The Round-Up: March Edition

Hi and welcome to Of The Well Labs—a monthly newsletter for curious minds in health tech and career development. Each edition reaches hundreds of health tech learners and growth-minded professionals, offering a curated mix of my latest insights, projects, reflections, and things that scratched my brain.  

The name “Of The Well” is a nod to the literal meaning of my last name, “del Pozo”—”pozo” meaning “well” in Spanish. It’s a metaphor for drawing from deep sources of knowledge, community, and personal growth. Of The Well Labs is where those ideas converge.

I’m happy you’re here! 🤍

Hiiiii. March was like a big sigh of relief coming from the bitter winter months. March was far less bitter (and my garden started to bloom!)

Listens 🎧

I’ve been doing some preliminary exploration on chronic pain for near-term programs we’ll be building at work. Part of my discovery work lies outside the classic lit review, where I delve into multiple angles of said topic from podcasts, articles, patient stories, posts, etc. 

I listened to this episode of the Adaptive Mind podcast about chronic pain while cooking dinner one night. BTW, listening to a podcast with a fresh Olipop and nibbling on cheese and jam whilst cooking with my sous chef (Peanut, my cat, patiently waiting for me to drop any morsel of food) by my side is the highlight of my day. 🤌

So the podcast guest, Ron Squire, MSW, shares his incredible personal story and professional work with chronic pain and the connection between shame and self-compassion. Squire’s message, “Pain is a pathway to learning,” struck me the most. He goes on to talk about pain as a messenger and teacher, something that is “paradoxically to be welcomed at times, to not be resisted.” 

This reminds me of the project we did last year to create content around pain neuroscience for our acute/subacute MSK pain programs. I wanted to introduce more variety into our patient education videos, so I recruited a few local (Seattle) experts—pain psychologists, physical therapists, etc.- to come into our studio and film documentary-style interviews on subjects like managing pain and mindfulness and pain.

The result?? We captured great footage that we weaved into our motion graphics videos. (I’m proud to say one of those videos won a Telly award!)

One of my favorite challenges when developing the content strategy for my programs is setting the foundation—a formula of compassion, empathy, empowerment, and relatability. I’ve found it can be easy to foster phony, toxic positivity vibes when you had the best intentions. 

Yeahhh, let’s avoid that.

Another notable listen came from a frequently visited podcast–Pfeffer on Power. This banger episode featured leader Sarah Friar, who’s gone from CFO to CEO and back to a CFO role. This certified queen shares her impressive career journey with humble insights on leading with curiosity. 

Friar shares, "If you want to cause change in the world, give something big a push.” I love that for me (and you).

Honorable mentions for other podcasts:

• The Essentials: Asking Purposeful Questions from Women at Work (POV: you’re not long-winded, it’s just your communication style!)

Reads 📚

My two reads of the month were solely dedicated to personal/professional growth. What I’m about to say next is not an understatement; it is not a drill. Both these books changed my brain chemistry 🧠

📕The Science of Personal Power by Chris Lipp got to the heart of what it means to be confident. I can’t STAND the “you need to be more confident” generic feedback I’ve gotten throughout my life. What does that mean? I’ve never known how to translate that feedback into tangible action steps. 

THIS BOOK, however, gives you tangible practices to strengthen your personal power. I learned that contributing value is the key to confidence. There are a ton of gems, and I’m happy to do a separate deep dive around my top life-changing takeaways. 

📕Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff is the book of the century, IMO. It is rich with examples, practical takeaways, and food for thought that will inspire your approach to life. 

I am honestly so sick of SMART goals, and this book breaks the SMART goal paradigm to smithereens 👏 For a neurospicy girly 🌶️ like me, approaching life with curiosity and an experimentation mindset is as refreshing and liberating as jumping into a crystal blue body of water on a hot summer day. 

The book's premise is about ditching a linear, narrow path to success that typically stifles creativity and meaningful progress in favor of a growth loop approach. Instead of outcome-based goals, you set process-based pacts. You take field notes and observe the process and your experiences, just like a scientist objectively observes an experiment ✨

I’m still working out what my first pact will be. I have some ideas:

The fun ideas:

• I will publish three newsletter issues a week for three months (not this one, but another one I’m starting up; TBD).

