Frost & Sullivan Mind Xchange: “It’s All About Me!” Leveraging Data and Customer Insights to Create Personalized Products and Services
Last month, we had the opportunity to be a part of the 13th Annual Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation and Development Mind Xchange in La Jolla. During the event, we connected with industry leaders who are launching disruptive products, shifting business models and thriving in a digital renaissance.
We also had the opportunity to lead a roundtable session titled “It’s All About Me!” Leveraging Data and Customer Insights to Create Highly Personalized Products and Services, led by our CTO and Co-founder, Scott Thielman with guest Gary Manning, the Chief Commercial Officer of Gaido Health.
Below is a summary of our session, including key takeaways, best practices, and valuable insights.
SESSION ABSTRACT
The ability to develop products and services that deliver exceptional customer experiences sets great companies apart from the mediocre ones. While we know that customer feedback is essential to building products that will succeed in today’s competitive marketplace, the extent to which customer input is leveraged varies widely. So, what are the strategies that great companies employ to make their products and services all about the customer?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A case study on how customer data can transform products and experiences
Insight into how product developers gain valuable information from customers
Tips and tricks for integrating customer data and feedback into your product or service
INTRODUCTION
For his entire career, Manning has interpreted customer needs in the health field. When products match to problems that customers want to solve, the result is better sales.
TAKE AWAY
At his current company, Gaido Health, they are building a solution that can transition from the hospital to home, seamlessly. The friction points to address: the nurse must be comfortable with technology to discharge the patient to home; the hospital wants to free up bed quickly; the patient is uncertain about going it alone. Accordingly, it’s necessary to develop around trust and begin use of the device in the hospital to gain the trust of the patient, nurse, and physician. When the patient is discharged and uses the device at home, the team already trusts the device and compliance is higher.
An essential aspect of product development is finding the right opinion leaders, the people who care most about the problem being solved. In the health field, this can be nurses, ER staff, administrator, Director of Oncology, and others. Identify the stakeholders before you come up with the solution, and identify the things most important to each in the product field. Speaker often searches relevant medical literature to see who is publishing in the field or who has an opinion.
BEST PRACTICE
Early in product development and at regular stages during development, get input from the customer and the stakeholders. Select participants to get a broad spectrum of people and insights and to lessen potential bias. It can be useful to gather the stakeholders together in one place for discussion, feedback, and hands-on testing. It also can be helpful to switch out the individual stakeholders for other stakeholders to avoid getting locked into an opinion or view.
KEY INSIGHT
Nurses can change the culture so that a Chief Nursing Officer can be an excellent addition to a healthcare product development company, in addition to a Chief Medical Officer.
The session participants commented on how products are evaluated in their companies:
Create a customer lab, where representatives from business, technical and customer side physically come together for 2-3-week sprints to work through early product development. It is a company policy that development cannot move forward without a customer in the room.
Customers are involved in development pilots and provide feedback about the product and whether it is ready for market. An additional upside is that these customers are often the first to buy.
Beta testing is commonplace with hands-on devices.
Partner with someone who keeps current with online chat boards in the area of interest and can inform the team of hot topics, as well as the lingo used.
TAKE-AWAY
Know your customer and stakeholders and seek their input throughout the process
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES
Identify and address challenges to successful use, e.g., patient engagement, confidence in technology, do patients have the necessary equipment (e.g., cell phone or Wi-Fi to transmit).
Look for stress points and friction of patient, payor, doctor, nurse, or administrator.
Patient trust is always first.
Find the right cross-section of opinion leaders; who cares most about the problem being solved? Don’t forget about the caregivers at home and hospital administrators.
Throughout the process, ask if you are making the product you said you were making and that the customer said it wanted.
FINAL THOUGHT
Check your ego at the door when testing and evaluating a product!