A couple weeks ago I left accuRx, probably the best job I ever had.
I joined accuRx (a healthtech start-up that builds communication software for the NHS) in October 2019 as their first product manager. As this was just a few months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I got a front-row seat to seeing how healthcare delivery (and the uptake of digital solutions for care delivery) in the UK would transform. During this period, the company grew from 18 to 160 employees, and the usage of accuRx’s flagship product surged from 30% of GP practices across the country to just over 98% 🤯.
accuRx also has some of the best perks of a start-up/scale-up in London. Free breakfast, lunch and snacks everyday in the office. Loads of team dinners, celebrations, and a monthly “Society Friday” where everyone works a half day in the morning and then gets to do an activity of their choosing (like going rock climbing, learning flower arrangement, or going to the theatre) with people from the company. The company also really embraces and empowers its people to add to the culture, which for me meant helping everyone dress up for my favourite holiday, Halloween!
Beyond the perks, one thing I love about accuRx is how the company values (read about them here) really align with my personal values and how I want to work. Value alignment is part of the interview process which means the people that get hired truly care about making healthcare better and are all really collaborative and ambitious (felt like I’d finally found my tribe!) Being a foreigner in this country, I have met some of my best friends in London via accuRx.
So if things were so great, why did I leave??
Deciding to leave was a really hard decision, one that I agonised over and probably put off doing for longer than I should have. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a place as holistically mission-driven or with such super-charged growth, that I’d miss all the great perks, and that I’d be disappointing my friends. However, deep down I knew it was time, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how I made this decision in case it resonates with someone else.
Nostalgia for a smaller team.
When I joined, accuRx was a scrappy little team that was 100% in the office. If you had a question, you’d just walk over to that person’s desk and ask them. We all wore lots of different hats, and everyone was expected to pick up a bit of slack. More than 100 people and 1 pandemic later, things looked very different (as, I’d like to point out, they should!) Lots of meetings took place remote-first, meeting rooms were a scramble to book, and there were now dedicated people hired to do dedicated tasks. I realised I had started getting very nostalgic for the little scrappy world of a smaller start-up.
I’m so thankful for having had the experience of observing and being part of hyper-growth at accuRx, not only because of everything I learned about product management and building a startup, but also because of everything I learned about myself.
I left knowing that I loved being part of a tiny team where everyone knew everyone, and I could let my creativity flourish by taking up things that weren’t directly part of my job (like event management, something I enjoy, but not something I’d want to do full time!)
I had something to prove to myself.
Before accuRx, I had never worked in product, in tech, or even really at a start-up! I’m so thankful to accuRx’s brilliant founders, Jacob and Laurence, for taking a chance and hiring me as their first product manager. At accuRx, I worked on their flagship software — a desktop application that works alongside the medical record to send SMS messages to patients. I’ve spoken to hundreds of users, visited dozens of GP practices, and learned more about the intricacies of the NHS than I ever imagined!
However, I’ve never worked on software that is sold directly to customers (B2C), or a mobile app, or even just on another product / at another company. I am confident in my abilities to work hard, learn new things, and continuously grow; but in order for me to say I am great at product management, I wanted to prove I could do it all again somewhere else.
Seeking novelty.
I realised I had started getting very comfortable at accuRx. This doesn’t mean that I felt like I knew everything, or was even good at every part of my job (there were lots of things that still challenged me and I definitely still made mistakes). But things had become very familiar. I felt like I knew the product I was working on inside out, I was very familiar with our users, and even though I still really enjoyed spending time with them, it wasn’t as stimulating as it once was. I wasn’t learning at the same rate I had been when I first joined. The job wasn’t easy per say, but I could operate a bit on auto-pilot.
I was ready for something different; to embark on a new adventure. And that’s when I knew it was time.
Part of what made it so hard to leave accuRx was that I wasn’t seriously unhappy (as I had been in previous roles that I left). There were so many positives and reasons to love work at accuRx. However, sometimes we fear leaving what we know for the unknown. It was only when I gave myself time to really reflect on what was most important to me and my career development in the next few years that I was able to come to the realisation that staying (despite all the positives) might not be the most effective way to get me there.
There are so many things that I miss about accuRx, but I feel at peace with my decision.
The evening of my last day, I sat down and reflected on the top things I learned about being a successful PM at accuRx; in case it’s of interestI thought I’d also share them with you!
1. Introspection is rewarded. When things go wrong, really think about why and what your role was. Figure out what you’d do differently if faced with a similar situation, and have a discussion about your reflections with your line manager. This indicates a lot of self-awareness, vulnerability, and mature leadership traits.
2. Use your visionary/creative colleagues and founders for input, not delivery. At most companies I’d imagine there are visionary leaders somewhere in the organisation that can be hugely impactful for PMs. Often these leaders will have a vivid idea of what the future of your product or industry could look like. However, in workshops or whiteboarding sessions, you won’t get the most out of them if you’re stuck too much in the “here and now.” In each sprint (or set of sprints) a PM is focused on delivering steps 1–10; a visionary leader’s input on step 4 won’t be as valuable as giving them space to talk about step 162. At first I used to be very worried about disappointing these leaders if we had future looking discussions and then I couldn’t go and make it happen immediately, but simply having the conversation helps indicate alignment and that you also understand the long term direction (which buys you credibility and faith in leading your product in that direction).
3. Give more context than you think you’ll need on everything. As a company continues to grow, there will be more and more people and more and more things going on. Assume your stakeholders don’t know the details of what you’re working on. Use the “Mom Test” logic when giving every update (would your mom understand this explanation?) In check-ins, reiterate your current state to shine light on things your team is doing that isn’t just your OKR but may detract from pace (onboarding new joiners, outages/incidents/bugs, supporting another team, annual leave, etc.) this will earn you trust in delivery.
4. No tit-for-tat accounting — just pay it forward. Ask for help when you need it, give help when you have it — but don’t turn it into a game of who owes who. Just do it because it’s the right thing (and take the help because you need it and it’ll help you grow!)
5. Get creative. Have fun. Celebrate wins. Be silly. Inspire others. Do things that scare you or are out of the ordinary. Let yourself be the one-if-a-kind unique PM that only you can be!