• I will connect with a new person from LinkedIn or other professional groups once a week for one month.

The need-to-do ideas:

• I will spend at least 30 minutes a day working on my finances for 7 days.

I want to do all of them simultaneously because starting exciting projects gives me such a hefty dopamine hit, but I need to pace myself so I don’t crash.

Experiences 🌟

Working with peeps

I went to my first coworking space with my husband. Although it’s 40ish minutes away from us, it was so worth it. Who knew that being around other humans is good for you?? I mean, I love my home office (very Nancy Meyers-inspired), but working remotely takes a toll on you. 

This space was so aesthetic and energizing. Sure, coffee shops and libraries are also great to work from, but something about the coworking space felt so cohesive and purposeful. We will be back!

Prezo for senior leadership

As I alluded to in this LinkedIn post, I’ve been hard at work refining the newest patient-facing program at my job—injury prevention for workers. I was essentially given an elephant that I had to learn to eat (please forgive me for this analogy) one bite at a time.

Here’s a summary of my process from open-ended discovery to a well-defined proposal:

1. Understand the problem. During this step, I am:

• Asking all the questions and conducting landscape research in any open-access journals I can find

• Getting my bearings on current market trends and how the problem is currently being addressed

• Identifying real, unmet patient needs and clinical gaps, including identifying target patient populations and nuances (access, barriers, tech literacy, etc)

• Reviewing relevant clinical guidelines, literature, and frameworks

• Using available data (patient outcomes, attrition, engagement stats, etc.) to support my hypothesis

• Looking for alignment with our organization’s goals and the clients we serve

2. Listen to the people. During this step, I am:

• Talking with our current and potential clients, consultants, warm connections, etc., to better understand the problem

• Conducting user testing to get in touch with the target patient population to understand first-hand how they navigate the problem

• Collaborating with my (clinical) team, product, ops, and business teams early to understand how we might approach the problem 

3. Brainstorm. During this step, I am:

• Generating solutions based on what I’ve learned thus far—this can look like intervention ideas, workflow ideas, content format ideas, distribution ideas, UX flow ideas, etc.

• Mapping out potential patient journeys before, during, and after program use; this looks like outlining a sample exercise progression and educational curriculum, triage, patient-reported outcomes, program specs, etc.

• Aligning ideas with goals, such as patient outcomes, engagement, and behavior change metrics

4. Present my findings. During this step, I am:

• Building out a deck with the data and concepts (the “What? So what? Now what?” framework)

• Putting this in front of a small, trusted circle: starting with the clinical team, a few key cross-functional stakeholders, and a few close external partners

• Gathering feedback: Is it usable? Valuable? Culturally relevant? Motivating?

5. Refine and validate. During this step, I am:

• Incorporating all the feedback into a more polished, well-defined version, including refining the problem, patient impact, market intel, patient journey, clinical backing, and strategic value

• Clarifying risks, dependencies, resourcing, and timelines

6. Pitching! During this step, I am:

• Putting this in front of senior leadership

• Telling a story about how this program can solve real pain points and aligns with company strategy 

• Answering questions about anything and everything related to ROI, cost, scalability, usefulness, etc.

Looking at this process on paper, it seems so neatly contained! However, it is messy with many overlapping parts—a two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of thing. And that’s okay 🙂that’s showbiz!

I thoroughly enjoy this part of the work and diving deep down into the sapphire waters of the problem so I can swim back up to the surface and help make an impact that will solve that problem.

🧠 Unhinged: Thoughts

I think I’m officially breaking up with Instagram. Technically, we’re currently “on a break.” And if I’m being completely transparent and honest, I don’t miss it. It’s been a few months…better yet, I lost track of when I removed the app from my phone.

The biggest thing I’ve observed during this Instragram-less time is a sense of mental freedom and return of curiosity. Sure, I still have my vices that my thumb automatically opens…I’m not a saint.

Nevertheless, there’s a distinct type of freedom that weighs much more than other apps. 💫 

That’s all I’ve got for this month. See you in next month’s round-up!

Take care,

Erika <3

Thank you for reading. I’m Erika del Pozo—occupational therapist, clinical strategist, and your go-to gal for human-first healthcare in a tech-driven world. I'm here to build smarter, more compassionate care experiences—because patients deserve nothing less.