Headshots for Product Executive
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of photographing fellow Chief, Erin Brenner. I asked Erin to tell me a little bit about how she came to be Chief Product Development Office for Pear Therapeutics.
“It’s been a journey of discovery that was anything but linear. I started in software during the late 90s – the original internet boom. Since then I’ve done implementation, program management, product management and leading software engineering teams. There were lots of decisions along the way that didn’t appear to make sense for my career path, but they were things I was interested in. They were opportunities to stretch and grow.”
Erin worked for GE Healthcare for 15 years, ending up in the women’s health business. One of the stretch assignments Erin took during her time there was leading the development of GE’s latest mammography product.
“When I took on this project, my family and I moved to France for three years. It was one of the most wonderful and challenging times of my life. It was also the first time I had worked on any product with hardware – a product you could touch. Being that close to the patient experience for the first time – making it more comfortable for women to get mammograms for early detection and treatment – was so impactful. I learned that being close to the patient and impacting their lives was what really gave me satisfaction in my job.”
Erin left GE after that launch to find a role where she could be closer to the patient experience. I asked Erin to share a lesson from her journey:
“Be flexible, but don’t change the way you excel to fit in somewhere. Find ways to bring your full self to work. I came from a non-traditional background for a software leader. I have a liberal arts degree and love working on a lot of different things. I like novelty. It took me a long time to be ok with that.”
“Who I am and how I like to work may be different, but that’s actually really good. Diversity of thought – having introverts and extroverts, different ways of thinking, processing information - they are strengths. I am the best contributor when I can work in the ways that work for me.”
Thank you, Erin, for sharing your story with me.