Meet Saana Tanninen, the product manager of the Ocus M series, as she shares her journey and experiences working at Grundium.
I’m Saana, and I work as the Product Manager for the Ocus M 40 and M 20 scanners. My journey with Grundium started in May 2021 when I did my Master’s thesis for the company – and I’ve stayed ever since. I first came across Grundium on LinkedIn and reached out directly to CEO Mika Kuisma. At that point, my academic background and the company’s needs aligned perfectly.
I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Turku in the Biomedical Sciences program. During a pathology course, I became interested in pathology and even considered whether I should have studied medicine and specialized in pathology instead. But after observing an autopsy during my studies, I realized that was not the path for me. I then continued my Master’s studies in Tampere in the Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering program, specializing in Cell Technology. That’s when I became truly excited about digital pathology – first through my thesis work and later through my role at Grundium.
My days are very varied. Often, urgent questions arise from developers or other project team members that require immediate attention. I think the number of meetings is just right. Remote and office days follow a similar structure, with mornings usually being the most productive. Nowadays, I work about half of my time remotely – remote work is often even more efficient, but it’s always nice to see colleagues at the office.
I collaborate with a wide range of people, most closely with the Project Manager, QA Lead, and UI team. Decisions are made together as a team: I may coordinate data collection, present results and proposals, but final decisions are taken collectively.
One successful decision we made early in the development of the M series was color optimization, inspired by previous customer feedback. Pathologists compared images produced with different LED light colors in a blind test and based on their feedback we chose the current combination. After the product launch, we’ve received good feedback about this improvement.
The nature of collaboration depends a lot on the product development stage. Early on, I work closely with the Project Manager and developers on specifications – for this product, we also used an external UI designer. I also coordinate usability testing and product documentation. As sales begin, I collaborate more with sales and marketing, for example in product marketing planning and training sales teams on product features. Together with the Project Manager, I am also responsible for prioritizing, scheduling, and planning future software improvements.
When all the work came together, and the M 40 and M 20 were released just before the summer holidays in 2025. Positive feedback from customers has been especially meaningful – particularly in moments when I still saw plenty of challenges and bugs that needed fixing.
We are encouraged to take part in training opportunities, and it’s easy to get support from your manager whenever an interesting opportunity comes up.
I’m really excited to see how our products will succeed in clinical use in the United States.
Remote work supports balance very well. Personally, I make sure not to work in the evenings – having a child at home makes it easier to keep work within the day. I use the ePassi benefit mostly for sports, such as yoga and gym training.
You don’t need to know everything in advance – here you learn by doing. The work is fast-paced, diverse, and varied, and we have a fantastic team spirit with truly great people.
We’ve scanned some rather unusual samples – for example, live worms. We nicknamed them “rainbow worms,” because they left colorful light trails in the images.
In Finnish 🇫🇮:
Saana, millaista on olla tuotepäällikkönä Grundiumilla?
