coach you ever
had?
Yeah.
That's a good question because I do have,certainly, the coaches, though they are not
necessarily in the health space.
Because I work a lot with founders of healthcare startups, and I feel like that's, like, a
(09:56):
huge mentorship field, which is not formalbecause we are mentoring each other in ways.
So we are telling our stories, how growth isgoing on, what we are learning by either
growing a product or designing a product orchallenging ourselves.
So there is informal mentorship.
(10:17):
And, certainly, I have some formal mentors,more style in business or in growth,
specifically, of products, so I can directlyask my questions and get answers.
So I think it's two-sided, and it's amazing howdifferent and this is how much you can learn
(10:37):
from different industries.
Right?
Because if you're working in healthcare for solong, for seven years, let's imagine
predominantly circulating in between the samechallenges, the same problems, the same
solutions, we do not see other solutions.
People are coming up with exciting, amazing,innovative solutions in other industries, but
(10:59):
we never adopt them because we are in ourbubble.
Right?
So education comes up with this one, fintechcomes up with something else.
But we are blind to that quite often in healthcare.
We are just focused on our knowledge and whatwe already see it's working.
Right?
So it's evolving within that.
But when you actually see what's happeningoutside, it helps inform better decisions,
(11:24):
create better products, and, obviously, pushthe industry, I guess, make it all a bit more
innovative, even more innovative.
Yes.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I love this point of the informal mentorship,so to say.
We mentor each other.
That is so true.
And I also see this podcast as mentoringprograms, so to say, where we inspire each
(11:49):
other in 15 minutes, for example.
And what you said about yeah.
It fits perfectly to your holistic approachthat you have in your work already.
So you have different perspectives on yourbusiness or on other businesses as well.
And I love that we can tap into differentindustries to get inspired as well.
(12:10):
And what you said about the health careindustry that this it seems static because
people don't want to change maybe, but there'sso much to explore.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I think, in general, the health industry isquite conservative.
Mhmm.
(12:31):
And it does make sense because you don't wantto innovate way too much when we are talking
about your health.
Right?
You don't want to try something absolutely newand see if you survive.
Right?
So it must be conservative to any extent, butat the same time, we obviously want to make it
more efficient, which means taking the risksand optimizing testing different things, which
(12:53):
means, obviously, adopting some ideas fromdifferent industries here and there, just see
which ideas will work for us in our realm ofproblems, and maybe something will be much
better than what we've already come up with.
Yes.
That's so true.
I love about the, like, the testing side, soyou can test it before you implement it, like,
(13:18):
permanently or so.
And this is where the fun comes into playbecause people also love new things.
And when it's better than the old things, thenwhy not adapt this as you said?
Thank you so much.
I have one last question for you.
It is about your goals.
Do you set goals for yourself or intentions?
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And what is one of your next projects?
Yeah.
That's an excellent question because I thinkgoals are always, always a big topic,
especially at the beginning of the year, thefirst months, I would say.
Yeah.
People are either reflecting on the goals thatthey set at the end of the year and just
(14:03):
checking if they are really accomplishing whatthey said they want to accomplish, because
already one month has passed, so you've alreadydone quite a bit to understand if you will be
able to accomplish something, or maybe you needto course correct.
So for me, the first month was very interestingin terms of goals, because the goals that I set
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for myself at the end of last year, they werequite mild.
They were not hard.
And I just wanted to see how pursuing the samegoal for a few weeks feels for me, and if I
really want to double down on it.
And then for the 11 months, I will be fullyinvested in it.
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Because I feel like if you set the goal at thevery beginning and you didn't know if you can
commit all of your resources to it, it feelslike a necessary obligation that you then are
dragging.
And most probably, you will not be consistentwith it.
And the same approach of testing somethingbefore implementing it fully worked for me in a
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similar way.
So a few projects that I started, I was notsure if I really want to accomplish them, a few
work projects.
But as the time was passing by, I justunderstood which ones are really rewarding for
me.
Are they inspiring me?
I didn't need to push myself to do anything.
I just come and I'm happy to do it regardlessof any goal.
(15:28):
So, yeah, I think focusing on this specific fewthat are the most rewarding and then continuing
and doubling down on them, that is a very goodapproach.
Yes.
That's so true.
Thank you so much.
Otherwise, we get overwhelmed and we don'tachieve our goals.
Right?
As you said.
(15:49):
Thank you so much for our interview.
I'm so happy that we met.
And, of course, now is time for your finalthoughts to the audience, please.
Oh, well, yeah.
That's another good question.
I think, when you work in health care, youquite often think about your health.
(16:11):
People do it, realize this.
Everything is just like any industry, justhealth care.
It doesn't matter.
But, indeed, if you are invested and you are sopassionate about it, you do think about health,
and you do think about the product that you arecreating.
So I believe, one insight that I received whenI was working in health care was, you need to,
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first of all, pay attention to your healthalways, and people do forget about it often
when they are pursuing their goals or they arejust passionate about something, and suddenly
it's, like, the last problem to tackle.
And then they come to us as patients becausethey have some problems now.
(16:57):
So, yeah, just keep it in mind that mentalhealth and physical health are extremely
important, and we need to keep that in mind.
Never postpone it.
That is probably my best one.
Wow.
What a great message.
Thank you so much, and please reach out toMaria.
She's amazing.
She knows exactly what she's talking about.
(17:18):
Thank you so much for our interview.
Thank you very much, Caroline.
It was a pleasure talking to you and meetingyou and your community.
Likewise, and I see you in the next.