Five takeaways from Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet Trends Report and what it means practically for Product Managers and UX Designers heading into 2019.

“Context dictates the scale of people’s need. And people’s product experiences depend deeply on the context in which they’re used”

Pricing is perhaps one of the most important aspects of a Go To Market Strategy. Pricing is about setting a price high enough that users are willing to pay, be satisfied with the purchase, and generates a profit for the company. An incorrect Pricing Strategy can undermine all the efforts and the investments made up to the point of purchase.

High heat and humidity increases spoilage rates and possibly affecting taste. Product managers must decide whether to use refrigerated trucks or to move and build manufacturing facilities closer to markets(to reduce shipping time). Inventory costs can also rise due to higher energy costs of keeping raw materials and finished goods cold 24/7 to prevent spoilage.

For healthcare product managers, vaccines and pharmaceuticals often need to be kept within a strict temperature range at all times.  Otherwise, the effectiveness and potency of vaccines may be reduced, destroyed, or potentially rendered dangerous to use.

For product, brand, and marketing managers, the pricing strategy one chooses is critical because pricing decisions directly affect the bottom line. The prices that customers are willing to pay is the culmination of your marketing, R&D, product development, and sales efforts.

For healthcare administrators, appropriate pricing of certain procedures(ie elective surgeries, patient paid procedures) can help advance social impact and revenue goals.

One area where pricing strategy can add value is in Price Segmentation.

To be a leader is a privilege, not a right. And I stay mindful that the people I lead have put their trust in me to lead them

How can leaders harness the collective knowledge that resides inside the minds of a multidisciplinary employees each working in different departments who have different mental models, perspectives, lived experiences, and cultures? And how can this be done in a way that is simple, fast, and proven to be effective? Does such a method even exist? Yes it does!

Service operations management is critical as it deals with the unique decision making challenges that only exist in a service-based organization(ie. Hospitals, healthcare facilities)- issues that don’t occur in traditional product-based organizations(manufacturing, retail, etc.).

Social interaction, in a team setting, is imperfect, dynamic, and often conflicting. Here’s what we’ve learned from teamwork in a demanding high performance, results oriented team environment.

How can marketers transform one of the most difficult and negative experiences – hospitals’ emergency rooms (ER) – into one that is emotionally rewarding and satisfying? How can they design and engineer human emotions so that patients’ perceptions can be reconfigured to ensure they have positive and even memorable experiences?