Simon is the epitome of a pragmatic mindset – a knowledgable and ever-curious person who always finds areas for improvement; Simon enjoys his work and has a remarkable ability to change lenses and find the right questions. He is without a doubt a star as a Product Owner of Visiba's patient interfaces.

What do you do at Visiba? 

I am the Product Owner of the patient interfaces. That means I am responsible to ensure that the functions we develop for the patient interfaces give value to the patients and to our customers. It is important that we exchange ideas, so that we can keep track of the needs of our users and customers. Being able to hold together priorities and building the right things at the right time are also parts of the work, which means more strategic planning and tight collaboration within the product team and the rest of the company. I started at Visiba in 2018 as a UX designer – Both design work and product ownership are super fun, but in the end I felt a bit more drawn to the generalist perspective of being a Product owner.

Tell us a bit about your background! 

I moved from Vaasa to Lund for my studies in Biomedical Engineering. It’s a very broad programme that includes everything – from medical imaging technologies like ultrasound and MRI, to advanced signal processing algorithms and biomechanics. During the later stages of my studies, I decided to specialise in e-health, so I took some courses and did my thesis within Interaction Design. The combination of UX and biomedical engineering is quite unusual I'd say, but very useful.

What is the most challenging and the most exciting part of your job? 

The most challenging part is that it is a lot to keep in mind at any given time – you have to keep in mind the strategy for next year and make sure that we are heading towards the right direction, and to keep the current and next sprint in mind to make sure that the right things are happening in the short term. It’s keeping both perspectives and changing them all the time; it’s difficult but it’s fun, because I get to be involved in everything, even if it’s a little – Marketing, design, research, sprint work, helping out where I can, prioritisation. One thing that excites me and gives me a lot of energy is the sprint demos! Getting to show to the entire company what the team has been doing these past weeks.

What was the change in usage that caught your interest the most during the pandemic? 

The number of patients in our apps exploded – That’s a big change. We started seeing the patient interfaces and apps being used in completely new ways, with a lot of physical appointments for COVID-19 testing being booked – which was not the case before even though the technology for it was there. So, we have seen a shift in different ways the platform can be used which is really exciting.

How would you like to see the digital patient flow unfold in the future? 

What we want to accomplish is for the Visiba apps to be the natural place where patients go to seek care. If it’s booking an appointment, digital or physical, asking a question, you should be able to go to the easy-to-use app that your healthcare provider offers – your digital care assistant.

What makes Visiba such a good place to work? 

What I like the most is that everyone is so involved and passionate about our mission to develop and improve healthcare and to make it more accessible. I also like that all my colleagues are very motivated and ambitious, which really inspires me. I appreciate the flexibility – the fact that you can work from home, or anywhere really, and if I get inspiration in the evening, I can work late and take a late morning the next day, you have a lot of own responsibility. Another source of inspiration is that we have so many customers and users who want to be involved in developing the product together with us, so that we really can build a product that they will use.

What will you focus on next? 

On a professional level, just keeping up with everything that’s happening and doing what I need to do! Pushing the strategy, trying to learn more about the business perspective of Product work. Personally, after a break with running, I’m thinking about getting involved in a backyard ultra race next summer. I have a nice side-project with a microbrewery I am running with a couple of friends. I’m hoping that people will be able to taste our beer in the near future!