62: How an ALS Diagnosis Inspired an AI Companion (with Kirstin Maurer)

Speaker A: I think that's something that we see too little of an AI right now, is that collaborative nature. So many of these tools are built for one person interacting just with the computer, but when they're solving actual social problems of how do we share information, that's where the possibilities really get interesting. It seems like your superpower, as often many founders find, is like, oh, do I have a connection already? Who do I have? Where am I involved? In communities where you're able to better predict what they actually really need too,

Speaker B: with the pace of change now, it's just so important to just try and build something or build a lot of things and learn that way. And that's all valuable experience that you can then bring into whatever your next opportunity is.

Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of AI Product Leader. Every week we shine a light on what it really takes to join the AI world. Real conversations with real AI leaders, founders, product leaders, AI ah, experts, technologists, and everything in between to understand where the world of AI is right now and what that path looks like, whether you're building AI products or navigating a career in AI. I'm your host, Polly Allen and founder of AI Career Boost where I spend my time helping product leaders navigate the world of AI and thrive in leadership roles. And I've spent my career in both the product management and software development sides of the fence. I'm an ex Alexa AI principal product manager where I launched the very first generative AI answers on Alexa back in 2020. I'm super excited to have our guest joining us today, Kirsten Maurer. Thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me, Polly. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker A: Wonderful. When Kirsten's, uh, family faced ALS two decades ago, there was no AI systems to help them navigate it, so she's building one. As A founder of ALS Care Companion, she's developed a production AI system drawing from over 67 government and advocacy sources to give patients and caregivers 24. 7 support during the hours when when farms go quiet. That personal mission runs on top of 18 plus years of enterprise product depth. At True Pill, she drove a $20 million telehealth platform, tripled agent outreach productivity and cut post call documentation time by 75% with generative AI summaries, all while navigating high trust compliance and partnering with teams like Mark Cuban, Cost Plus Drugs and Eli Lilly. So before that she spent nearly eight years at Teradata where she transformed a documentation platform into a growth engine with 200 plus percent year over year traffic growth, a Product leader who builds at the intersection of healthcare and AI as well as human systems. She's even played rugby at UC San Diego. Kirsten, thanks so much for joining us today.

Speaker B: Awesome. Uh, thanks for the intro, Polly. I'm, I'm happy to be here.

Speaker A: Wonderful. Well, that's quite the background. Like I said, you've got this depth in tech, in healthcare, before you even joined AI. We'd love to just know a little bit more about you and your background. How did you go from, from rugby player to uh, to AI entrepreneur?

Speaker B: That's actually, I think it's a great segue. I always was like into sports. I still use sports analogies all the time in my job, which I'm sure people love. Um, but yeah, my first job out of school and at UC San Diego is with a sports and wellness, uh, startup. And I was initially attracted to the role because it was in sports. Um, and I worked on the scheduling, registration and risk management platforms there, um, with clients. And I think that was really sor of the nexus of my sort of, um, getting bit by the product management bug. I learned that you know, there are a lot of like complicated problems that could be solved with the right technology. And working in sports was a fun way, you know, to spend my early career years, um, and get that start there.

Speaker A: Well, fantastic.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, and, and so from there you, you'd, you'd moved on and dealt with more like documentation platforms, et cetera. Tell us a little more. Yeah.

Speaker B: So post startup life at Active, I ended up moving over to Teradata, which was a very different company. Um, you know, had a much longer lifetime, um, a lot more embedded and it was really, you know, dealing with enterprise scale high stakes data problems.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, I first started working on the Master and reference data management system. So on the analytic application side of the house, um, in product there. And then there was this problem that we had with the product technical content for the company which was really valuable information that the clients needed access to but it was really difficult to find. It's all inside of these PDFs that are published with every version and working for um, you know, an enterprise company where you're doing these extensive releases on uh, you know, uh, a biannual cadence. Um, it's really important right, that that content be visible and findable. But we had, we encountered like this sort of SEO problem right. Where we had content in these PDFs. Um, the content that was most popular was the content that had been around the longest and not necessarily the most recent. Right. And so um, so I got involved with that team and had to dive deep into SEO for a problem space that really, it wasn't intended for. Right. SEO. When we think of SEO, it's more on, um, the marketing side and using it as a growth funnel. Um, and so really the opportunity here was really using it to better serve our clients and make sure that they had access, easy access to the information that they needed. Um, and I really didn't obviously know that and have the foresight at the time, but that's the same problem that I would end up solving years later with this ALS companion.

Speaker A: Yeah, I'd love, I'd love, let's dive right into it. Um, I'd love to hear if you can tell us a little more, um, about the motivation behind the ALS companion, how that was born.

