​

Hi Product People,

​

I hope you all had an excellent start to 2025! Wishing you a year filled with learning, growth, and new opportunities.

​

In our first podcast episode of the year, we explore an important question: how do you build a product from the ground up while tackling complex organizational and regulatory challenges?

​

This week on Product Thinking, I had an engaging conversation with Inessa Lurye, former Senior Director of Product at Hinge Health. We explored the intricacies of launching zero-to-one products within the challenging landscape of healthcare.

​

Among many interesting topics, Inessa shared a valuable anecdote during our discussion, emphasizing the importance of truly understanding your customers and fighting your own biases:

​

​

Her journey emphasizes the importance of staying open to data-driven insights and being willing to pivot as new information arises. We also discussed how leveraging existing organizational strengths can significantly boost the scale and impact of your products.

​

Join us to learn more about how Inessa is pushing the boundaries of women's healthcare technology and the trends she sees shaping its future.

​

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: Apple | Spotify​

​

Have a story about adapting your product strategy based on organizational strengths or on unexpected user data? Share your experiences in the comments on my LinkedIn post. These stories can help others discover the importance of a Product Thinking approach.

​

P.S. know anyone who would enjoy these emails? Forward it to them! Are you that friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.

​

​

See you next week, Melissa Perri Founder Product Institute, Board Member, and Teacher

​

Key Moments on the Podcast to Check Out:

13:30 - Building a Compelling Business Case for Healthcare Innovation

​

Inessa shares their months-long process of building the business case for the women's pelvic health program. Through extensive conversations with potential users, physicians, and buyers, they validated both the clinical need and market opportunity. She emphasizes the importance of understanding not just the user needs but also the organizational capabilities and strategic alignment before launching a new healthcare product.

​

20:16 - Balancing Clinical Excellence with Product Experimentation

​

In discussing their approach to early product testing, Inessa explains how they maintained high clinical standards while experimenting with the product. Rather than compromising on clinical care, they found ways to manually handle operational aspects while ensuring excellent patient care. This included having deeper clinical outreach, more frequent check-ins, and careful monitoring of clinical outcomes alongside engagement metrics.

​

40:10 - Leveraging Organizational Strengths in Product Innovation

​

Inessa outlines the unique advantages of building new products within an established organization like Hinge Health. She describes how they leveraged existing technical infrastructure, clinical operations, and sales channels to accelerate their go-to-market strategy. However, she also addresses the challenges of maintaining momentum and resources for a new product that initially serves a small user base compared to the core business.

​

​

Other Resources:

• ​Angel Squad​
• ​Productinstitute.com​

​

​

​

​

​

The CPO Accelerator is a members-only live virtual course for product leaders taught by Melissa Perri. The move from product leader to VP or CPO can be challenging. It takes a whole new set of skills to succeed at the next level, and you may be the first person at your company to hold this seat at the executive table.

​

​