The Client: Fresenius Group

Fresenius Group is a German-based global healthcare company with a diverse range of services in the medical field. The company operates through four main segments, each specializing in different aspects of healthcare. Fresenius Medical Care is renowned for its dialysis services, catering to individuals with chronic kidney failure. Meanwhile, Fresenius Helios operates hospitals primarily in Germany and Spain, offering extensive medical and health services, and is one of Europe’s top private hospital operators. The third segment, Fresenius Kabi, focuses on lifesaving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion, and clinical nutrition. This division is dedicated to the care of critically and chronically ill patients, providing essential products and services for hospitals and outpatient medical settings. Lastly, Fresenius Vamed deals with the management of projects and services for hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Its expertise ranges from planning and development to managing healthcare facilities. In essence, Fresenius Group spans a comprehensive range of healthcare services and products, from kidney dialysis and hospital management to nutritional products and essential medical services and technologies. This broad spectrum of activities allows the company to influence various aspects of healthcare delivery around the globe significantly.

The Mission: Outbound Product Manager to drive international go-to-market

In May 2022, we joined Fresenius Group ****as interim Outbound Product Managers. We were needed because the Product Manager position had been vacant for a few months and the company was preparing an international expansion into the Kenyan market. The role of the Outbound Product Manager was crucial to support, collaborate, and align with the in-house team. That team was made up of 70 developers, 5 designers, 4 UX researchers, and 4 tech leads/engineering managers.

Company Expectations:

• Manage Stakeholders: Understanding the needs and expectations of stakeholders to shape them and ensure they are up to speed with all decisions was one of the main expectations that the company had for the Interim Product Manager from Product People.
• Effectively leverage the organization: work with a cross-functional team of experts to develop the necessary functionality for the core user journeys.
• Ensure Regulatory Compliance: the digital product must be medically and regulatory compliant in the designated markets before launch.

What was our goal?

“Work with a cross-functional team to deliver on the first market entry on the committed timeline while mitigating the risks of introducing a medical product in a new market.”

How We Helped

Onboarded Very Fast

Fresenius Group has one large product development team supporting multiple product areas. However, the portal for Health Care Professionals (HCP) had been without a Product Manager for a while, and the delivery of capabilities for the first international market was lagging. We jumped in quickly and provided a helping hand.

First Deliverables

• Recommendations for an improved onboarding process: As interim Product Managers, we are used to onboarding quickly and efficiently. When we joined, we realized that Fresenius Group’s team had limited experience onboarding Product Managers because the team had been stable for an extended time. We leveraged our experience to improve the process and make it smoother for our successor.
• Cleanup of the existing backlog: as a result of the absence of the Product Manager during the past months, the backlog had not received attention. We reviewed and cleaned it to ensure that the team was focusing on the most important tasks and projects.

Discovery

We identified two main problems and one curve ball when we arrived. First, there was a gap between the high-level user journey for the new markets and the existing journey, but it was unclear how to close this gap. Secondly, we only had 3 months to build the functionality needed for a successful market entry in Kenya, but requirements were not yet specified, and designs were missing. On top of that, summer was approaching, which meant reduced capacity due to vacations.