High Stakes, No Shortcuts: What Medical Device Product Managers Can Teach Us All

Most product management content assumes we’re all building software. But the world is physical, and some of the most consequential products are the ones where a bug isn’t just a bad user experience, it’s a patient safety issue. In this episode, JJ talks with Simone Hugar, a biomedical engineer turned product manager who started in SaaS and now leads commercialization of Class II and Class III medical devices. 

They dig into what’s different when you can’t ship a quick fix or track adoption in an analytics dashboard: getting feedback from surgeons and nurses in an ICU, navigating years-long regulatory timelines, and why the higher the risk, the more rigor your decisions demand.

Simone also shares her nonlinear path into product, from coding to hospital operations during COVID to an NHS research project that changed her career. She offers grounded advice for aspiring PMs: stay curious, treat failure as “not now,” and remember that the product always belongs to the user. 

At the end of the discussion, Simone turns the tables and asks JJ about the mentor who shaped her and the one trait she’s seen in nearly every Product Voices guest.