Speaker B: Yeah, Um, I think just to kind of thread the needle a little bit. So after my time at Teradata, um, the pandemic hit and I was wrapping up my time there, had my first child and I was really looking for a way to like, have more tangible impact with my day to day work. I think like a lot of people at that time, um, and that sort of pushed me into Health Tech. Right. And that's how I ended up at True Pill and working on the EHR system there. Um, which we sort of rolled into this patient care manager to serve vulnerable populations for patients who were recently discharged from the hospital in the emergency room with a virtual care model to sort of connect them then to care in the community that wasn't so reliant on the hospital system and make sure that they were seeing the specialists and have the support that they needed to transition at home and recover. Um, and so, yeah, so that's, that's, that was sort of how I ended up in Health Tech. And then to come back around, I think, to your question, around. Well, how did, how did that translate to this new project? Um, in the ALS space.

Speaker A: Right, exactly. Yeah. So, sorry. And sorry, I glossed over it. Absolutely. So the, the, that familiarity with the problems of people who are just adjacent to that healthcare system. Right. Who are like maybe like while you're in the healthcare system, X happens. But then afterwards.

Speaker B: Uh, yeah, and there's so much, Right. There's, there's so much that like already falls on the clinician and the care team. Um, and so I think being close to that problem from just like my, my work.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then also, um, with our family's experience. So, you know, my uncle was first diagnosed with ALS in 2005, 20 years later, his sister was diagnosed, um, both of my, they were both my mom's siblings. And so, um, as I was diving deep now into learning as much as I could about AI M and looking for a valuable problem to help solve and sort of prove my own knowledge and build my own skill set, this sort of fell in my lap in a way because I just sort of had this epiphany that like, I should pick a problem that nobody solved yet, but that, you know, AI could really accelerate. Um, yeah, so that's how I, how I landed there.

Speaker A: It's. I was just speaking this morning, um, on, on a different podcast actually about there. People keep looking for where are the new problems to solve. Like AI is just for AI efficiency and, and like automation. And I actually brought up AI's Care Companion as an example because you're like, oh, this might have been something that like the math wouldn't necessarily have made sense before, uh, to go develop this. Yeah, startup.

Speaker B: And uh, yeah, I mean, I've, you know, self funded a project, uh, to build something and it's been, you know, affordable for me to do, as I guess you would call it like an initial hobby. Right. Like it was an experiment for me. Um, and you know, if I were thinking about it purely from a business perspective, that might not be the market that I would choose to tackle. Right. But this is something that, because of all of the capabilities now with AI, I could build myself now that I have these skills in a way that like, the math was really not part of the equation in terms of, is this something that's valuable, can I build it and will it help people?

Speaker A: We're getting a little ahead of ourselves. We haven't explained what ALS Care Companion is. Can you tell us a little more about the platform and how it works?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So essentially, um, it's a, intended to be sort of a care navigation companion system that uh, people with ALS, their families and caregivers can interact with that's available 24 7. Um, just using natural language queries. Right. So, you know, today I know a lot of, a lot of clinicians and you know, my doctor or pediatricians will tell me, don't go to Google. Right. You know, if you have these symptoms or you have these questions, you know, Google should not be your first stop. Right. Because, you know, you could be getting any kind of information. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So using only vetted sources from trusted organizations. Right. To help answer these questions. And so, um, so it's essentially a closed knowledge base. Right. Where, you know, I'VE curated and chosen. This is the content that I think is going to be the most valuable. And then using generative AI to answer the specific questions that come from this group of users, um, at their point, point in time of need.

Speaker A: Oh, amazing. And so being able to answer their questions in a way that they can trust better than Google. Does it go beyond, um, QA as well?

Speaker B: Well, yeah, sorry, I was thinking about QA in terms of software. Let me, let me reframe that.

Speaker A: Yeah, sorry, yeah, Question answering, I should have mentioned.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, no, that's a great question. Yeah. So I think initially when I, When I built that, I thought, oh, well, this could be like a companion in the sense of, like, you know, I have a physical notebook that comes to the doctor's office for these visits. Right. Or I know, you know, watching, um, family members and friends go through diagnoses. Um, and this maze of a roadmap to deal with and binders full of information. Right. Like, this could be a companion where, you know, you might have a question today and you might surface some information, but it's not immediately relevant. So you can just save it right, in this companion and come back to it later or. Or share it with somebody else. Um, part of your sort of, like, care circle.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Amazing. That's awesome. I think that's. That's something that we see too. Too little of in AI right now. Is that, like, collaborative nature? So many of these tools are built for, like, one person interacting just with the computer, but when you're solving actual, like, social problems of, like, how do we share information? That's where the possibilities really get really get interesting.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Amazing. So you're building ALS Care Companion. You have an upcoming, um, webinar, too, with the ALS Society. They actually reached out. How did, how did that come about?

