Danielle Barbieri, OTR/L: OT in Augmented Reality
In this post, we will learn from Danielle Barbieri, OTR/L, an Associate Clinical Product Manager at Augment Therapy. As an Occupational Therapist with a background in the NYC public school system, homecare, and pediatric sensory gyms in pediatrics, Danielle possesses a keen understanding of the unique strengths and challenges faced by her young clients, as well as the needs of a therapist practicing under high demands and time constraints. Danielle is currently focused on growing her career, in digital health and health technology. As an OT, Danielle thrives on the challenge of developing creative and engaging activities to enhance the skills that her clients wish to improve. This experience carries over into her work at Augment Therapy, where she provides unique ideas for games, accessibility, and strategies to reach busy therapists. Danielle is an advocate for the voice of the customer, actively crafting ways to get feedback from users to drive product improvement. She harnesses her market experience to identify pain points for therapists, clients, and their families. Working in a collaborative environment, she enjoys seeing how these ideas develop from multiple perspectives into solutions for Augment Therapy customers.
Q & A with Danielle:
Please tell us a little about yourself and some of your favorite occupations.
Hey! My name is Danielle. I grew up in NJ, but now I live in Manhattan. I love the city life because I love to walk everywhere, rain or shine. I own a French Bulldog, and he is everything. I also love to roller skate. It’s the only way I can ever shut my mind off!
What motivated you to contribute to this podcast series?
Transitioning careers is hard. There are so many resources out there, but most of them cost money. I’d love to share my journey, what has been working, what hasn’t been working, and what I plan to do more of in an effort to help somebody else.
Please describe the UncommonOT work that you do and the setting in which you work, the population you serve and the needs that you address.
I’m currently using my OT skills in the digital health space. I work for a company called Augment Therapy. This company was created by a PT named Lindsay Watson. We have two different applications, one for therapists, and the other for wellness/home use. Both applications focus on increasing movement through immersive gaming! Since they’re augmented reality applications, they don’t require equipment outside of phones or laptops that we already have. It’s important to me that this company is owned and ran by a PT, and that it employs PTs and OTs. In this job I contribute therapist insights often. For example, I’m using my insights into accessibility to come up with a list of changes we could potentially make. Since we’re also an application for older people, I’m bringing insights into low vision and how we can make our app accessible to aging eyes. Having worked with children for 5 years, I’m doing a lot of product discovery work. I am really interested in user research and getting the voice of the customer into the product. I have a lot of contacts in the industry, which has helped with this transition. I’ve also been contributing my expertise to ideas for different features and helping prioritize new initiatives based on market insight. My OT skills contributed well to this. For example, having empathy, listening to small tips in conversations, breaking tasks into small actionable steps, and forming relationships with customers.
What inspired you or drew you to this type of OT work?
OT was a draw for me because I’ve always loved helping people, which is an obvious response. But I really do. And I like being creative and helping people solve their problems. To digital health - I honestly have always known people in the tech industry. I love healthcare, but everything moves so slowly. I think I could contribute a lot more to healthcare by working in health tech and digital health.
How did you get there? Can you describe your path?
From OT to Digital Health: 1. Talking to people in the industry 2. Tirelessly looking up other people’s paths 3. Upskilling: Aspireship, Udemy 4. Networking 5. Changing my resume to non-clinical language 6. Collective Coaching: coaching companies run by healthcare providers 7. Carly Agar and her coaching program
Please describe a typical day or OT session in your uncommon setting. What OT skills do you utilize?
My days are not typical yet! It’s a small startup where I’m taking on several different roles. I guess I typically start by going through my a meeting with the developer team, and then we’ll talk about things that need to get done, such as product testing. From there, the day by day activities change often. Outside of my work on product, I’m also doing some stuff on the sales and marketing side. So I’ll spend some Time looking for contacts on LinkedIn.
Can you talk about some recent highs (successes) and lows (challenges) of your current role?
Challenges: every day is different. My biggest personal challenge has been adapting to working from home, and having the will and motivation to create my own routine. I personally thrive on routine, and feel chaotic without one. Successes: getting offered a job! I started as an intern, and wasn’t sure if I would get to this point.
How do you continue to learn in order to stay on top of things within your role?
For product: I’ve been taking courses on Udemy, signing up for free online events, and learning from the head of product. I am learning something new every day. As far as OT goes, I maintain my Medbridge subscription. And I’m hoping to attend some relevant conferences to stay in the loop.
Can you share a little bit about salary and compensation in this setting? How do OT or the services you provide get funded?
Salary ranges vastly, depending on the type of company. There are certain tech companies where you can expect a raise every year, or a big raise by simply changing jobs. There are others that are tight on cash, which seems to be the norm in this economy. In a young digital health company, you can probably expect less to start. You probably wont be making as much as an OT does. But if you look at salary ranges online for these “entry level” positions, they range from $60k to $90k to start.
Any career advice for our followers and listeners on how to get started on this path?
My advice would be: 1. Talk to people in the field to try and discover your path 2. Join relevant groups, like The Clinician Transition 3. Transform your current skills to reflect those in job postings. As an OT, you already have these skills. You just need to display them. 4. Up skill with cheap courses 5. Do your own projects 6. If needed, seek specific kinds of coaching courses, whether it be tailored to one kind of job, like Carly Agars CS intensive, or run by Therapy professionals who have successfully made the switch themselves, like Collective Coaching. “Bootcamps” have worked for people in the past, but right now they don’t seem to hold the same value.
What’s a common myth or misconception about your job/role you’d like to call out or demystify?
I’m not sure if there is a common myth. One could be that remote work is the most desirable kind of work. I think it’s great, don’t get me wrong, but it has its ups and downs. You really have to be the right kind of person to thrive with it. I’m trying to adapt myself, since I thrive under routines, but having a hard time making and sticking to routines! I don’t want this to sound like it’s coming from a point of privilege, as I used to work in person and I worked in person during the pandemic before vaccines existed (with the exception of March - June 2020). I worked hard to get to the point of being remote.
How do we find you, follow you, be in touch with you, and promote your unique work?
The best place to find me is LinkedIn! My page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-barbieri-otr?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
Augment Therapy: https://www.augmenttherapy.com/arwellpro I should probably ask if it’s okay to share these outside links, but these are things that have helped me:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/collective-coachinggroup/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-clinician-transition/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-non-clinical-pt/
As always, I welcome any feedback & ideas from all of you or if you are interested in being a guest on future episodes, please do not hesitate to contact Patricia Motus at transitionsot@gmail.com or DM via Instagram @transitionsot
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