Fortune 10 Healthtech
Building enterprise buyer intelligence from zero.
Personas, segmentation, and a 5-stage journey architecture now powering a new-market expansion.
Role
Contract PMM
Year
2025-present
Build enterprise buyer intelligence from zero.
A Fortune 10 healthtech company was expanding into a new segment of the health system market. They had no persona library, no segmentation, no shared language for who they were selling to or how those buyers actually made decisions.
I walked in with zero healthtech background and was asked to build the foundation that would power their GTM for the new market. 300+ hours of research later, this is what the system became.
A four-step intelligence process, not a single interview round.
Research that would hold up in an executive briefing had to triangulate across three kinds of source: primary market intelligence, real-world job data, and established Gartner frameworks. One source on its own is a guess. Three, cross-checked, is an argument.
Targeted Discovery
Curated 150+ high-impact primary research reports, executive surveys, and industry outlooks spanning 2020 to 2025. Pulled from the stakeholders health system leaders actually read: WittKieffer, HIMSS, HFMA, Bain, KLAS, Deloitte, Chartis.
Synthesis & Verification
Combined 10-15 distinct source documents per persona to establish baseline trends, then cross-referenced every finding against 10-12 verified job postings per role to validate current market requirements, reporting structures, and hiring criteria.
Framework Application
Structured insights using Gartner's Buyer Persona and Job-Based Buying Journey templates. Mapped job titles, relationships, competencies, goals, barriers, decision criteria, and preferred content types for each role.
Narrative Integration
Contextualized personas within the broader health system environment using the Four Engines model. Converted static profiles into a full narrative highlighting cross-functional tensions and strategic drivers.
Every leader operates in a crucible of unprecedented pressure.
Understanding the five forces shaping every enterprise decision is table stakes. No persona makes sense in isolation from these.
Force 01
Financial Instability
Maintaining financial viability amid high-cost operating models, inflationary pressures, and constrained reimbursement.
Force 02
Workforce Crisis
Persistent staffing shortages, high levels of clinician burnout, and escalating labor expenses destabilizing care delivery.
Force 03
Operational Gridlock
Capacity constraints, patient throughput limitations, and the challenge of unifying operations after M&A activity.
Force 04
Digital & Security Threats
Balancing digital transformation with the mission-critical need to protect patient data from evolving cyber threats.
Force 05
Landscape Volatility
Growing competition from new entrants (retail, PE) and rapidly evolving regulatory requirements creating uncertainty.
A command center, not a hierarchy.
Every major health system decision requires alignment across leaders with fundamentally incompatible success metrics. The Four Engines model maps the competing forces every major healthcare purchase has to satisfy, and shows sellers which tensions they have to resolve to win the room.
Engine 01
Digital & Strategic
Where are we going, and how will we get there safely?
Engine 02
Value & Viability
Will we be financially viable tomorrow?
Engine 03
Operations & Access
Can we run efficiently today?
Engine 04
Care & Quality
Are we delivering safe, quality care while reducing burnout?
Inside the Digital & Strategic Engine.
This engine shapes the future and protects the organization as it evolves. Its leaders connect market trends, technology, and security into a single direction. They are responsible for the platforms that enable scale, the strategy that guides growth, and the defenses that protect the system from digital threats.
A seller walking into this engine is walking into a room where every participant has a different definition of success. Miss one, and the deal dies in committee.
Key tensions
- InnovationStability
Investing in new digital capabilities vs. maintaining legacy infrastructure
- AgilityGovernance
Moving quickly on new initiatives vs. ensuring proper oversight and security
- GrowthRisk
Pursuing strategic partnerships vs. managing cybersecurity and integration risks
The Strategic Tech Leader.
The Architect of Enterprise Value Through Technology.
Every persona in the library gets this treatment. For the case study, one stands in for the method. This is what a single archetype looks like when you combine 10 to 15 primary sources, 10 to 12 live job postings, and the Gartner persona and buyer journey templates into a portrait a seller can actually use.
Common titles
Reports to
CEO or COO. Sits on the executive committee.