Speaker B: Yeah, so, um, when I launched this tool, I thought, we've got to get some users in here to test it and give us feedback. Um, and so right now we're kind of wrapping up this beta period where we had 50 families sign up to use the tool and have provided some feedback.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: Have a lot of learnings.

Speaker A: Ah, yeah.

Speaker B: Maybe about what I would have conventionally thought about launching a software product. And what I'm seeing in terms of, like, the usage patterns and things like that here is a little bit different. Um, but, yeah, I mean, I think the tool has sort of made some rounds, and the ALS association reached out to me recently to partner on a webinar that they have coming up for, um, for essentially, you know their membership, um, up in June, um, to share information about AI and just like security aware, um, you know, with. With what's available and within healthcare.

Speaker A: Amazing. Oh, that's awesome. We'll be sure to include the link to it in the show notes. Um, if people are. People are interested in tuning in, that'll be fascinating. Do you mind sharing? How did you get it in the hands of 50 people? People. A lot of folks now are like, I can build something, but I can't actually get to use it.

Speaker B: Yes. And this was also, uh, advice that I got from a good mentor was like, this is going to be your next challenge. Right. And I, I think my son sort of going in. What I was concerned about initially in building this was like, do I have the technical capability now to do this on my own? And I was really concerned with answering that question. And then I got to the point of like, oh, okay, like, I have this thing now. What do I do? Right? And so, uh, that was his. That was sort of his call out too, was like, you've got to figure out a way now to get this tool into the hands of people who really need it. And so, um, so for me, at this point, like, I have not run, like, extensive marketing campaigns. It's really been working through personal networks to get the word out that this is available. I'm looking for feedback. You know, it started with some folks that, you know, maybe were, um, OTs or physical therapists, um, speech pathologists, folks that are in, like, caregiving the space anyway, um, or nursing backgrounds. And then it's just sort of grown from there. I think, you know, part of the inception of, of this whole project too, was like, you know, because of my mom's experience and proximity to this disease, like, she's a little bit of a lightning rod in the community too, because now it's something where, if it does come up in conversation, she's had this experience to share with someone else. And oftentimes when you're learning about that, like, that's sort of a natural connection point. And so that's been another sort of foray, I think, because this is a personal experience for our family, it's been different than trying to get the word out about something that is impersonal in another sense. Right?

Speaker A: Totally. Yeah, it seems like, but that's your superpower. And often, as often, many founders find is like, oh, who do I have a connection with already? Who do I have? Where am I involved in communities where you're able to better predict what they actually really need, too. Yeah. Amazing. That's awesome. So, as well as all this work you've been doing for, um, AI's care companion, you've recently started a new role. Right, Your first director level.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about the challenges you'll be facing there?

Speaker B: Yes. I mean, I think that it's similar challenges that a lot of folks in tech and health tech in particular are facing. Right. Which is how to leverage AI to help scale and grow the business and keeping patient care at the center of everything that you do. Right. And I think, um, that will still be a big part of my mission in this new role. Um, and, you know, I think, you know, you mentioned this earlier about, like, looking for new problems for AI to solve. I think we have plenty of problems in healthcare where we can apply AI to do things and be more effective and provide a better experience for patients and for clinicians. And so that's. That's what I'm most excited about. Yeah.

Speaker A: Ah. Oh, fantastic. Um, well, I'm really excited for you in this new role, and it's quite the transformation. So you had used AI in previous roles, as I mentioned, at True Pill, you'd been working with generative AI and things like that. But it sounds like, to go from, hey, I'm, I've. I've led. Led a couple of features to, like, developing your own products or these director level responsibilities.

Speaker B: What.

Speaker A: What do you think was responsible for that past? How did you. How did you take that, uh, take on that, like, next. Getting to the next level?

Speaker B: I would say that I went from a casual AI user, um, more for, like, personal productivity research, um, sort of brainstorming. Right. In my. In my role, um, to, like, really having to, like, jump in the deep end of the pool.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and really live and breathe and learn as much as I could, um, in order to kind of come out the other side of that. So, um, you know, when I wrapped up my time at my last job, I really, like, dove in Headfirst. Um, I think felt a little bit out of my depth, for sure. Um, but with encouragement from some trusted mentors that, like, listen, you can figure this out. Like, you can learn anything. We know that's, like, kind of your superpower. And so just trust yourself and trust the process. Um, and so I had some recommendations for your course and for another course on Maven, um, the Problem Problem first AI, um, cohort. Yeah. And initially I was like, do I need to do both of these? Should I be doing both of them at the Same time. And I think that just helped me because different instructors have their own different experience that they bring to courses and exercises and just different life experience. Right. And I think that's, that we see that when there's a diversity of thought, diversity of experience, um, all of that is so valuable. And so that was, I think partly for me, what was such an accelerator, um, was getting practical guidance and sort of, um, you know, real time coaching. I think especially, you know, with your group, it was a smaller group. Um, and so there was really more of like that personal approach which was helpful. Um, and so know that's, I think what, what helped me sort of accelerate into the space and then obviously, um, getting to the point where I felt very capable, um, and, and building something, um, that is very valuable.

