Behind the Closed Door Conversations in Clinical Product
The conversations most teams never have out loud đ¤Ť
This is Clinical Product Thinking đ§ , your weekly newsletter featuring practical tips, frameworks and strategies from the frontlines of clinical product.
Good afternoon friends, this is issue No. 018. Todayâs piece is about what emerges when clinical product leaders are brought into the same room to work through shared challenges.
In 2025, I ran a small experiment. I hosted a series of deliberately intimate, practitioner-led, off-the-record gatherings. No slides. No sponsors. No panels.
Just clinical product leaders in a room, comparing notes and solving problems.
The events themselves arenât the story. What surfaced from them is.
This issue distils the patterns that kept reappearing across companies, seniority levels and problem spaces and why they matter right now.
Why These Rooms Matter Right Now
Conferences give you content.
Panels give you positioning.
Closed rooms of people doing the work give you something closer to the truth.
Clinical product is still young enough that many people working in it feel structurally alone. Theyâre the only clinical product person in their organisation, or one of very few, operating without established playbooks, precedents or career paths.
The isolation isnât geographic.
Itâs disciplinary.
These rooms mattered because they broke that isolation, not through networking, but through recognition.
Oh. Youâre dealing with that too.
What Each Room Revealed
1ď¸âŁ CPT Dinner: Defining Clinical Product as a Discipline
đ Key signal: No two companies define the role the same way.
The conversation wasnât abstract. People compared actual job descriptions, reporting structures and decision-making authority. What became clear wasnât just variation. It was a fundamental disagreement about what clinical product leaders are accountable for. Some own product strategy. Some own clinical safety. Some are brought in to âadd clinical perspectiveâ to decisions already made.
Beneath the surface, this isnât a maturity issue. Itâs a legitimacy question. Companies are still deciding whether clinical judgement is a strategic input that shapes product direction or a specialist function that validates choices after the fact.
2ď¸âŁ CPT Dinner: Integrating Clinical Safety into Product Development
đ Key signal: Clinical product is often brought into safety conversations too late to shape outcomes.
The conversation with Karim Sandid from Semble highlighted what good integration looks like, but the roomâs response revealed itâs not the norm. People described being asked to âsign offâ on safety documentation after features are already built, or being looped into risk assessments when designs are locked. The frustration wasnât about capability. It was about timing. Clinical safety isnât something you can retrofit. When clinical product people arrive after architectural decisions are made, their options narrow to documentation and mitigation, not design and prevention.
3ď¸âŁ CPT Dinner: Advocating for Clinical Product and Building Influence
đ Key signal: Influence is the hardest part of the job, and no one is teaching it.
Shubs Upadhyay, ex-Ada Health spoke about building buy-in across teams, but what dominated the conversation afterwards was how tiring it is to constantly justify your seat at the table. Several people described feeling like theyâre perpetually having to prove clinical expertise matters every time a decision is made, instead of being assumed as foundational. The pattern wasnât about lacking influence skills. It was about working in organisations where clinical judgement isnât always structurally valued (at least not until something goes wrong).
4ď¸âŁ CPT Drinks đ¸ #001
đ Key signal: Clinical product people feel isolated, not because theyâre rare, but because the work has no established community of practice.
The conversation in the room revealed many feel like they are the only one facing these challenges. The isolation wasnât about being the sole clinical product person at their company, some werenât. It was about working in a discipline so new that thereâs no shared language, no established career path and no obvious place to compare notes. People werenât networking. They were confirming that their problems are real and valid.
5ď¸âŁ CPT Dinner: Regulation Without Killing Innovation - AI as a Medical Device
đ Key signal: Building safe AI systems is top of mind.
Dr Dom Pimenta from Tortus AI described building a Class I medical device with regulatory rigour, but the roomâs questions revealed how many clinical product folks are grappling with this. People were trying to figure out: when does our AI become a medical device? How do we govern updates? What does clinical safety look like for AI systems? Itâs creating operational paralysis for teams trying to do the right thing without clear mental frameworks.
What Stayed Consistent Across All Rooms
Three patterns cut across all events, regardless of topic, seniority or company context.
1. Clinical product is often brought in too late to do its best work
By the time clinical expertise enters product decisions, the most consequential choices have already been made.
Clinical input is still too often treated as validation, not strategy.
2. The isolation is disciplinary, not geographic
People arenât isolated because theyâre remote or unique.
Theyâre isolated because thereâs no established playbook, progression path or shared precedent.
The relief in these rooms came from realising the ambiguity wasnât personal, it was structural.
3. Influence is the unlisted job requirement
The hardest part of the role isnât technical complexity or regulatory knowledge.
Itâs convincing organisations to value clinical judgement before problems surface, not after.
That negotiation, of scope, authority, timing and relevance, is rarely acknowledged, rarely taught, and often more exhausting than the work itself.
What Does This Changes for 2026
These patterns are shaping how I convene going forward.
In 2026, Iâm moving away from broad networking and toward smaller, focused conversations around shared, specific challenges.
Less noise.
More signal.
More collective sense-making.
I hope to see you in one of those rooms in 2026.
Happy New Year â¨
Coffee & Chat âď¸
Trialling a new format in Jan: a relaxed, 50-minute online chat for people working in and around clinical product. The first session is 21 January at 4pm. Spaces are limited đ Sign up here.
Save the Date đ
29 January â the first in-person Clinical Product Thinking event of the new year. Weâll be kicking things off with a panel event on how to get into clinical product with some very special guests. CPT subscribers will receive early access đ
Hiring Spotlight đ
Raj Kohli, co-founder and CEO of HealthTech-1, is hiring a Clinical Product Manager. I caught up with Raj about the role and the teamâs direction. HealthTech-1 is doing incredible work in primary care, and this position would suit a mid-level CPM with a strong regulatory mindset and Clinical Safety Officer (CSO) experience. đ Apply here.
Thatâs all for this week. See you next time! đ
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Written by Dr.Louise Rix, Head of Clinical Product, doctor and ex-VC. Passionate about all things healthcare, healthtech and clinical product (âŚobviously). Based in London. You can find me on Linkedin.
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