Owns
Enterprise IT architecture, EHR integration, cloud strategy, and the digital transformation roadmap.
Budget authority
$50M to $500M+ annual tech spend depending on system size.
Sources triangulated
The mandate
Make sure technology works for the whole system. Decide what gets bought and how it fits together. Convert capital spend into clinical, operational, and financial outcomes that show up on a board deck.
What keeps them up at night
- Disparate legacy systems and limited EHR interoperability that make every new initiative land on top of a broken foundation.
- A board asking where the ROI is on the last three digital transformation initiatives.
- A CISO and a Strategy Executive pulling the roadmap in two different directions in the same meeting.
How they evaluate
Trusted metric
Demonstrated ROI from IT initiatives. Measured clinically, operationally, and financially.
Must-haves
Proven EHR integration. Standardized, scalable solutions. A deployment story that does not set their team on fire.
Deal-breakers
Vague ROI. Point solutions that add complexity. Anything that requires the CISO to sign a waiver.
Preferred content
Peer case studies from comparable systems. Technical deep-dives their architects can validate. TCO models.
The seller's job, translated
Show up with integration evidence, not integration promises. Bring a peer reference before the first demo. Anticipate the CISO's objections and answer them in the same deck. Quantify the clinical and operational outcome, not just the technology. Leave them with something they can walk into the board meeting and defend.
Same room. Same deal. Three incompatible scorecards.
The spotlight above shows depth for one persona. This grid shows breadth across all three inside Engine 01, so you can see how their mandates, fears, and decision criteria collide.
Strategic Tech Leadership
The Architect of Enterprise Value Through Technology
- Core Mandate
- Makes sure technology works for the system. Decides what gets bought and how systems fit together.
- Top Priority
- Ensure IT initiatives deliver measurable clinical, operational, and financial value.
- Biggest Fear
- Disparate legacy systems and limited EHR interoperability.
- Trusted Metric
- Demonstrated ROI from IT initiatives.
- Decision Criteria
- Proven EHR integration; standardized, scalable solutions.
Strategy Executive
The Navigator of Future Growth
- Core Mandate
- Focused on where the organization is going in 5+ years, connecting market trends to digital strategy.
- Top Priority
- Position the organization for sustained, long-term success.
- Biggest Fear
- Competition from national insurers, PE, and retail health entrants.
- Trusted Metric
- Revenue growth and market share.
- Decision Criteria
- Strategic alignment with tangible, defensible ROI.
Info Security Leadership
The Shield Against Digital Threats
- Core Mandate
- Protects patient data and keeps systems running, balancing security, compliance, and usability.
- Top Priority
- Protect from evolving cyber threats, particularly cloud and account compromise.
- Biggest Fear
- Insufficient cybersecurity expertise and incomplete device inventories.
- Trusted Metric
- Reduction in major cybersecurity incidents.
- Decision Criteria
- Effectiveness against ransomware/phishing; minimal workflow disruption.
“A seller walking in without this map pitches features to three people who score features differently, then loses to whoever pitched the trade-offs.”
Artifacts, now the GTM foundation.
- 01
76-slide persona library
Complete executive-facing deck covering all 12 personas across the four engines. Sales, product marketing, and executive teams work from the same document.
- 02
39-slide buyer journey architecture
The 5-stage, 7-to-13-month non-linear enterprise buying cycle mapped end to end. Every stage tied to stakeholder involvement, evaluation criteria, and content needs.
- 03
Four Engines framework
Proprietary model mapping the four competing forces every major healthcare purchase has to satisfy. Now used as the shared frame for all cross-functional buyer conversations.
- 04
Field enablement
Flew in to lead the in-person sales training that rolled the framework out to the field team during the new-market launch.
The full decks are under NDA. Happy to walk through them in conversation. Tap the Get in touch button at the top of any page.
A senior PMM, growth, or head of marketing seat where the function is mine to own.
Available immediately. Remote-first, open to Chicago onsite. Targeting healthtech, B2B SaaS, and cybersecurity at Series B through public.