Speaker A: Yeah. And you feel confident launching. You're not worried?

Speaker B: Oh, I can't.

Speaker A: Can I maintain this later? Can I, Can I do this? Amazing. Um, well, and I'd love to hear. I know a lot of folks will be looking to follow in your footsteps. Um, can you tell us any advice you'd give to them for, like, for the, for that, um, that journey of like, hey, I want to uplevel in my career. I want to, uh, use AI to do it.

Speaker B: Probably the thing that has stood out most to me and the advice that I would give anybody in this space is like, pick a real problem, um, and something that like, you're motivated to solve for whatever reason. Right. And what, what a better way to upskill and up level, um, and be motivated to solve something that is like, meaningful to you. And it doesn't have to be, you know, for many of us, it's not going to be curing cancer. Right. But it might be something that is a really, um, onerous process for you if you're, you know, managing your family life. Right. I know there's a lot of people dealing with those challenges and trying to balance those commitments with work or if it's something, you know, like in the health care space or somewhere else, like picking something that's personal that you already understand deeply and then figuring out how to apply AI and technology to help solve that.

Speaker A: Oh, incredible. Um, that's, that's absolutely fantastic advice. And in terms of, um, the things that are really hitting with employers right now, what do you, what do you see is, is giving you an advantage over some of the other candidates?

Speaker B: Um, I think it's that like, personal experience. Right. And I do think that it's a, I would say it's like a tough market. And I I don't think that's news to anybody. Um, and I think that puts job seekers in a position where, you know, you're kind of trying to thread the needle in terms of what you bring to the table and how you can relate it to what, what the role might be asking for. Um, and I think, you know, for me, I found that like, there is a, there can be a really great match for you and just because there are some things along the way that maybe like, weren't a great fit or weren't a perfect fit. Right. Like, keep looking. Yeah. Um, but I think ultimately it's like really trying to find that connection to something that like, you can speak passionately about in an, in an interview setting. Right. Like, because if it's a problem, like, there's, there's things that we can talk about in terms of, like, our formal work experience and you know, you know, at this company I did this thing and here were, um, you know, here were the metrics that unlocked. And all of that is important, I think, to be able to speak to. Um, but at the same time being able to like, be conversant about something that you're passionate about and then use that to articulate your skill set, I think can also be valuable if you're not getting all of that experience through your current journey of work.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. What about the importance of getting actually hands on? Do you feel like having built a system that's out there in the wild helped you in your interviews?

Speaker B: I. A million percent, yes. I mean, even if it didn't necessarily stand out to the interviewer, I think it changed how I think about myself and approaching these roles and my own capacity and like the value that I can bring to an organization. Yeah, right. I think, um, you know, before I started this journey and I, like I said when I was more of like a casual user, um, you know, I probably had a level of converse, confidence, um, that like, I could learn something. Um, but with the pace of change now, I think it's just so important to just try and build something or build a lot of things and learn that way. Um, and that's all valuable experience that you can then bring into whatever your next opportunity is.

Speaker A: 100% amazing. Well, that's an amazing note to end on. So we have time for one last section and that is plugs. I'm assuming, Kirsten, you'd love to be looking for more users for ALS Care Companion. Um, how can people try it out? How can they get a hold of you if they're interested in, uh, helping out or joining in?

Speaker B: Yeah, um, definitely. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm sure Polly will plug that in the show notes. Um, and if you want to check out the website, it's free to sign up and free to use. It's ALSCompanion.org so you can find us. There's, um. And then I will be presenting, um, on a webinar with the ALS association coming up in June.

Speaker A: Amazing. We'll be sure to drop that link. I. I want to check this out as well and see what is going on for. For real in healthcare, there's a lot of hype out there about what's, what's possible and then what's real. Fantastic. On my side, we always love to plug. Uh, we have, um, our masterclass available online right now. It's available as a replay if you want to catch the last one. So it's how to become an indispensable AI product leader. Um, do catch that online again. We'll. We'll link below in the show notes and as always, like. And subscribe to podcast if it's valuable. Valuable to you if you like hearing the stories of real product leaders in the wild. Thanks so much for joining us again, Kirsten. This has been really interesting to dive so deep, um, with someone who's built so much and, uh, really excited to see where all of this takes you. Takes, um, you next.

Speaker B: Awesome. Thanks so much, Polly.

Speaker A: Wonderful. That's our AI product leader podcast for this week. Thanks so much. We'll see you in a couple weeks.