Hey everyone,
Today, we have a special treat for you. We're taking a deep dive into the mind of someone vital to our mission: Michael Hillman, our VP of Regulatory at Atom Limbs.
Q: What is your role here at Atom Limbs?
I create and manage the processes that Atom Limbs utilizes for legal review and clearance of our products for regulation in the US and globally. I also support Atom Limbs’ clinical research to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our products.
Q: What would you say are your 3 biggest professional accomplishments in life?
I’d like to answer this by saying there are three insights that have allowed me to find success as I've followed my passions. After graduating Northwestern University, I started in a product development role at the Renal Division of Baxter Healthcare, a job squarely aligned with my bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. I had a vision of my future, and then I met tools for design and engineering that were new to me. To get a little geeky, we had the second commercial deployment of a stereolithography 3D printer (after Boeing) and we piloted Pro/Engineer 1.0 solid modeling software on Sun Microsystems desktop SPARCstations. As I worked to master these fundamental technologies—building effective finite element models using ANSYS with 3D databases for parts and assemblies I created—it cemented my aspirations for a product design career.
Around the same time, the book “Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman had been published and it deeply shaped my critical thinking. It asks engineers and designers to be keen observers of how products communicate function to users, and how users use this communication to make the experience pleasurable. Not a day goes by that I’m not questioning the experiences products create, good and bad. Appreciating why design “works” also helps us understand how a product can be fulfilling and even joyful. At the end of the day, the most complicated design needs to be human.
This brings me to my third point. If there’s one thing my product design career has taught me it’s that, at its core, engineering is humans serving humans. At this stage in my career, I see my success defined by those on my teams whose trust I have earned, and their belief that they can be challenged to create their best work with my support and leadership. I’m deeply motivated and humbled to help realize the goals created by the people I am responsible for in my organization.
Q: Have you met Steve Jobs?
I have. I worked collaboratively with Steve at Apple to design and engineer numerous technologies and products.
Q: What are your biggest lessons at Oculus that may be applicable to Atom Limbs?
It’s easy when developing new products and pioneering new technologies to get out over your ski tips. At Oculus, I saw first hand how even amazing products with remarkable experiences don’t guarantee commercial success. This is a classic scenario companies face where technology is in search of a problem to solve. As clever as we can be as engineers and designers, we need to understand what behaviors users want to change and what new behaviors our designs engender.
Applying these insights, one can properly focus technology to achieve the customer experience our users deserve, with the necessary performance, cost and reliability necessary for market viability.
That perfect market alchemy only comes from careful listening and observation. At Atom Limbs, there’s a reason the heart of our work is to remove price as a barrier, reduce cognitive burden, and increase comfort for our artificial limbs. It’s because these are the core experiences our customers seek.
Q: How has the healthcare industry evolved since you worked at Baxter?
The healthcare industry should be devoted to the prevention and treatment of diseases and discrete acute care, but is increasingly focused on the management of these chronic health conditions like diabetes, asthma and heart disease. Additionally, healthcare is moving away from the “physician-as-expert” model to one where providers are instead managing complex systems for decision-making. This framework for providing care is structurally antagonistic to change and therefore evolves slowly.
Fortunately, the healthcare industry has also become increasingly driven by "evidence-based medicine” through the Affordable Care Act, where we measure the quality of care.
In the midst of these competing forces—and federal legislation, which is a particularly powerful lever in the United States—Atom Limbs works to provide better medical evidence and opportunities to challenge healthcare providers for the benefit of people with limb loss and limb differences.
It’s been an honor to work with Michael to say the least. His wealth of experience is shaping how we navigate the regulatory landscape and bring groundbreaking products to the world.
Thank you, Michael, for sharing your insights with us!
As always, our mission is powered by you, our community. Feel free to ask further questions and share your thoughts. We look forward to delivering more exciting updates soon!
As always, you can invest or increase your investment here →
To Atom Limbs 🦾
Tyler