Meet the Team: Sam Chan

From an idea scrawled on a piece of paper in 2018 to a growing team of 40 today – it’s fair to say, GoodHuman has come a long way.

What hasn’t changed, is our shared passion for transforming the way disability organisations deliver services, to make it easier for everyone, everywhere to get support when they want it. 

In this new series, step inside GoodHuman and meet the team behind the features, code and designs. Learn what a career pathway looks like at GoodHuman, what we get up to and what we’re trying to solve. 

To kick things off, we’re chatting to Sam Chan, Senior Product Manager at GoodHuman. 

Sam spends most of his time chasing his two little humans, snowboarding, gardening and swimming. He loves the Scan&Go function of the Woolworths app and if he were a dog, he’d be a Samoyed (fluffy exterior, yet fairly robust and low-maintenance). 

Now for the nitty gritty. 

Why GoodHuman?

• The talented and passionate people I get to work with day-in and day-out
• An amazing, supportive and fun culture
• The problem space and opportunities which lie ahead
• Being part of making a meaningful impact in people’s lives

It isn’t often you find a place that ticks all of these boxes.

Working at GoodHuman is like sharing a meal with your close friends or family. You tell stories, share experiences, laugh at the good times, sympathise through the tough times, support, celebrate and encourage each other. By the end, you are fulfilled on so many levels.

The path to Product at GoodHuman

As with a lot of other Product Managers, I 'fell into' Product Management and have loved it ever since. 

I come from a statistics background, which is very different (but not completely unrelated) and it took me a while to realise my passion was in the digital and tech space. 

I've always been drawn to great design and I felt I had an affinity for empathising with people. Combine that with the chance to be solving some really interesting problems, especially customer problems and voila – the perfect alignment of interests for Product Management.

I am absolutely thrilled to be part of the Product Management team at GoodHuman. The people are so talented, honest, adaptable and have a yearning for learning (from each other and the broader Product Management community). It's refreshing and keeps you on your toes, which is so vital as a Product Manager. 

A look at Sam’s plate: Support Coordination

Currently, my focus is on helping create a great experience for our Support Coordinators within the platform. The problem we're trying to solve is around time and focus. Support Coordinators aren't able to focus on what's most important - supporting their clients - because they are buried under a mountain of admin requirements, a symptom of long processes, lots of reporting requirements and lack of visibility or ability to effectively budget.

We want to empower Support Coordinators through the platform with tools to manage their Support Coordination business more effectively, make admin work as minimal a burden as possible, giving them more time and focus on providing their essential services.

We have interviewed Support Coordinators to gain really rich insights into the pain points they experience everyday and we've worked closely with industry experts and the NDIS to understand the direction the industry is headed. 

The win for me has been how forthcoming the community has been with feedback and everyday I'm blown away by stories from our users and the impact they are having on people's lives.

The challenge, however, has always been around how we meet the needs of all Support Coordination businesses, large and small. It has been encouraging, however, to see many common themes across the board, regardless of size.

Up next on Sam’s to-do-list…

If you were (un)lucky enough to get a sneak peak at my to-do list, you might find a few hundred items which include (but not limited to): 

• Refining the product roadmap
• Working closely with design and engineering on our next big bets
• Keeping an eye on bugs and customer feedback
• Interviews with users and working more broadly with the wider Product team on strategically planning out our goals and objectives for the next while 

Things learned along the way

1. Learn and adapt quickly – Things are fast paced and constantly changing for the better. Improvement is all about understanding what does and doesn't work and striving for excellence in everything we do 

2. Passion and insights – The greatest insights come from the most passionate people in the human services industry. We are lucky to work with customers who are not only generous with their time, but genuinely want the best outcome for people they care for – that passion is tangible! 

3. Teamwork makes the dream work – It is humbling to work with such talented and knowledgeable people. Empowering everyone to make their best decisions everyday means spending less time bogged down in red tape and more time getting to value faster for our customers.

Some parting words…

As a Product person, I always love connecting and getting to know new people and hearing their stories. If you got this far and any of the above resonates with you, get in touch, shoot me a message, would love to chat and connect!

Interested in a role in Product?

You're in luck – we're on the look-out for some more superstar Product Managers to join Sam in the GoodHuman Product team.

Check out our job board to apply today, or email careers@goodhuman.me to learn more.

If Product isn't quite the right fit for you, never fear! We are currently hiring for a bunch of other roles which you can check out here.