My Duke Product Lab Experience

I took PM I and II at Duke to dive deep into the messy and hands-on reality of product work.

I had the privilege of working with Dr. Daniel Ostrovsky and the Duke Department of Pediatrics to build SimPatient. Rather than working on an independent project, or relying on an internship, my partner and I had a complex problem to solve: medical students often lack access to realistic practice. We developed a hands-on speech-to-speech AI patient simulator to give students that safe space to learn, building in feedback based on the American Medical Association and the expertise of health profession educators.

While I’m proud of the product and receiving the GoBig grant after presenting our prototype, the human element for me was the biggest learning opportunity. Working 1:1 with my product collaborator, Aiden Lo, was a masterclass in collaboration. We balanced each other’s strengths, and he helped me identify, with contextual grounding, where I needed and wanted to grow. The mentorship structure of the curriculum turned my eagerness and passion into tailored improvements in my product craft, leaving me much more prepared for my next chapter.

After Duke Product Lab

Since graduating, I’ve joined Disney Streaming in NYC as a Product Manager. While the user base has shifted from a medical student cohort in Durham to a global audience, the core principles haven’t changed. I now get to take the lessons I learned in the classroom and apply them at a much larger scale.

Product management often has a mythology around it, leaving many students unsure of what the role actually is or how to leverage their strengths. Duke Product Lab demystified the career for me—a perspective I continue to share with current students eager to break into the field.