Career Pivot to Biotech Product Management with Sara Tafoya from Sony Biotechnology

Inside Biotech

In this episode of Inside Biotech, we explore the transition from academia to product management with Dr. Sara Tafoya, Global Product Manager at Sony Biotechnology. Sara’s passion lies in helping STEM graduate students and early career professionals recognize the value of their technical expertise beyond the bench. She shares her journey from PhD to product management, discussing how she bridges technical know-how with customer advocacy and sales to drive innovation in biotech. If you've ever wondered how to apply your niche academic skills to roles outside of research, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Listen in as Sara offers advice on professional development and how to pursue fulfilling, impactful careers that push scientific innovation forward.

(0:00) Intro
(1:01) Episode summary overview with Dr. Sara Tafoya - Product management.
(2:07) Salve Therapeutics Ad.
(2:47) Sara Tafoya wants to share knowledge and help future scientist with career transitions
(4:35) Sara discusses her rationale to be on the podcast.
(5:57) Questions of the episode: What does a day in the life as a product manager look like? How to know that this career might be a good fit for you and then how to get involved in this career?
(6:39) What products does Sara Tafoya manage for Sony Biotechnology?
(7:40) Sony Biotechnology makes technology for flow cytometry
(9:30) What is flow cytometry?
(11:55) Huge development in flow cytometry to use many different fluorophores in one sample
(14:21) New developments in microfluidic chips
(15:57) What characteristics make a good product manager in science apart from great communication?
(16:54) Great people skills are a must for product managers
(18:00) Two different jobs in product management, helping the customer and then helping the company with ideas and improvements
(19:40) When being a product manager focus on customer segments (Academia vs. Industry) focus on affordability vs. capability
(21:20) Product managers need to go out and find needs of company. What consumers care about in improvements
(22:46) Do you travel and how is work life balance as a product manager?
(24:32) Traveling depends on what you are doing but no substitute for being exposed in person.
(25:05) Salve Therapeutics Ad
(25:45) What drove Dr. Tafoya to this career path? 27:10 -27:50
(27:50) How did the skills Sara picked up in her PhD help with product management and what did she need to learn afterwards?
(30:00) You will always need to understand commercial space and biotech ecosystem once you start your career in industry?
(30:40) What surprised Sara about being a product manager?
(33:05) Sara took a course in product management from Warton to help with business side
(35:40) What skills are translatable from scientific expertise to product management?
(38:30) Importance of using scientific reasoning and thinking on the job
(39:48) How to break into the world of product management?
(41:27) You typically need to pay your dues to get a role in product management
(45:30) Try to figure out what career you want so less sacrifices are made later on or you can get lucky.
(47:00) Ad for Macherey-Nagle
(47:52) What is next for Sara in her career?
(50:04) Sara wants to create a great team with effective communication and change the way things are done at work
(51:51) What are Sara’s hobbies?
(55:20) Episode wrap up

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