Six months into my job as an analyst, the writing was on the wall. Being a great programmer relegated me to a windowless room where no one knew my name (well, except my boss, but even he didn't really get what I was doing).

Even worse, I didn't understand why I was formatting large datasets, spending hours to calculate DRG rates, and projecting national estimates of patients and healthcare resource use. It was a job, but not one that I felt passionate about.

A mentor told me to get out of the office, talk to people at lunch, and ask more questions. As someone who chose coding as a hobby, you might imagine that was daunting.

But what was the alternative? I wanted to be excited about work.  To advance in my career, I had to solve this puzzle.

What came next? I arrived to work early to play basketball with the 6 AM crew of R&D guys. Then I joined the Tuesday night marketing bowling team. I signed up for toastmasters with project managers and volunteered to bring cookies and present at the clinical & medical liaison journal club. It wasn't all business; I picked up new acronyms, made new friends, and became comfortable asking questions.

Soon I'd build up the confidence to ask for career advice. Turns out the R&D leader needed some epi data to make the case for his innovation project. He invited me to present a slide at the business review. The marketing head was thrilled to find out that I knew how to calculate hospital payments - he recommended I tag along on a few sales calls. This led to my boss assigning me to create a field economic tool, design a training, and test it out in a customer negotiation.

A year later, I was moved to a cube (closer to a window) to collaborate with marketing on field value message training. There I was spotted by one of my journal club buddies who confided in me that they were under pressure to publish yet too busy running trials. Marketing agreed to fund medical writing support once I shared how important peer review citations were for getting reimbursement.  I was asked to lead the project, ensure the data supported our value messaging, and serve as a liaison between medical and commercial for evidence and Congress planning.

Listening to challenges faced by colleagues and looking for solutions for the business turned out to be a skill set in high demand. My career path and office space improved.

But with a promotion to Global responsibilities and to launch orphan products across key international markets with no funding pathway, I was out of my depth again. When I flew to London to participate in a scoping meeting, I asked to stay the weekend and meet with academics who designed these processes. Did I spend a Saturday punting on the Thames in Oxford with an influential UK economist? Yes, it was a wonderful adventure and I had a chance to ask more questions.

There is always friction and competing priorities whether you work in a large or start up organization. Did I take an interest in Erhu (Chinese violin) to spend more time with a key statistician? Yup. I loved my World Music class in college and as an aside, I was able to deepen my understanding of how his team might prioritize the ad hoc trial analyses required for our HTA submission.

Sometimes, my new insights came from unexpected places. My bachelorette party signed up for a disease charity fundraiser one weekend. Our long walk gave me a chance to meet advocacy leaders and hear first-hand from patients and families about their challenges. And of course, I couldn't help but make a persuasive case to Blue Cross Blue Shield when they initially denied my home birth expense (but eventually reversed the denial after hours of documentation and calls to present the economics and guidelines support). Now I personally understood the stakes of not having a positive coverage policy and how to present compelling data that can shift decisions.

So my question is this: How can you get to know your internal and external stakeholders better?

What will it take to really understand what your colleagues and decision-makers value? Being a curious human is the first step, and you may be surprised at what happens next.

What have you learned outside of the office?

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‍Betsy J. Lahue is Chief Executive Officer of Alkemi. She helps life sciences executives transform market shaping from a fragmented process into a unified source of strategic advantage.