Welcome to Truvetan Spotlight, where each month we’ll highlight a member of the Truveta team. From clinical researchers to engineers to product development to compliance and security officers, what makes Truveta special are its people and their shared passion for saving lives with data.
This month, we kick off the series spotlighting one of the brilliant minds behind our product management and strategy, Anna Lasko. Anna is the Director of Product Management, focused on Life Science, working directly with member health systems and life sciences customers to get the most out of the Truveta Platform. Here’s a little more about Anna …
What brought you to Truveta?
After I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Finance, I was lucky enough to land a great global sourcing role at Target, where I managed the sourcing and supply chain execution for proprietary vendors. During that time, and like many others who enter the healthcare space, I witnessed family members getting sick and face difficulties navigating an increasingly complex healthcare system. While I loved my role and the incredible people at Target, I knew I belonged in healthcare.
So, I took my business background to CVS Health where I worked in pharmacy operations, building digital experiences that improved patient communication and prescription adherence. While there, I was fortunate to have an amazing manager who encouraged me to go to business school to get my master’s degree. I attended Harvard Business School (HBS), and in my second year, became VP of Digital Health for HBS’s Health Care Club. After I graduated from Harvard, I was still passionate about having an impact in healthcare and wanted to be a part of transforming the industry. I worked for McKinsey & Company for a few years, which gave me incredible exposure to different industry sectors — and the opportunities, challenges, and nuances in how health systems and life sciences companies work.
I was ready to join a start-up and be a part of the healthcare disruption, and that’s when I heard about Truveta. And here I am today.
Why Truveta?
Because I believe the work we are doing here is really special — we are accelerating generalizable, clinical research to reduce patient suffering and improve patient lives. You can hear it in the voices of every person who works at Truveta. We all deeply believe in and are committed to our vision – to save lives with data and make a meaningful difference on people’s lives.
What does a “Director of Product Management, Life Science” do?
It’s a great question! I get to spend my days creating and writing the vision for differentiated value and the strategy to deliver it for our Life Science customers. I am responsible for developing the long-term and milestone-specific roadmaps with concise product requirements that optimize for impact. I work closely with key stakeholders within the organization such as engineering, partnerships, and marketing teams to provide the details needed to support the roadmap, while staying flexible to refine the roadmap as new learnings and needs arise.
Most importantly, I serve as the voice of our Life Science customers. I am building relationships with them and conducting user research to continuously learn about what pain points they have and understand what they need to conduct successful research on our platform. This is informed by qualitative and quantitative data – analyzing and synthesizing findings, then making recommendations to deliver value and impact.
Can you share a favorite moment at Truveta so far?
Prior to focusing on Life Science, I had direct exposure with our member health systems. One of my favorite moments was when I met with a cardiovascular researcher to provide an overview of Truveta and gauge his interest in doing collaborative research with Truveta in the future. At first, he was skeptical of what we are doing. But by the end of the conversation, he not only vocalized his support for our vision and interest in doing research, he introduced us to 5 other clinical researchers from his organization that he believed would be interested in collaborative research. Watching that transformation in just a 45-minute call validated my choice to join Truveta and that we have a real chance to deliver on our mission.
What has surprised you?
I’ve been surprised by the engagement and deep collaboration researchers at our member health systems have provided to date. We are a company that is still building and growing, and we’ve been fortunate to have trusted thought partners from our member systems. (And if any of those trusted thought partners are reading this – thank you.)
The level of engagement from our health systems excites me to think about how a similar relationship and partnership can happen with Life Science.
What are your favorite things to do when you aren’t working with researchers and engineers?
Outside of Truveta, I enjoy traveling with friends and family, and cozying up at a good book! One of my goals for 2022 to is to read at least 2 books per month – and am on track to do so in January!
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