I’m a graduate of the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Arts and a concentration in New Media in addition to an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University. While born in Massachusetts, I’ve spent the majority of my life living in Maine and specifically grew up in the small town of Bowdoinham. Throughout High School and College I played bass in a rotating list of bands that performed throughout New England and at local festivals. While playing in bands has not been on my cards lately, I still love to write and record digital music in my limited free time.
My career has evolved naturally over time through my philosophy of being a “utility player”. This is a baseball player who can play every position well but is not elite in any one category and finding and filling the gaps in an organization.
Initially this was as a Graphic Designer for OYO Sportstoys, a minifigure start-up with exclusive licensing rights for the MLB, MiLB and NFL, where I helped design packaging, uniforms, faces and managed their e-commerce platform. From there I helped fill gaps in the engineering department through the design of new processes and art files, helped package and ship product to customers and even spent a few overnights printing and shrink-wrapping products to meet the deadline.
I subsequently joined IDEXX Laboratories as a Technical Support Resource supporting their chemistry instruments and instrument management system known as the VetLab Station. I quickly transitioned into a role as a “Go-To” as I spent the majority of my evenings teaching myself about IT protocols and how our instruments communicated to each other. Being a resource for others to draw confidence from was inspiring. It allowed me to evolve as an educator and create new and improved protocols to allow our Technical Support Teams to spend less time on the phone solving complex connectivity issues.
As part of my inquisitive nature, I began exploring other areas of IDEXX as they are home to Companion Animal, Water and Livestock, Poultry, and Dairy lines of business. Through this exploration of the company the stars aligned, and I was given an opportunity to join the Livestock, Poultry, and Dairy (LPD) team as a Marketing Associate supporting their various product managers and directors. This introduced me to the world of product management and an organizational structure which aligned with my career philosophy.
During my time with the LPD team I was able to complete my MBA program and was given increasing responsibilities to become the Global Bovine and Dairy Product Manager responsible for the Bovine PCR Pipeline and Dairy portfolio, in addition to leading and participating in many cross-functional organizational projects on behalf of the LPD organization. It is during this time that I learned how to lead an effective meeting, design presentations and overall influence those who are not direct reports to achieve a common goal.
In May 2020, I made the leap into the Human Health realm and joined LGC as the Sr. Product Manager for the VALIDATE portfolio. While learning a new industry on the fly can be challenging, it forces you to focus on the customer and view things through their lens. A lesson I took with me as I picked up further responsibilities for the ACCURUN Serology portfolio last year. At the end of the day, we have limited resources to achieve our goals and if a project/product is not providing value to our customers then it will not be a wise investment to pursue.
5. What do you most enjoy about your role?My favorite thing about Product Management is that it has a purview into every department of the company, which allows me to continue to learn about and drive initiatives across the entire organization. MSDRx Infinity is an excellent example as its development has involved working with an outside developer to bring vital updates to our existing software and move it to a cloud-based platform. No day is ever the same, which can be challenging but never boring or stale.
While I do not have a specific moment that I can turn to, I find that I’m proudest of what we are doing as a team to grow our organization and the Clinical Diagnostics BU into a leading Quality Measurement Tool provider. Whether that be improving our internal process or launching a new and innovative product to our customers, we are doing it together and that should not be discounted.
My advice for new product managers is to always to be curious and learn from other disciplines outside of your role. There are bits and pieces from any number of areas which can be applied to how product managers approach their roles. Whether that be learning about Agile/SCRUM Software development principles, Lean Six Sigma operational efficiencies, or Marketing Automation, there is always something to borrow and adapt into your product management toolbelt.
Downhill Skiing, playing/recording music, exercising, reading, and binge-watching TV.