Anzu Hakone

Product Strategist & Researcher in Healthtech | Value-Based Care | Mixed-Methods Research & Product Discovery

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States

About

Product strategist and researcher with seven years in healthtech who works the early arc of a problem: naming what's actually going on, forming a hypothesis, and proving it out before handing it off to scale. I like mixed-methods research and digging into the data directly, grounded in a research background (Tufts MS; first-author IEEE TVCG paper still picking up citations).

Experience

  • Product Program Manager (Chief of Staff - Engineering, Product, Design) at Stellar Health
    Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr

    - Claims-vs-EHR diagnosis analysis: led exploratory analysis of payer claims data (17,855 lives across Medicaid/Medicare/Commercial) against EHR-sourced FHIR Condition resources to characterize HCC/ICD diagnosis overlap and divergence; built multi-view dashboard for product and leadership stakeholders. - Quality-measures impact analysis: conducted structured impact analysis for HEDIS 2026 measure-year transition — classified 39 changed measures using HEDIS technical specifications and flagged 19 needing product updates; analysis served as foundational input for org-wide supplemental-data-requirements update. - Quality-measures availability validation: validated product action availability across 103 HEDIS/QPP/CMS quality measures for the company's sales-contracting reference spanning 51 jurisdictions; grounded validation in a 100+-row actions-to-measures crosswalk. - Mixed-methods stakeholder research: conducted semi-structured interviews with CS directors to investigate cross-team dynamics; tested a working hypothesis, identified the actual driver, and shipped operational fixes adopted across all four EPD squads. - Cross-functional project leadership: directed AWS infrastructure migration (~54 work items, phased environment cutovers); delivered ahead of schedule, generating $120K annual savings. - Strategic communication & product strategy: authored standalone product strategy document including market diagnosis, target ICP, big bet pillars (staff process automation, EHR integration, behavior-change incentives), and explicit anti-strategy section. - Research standards & team enablement: authored team-wide product discovery standards document codifying problem-space vs. solution-space frameworks and contextual inquiry practices; established shared methodological vocabulary for cross-squad research practice.

  • Senior Product Manager (de facto Head of Product) at Swift Medical
    Sep 2024 - Jul 2025 · 11 mos

    Sole PM at the company, operating with full ownership of product strategy and direction. Reported to the CPO/founder, who primarily interfaced with the exec team; product direction was driven autonomously. - Proposed and drove adoption of a 1-year product strategy and roadmap across 4+ AI-driven healthtech tools — approximately 90% of recommendations adopted by CEO. Covered clinical decision support, wound care AI, and provider workflow optimization. - Translated CEO's strategic priorities into executable product direction on a recurring basis — synthesizing scattered inputs into coherent plans the organization could act on. - Mentored GMs on product thinking and strategy, contributing to Swift's next generation of product leadership. - Prioritized features using clinical impact modeling and data analysis, including one projected to improve clinical accuracy by 30%. - Aligned 14+ cross-functional departments on product requirements, surfacing hidden dependencies and clarifying priorities to maintain execution momentum. - Achieved 3.6/4 usability score for the Skin & Wound 2 app through structured usability research and iterative improvement.

  • Visiting Researcher at Tufts University
    Aug 2023 - Dec 2023 · 5 mos

    - Conduct in-depth literature reviews exploring the impact of narratives, visual perception, and personal history on health literacy within the general public. - Analyze US state-level COVID-19 dashboards in order to develop guidelines for effective crisis dashboards for both public health experts and the broader public. - Develop a pilot study to assess the efficacy of data videos vs. static visualizations in decision tasks, incorporating insights from psychology and cognitive science to identify nuanced factors.

  • Natera (Remote)
    • Product Manager
      May 2022 - Apr 2023 · 1 yr

      Progressed through three PM levels across 2+ years. Focused on intelligent document processing, lab intake, and customer success workflows. - Increased kit intake speed by 47% through design and implementation of an automated data entry process. - Designed a new intake workflow projected to increase test kit throughput by 40% without added costs — validated through simulations and wireframes. - Conducted user research across 10+ user groups using qualitative interviews, quantitative data analysis, and persona development to identify high-impact product opportunities. - Built alignment across leadership, stakeholders, and 7 development teams by communicating product vision and strategy across a complex, multi-squad organization.

    • Technical Product Manager 2
      May 2021 - May 2022 · 1 yr 1 mo

    • Technical Product Manager 1
      Jan 2021 - May 2021 · 5 mos

  • Associate Product Manager at Tempus AI
    Mar 2019 - Dec 2020 · 1 yr 10 mos

    - Decreased support ticket volume by 60% by analyzing ticket patterns and prioritizing system features that eliminated root causes. - Enabled NY market expansion by defining the company's regulatory compliance solution in partnership with legal, operations, product, and engineering. - Scoped greenfield products by quantifying impact through data collection and analysis.