How can startups avoid failure? Listen better. (Laura Hilty)

Faces of Digital Health

Laura Hilty has spent over 18 years working to improve the healthcare ecosystem, over 14 years of that in clinical research. She has held leadership roles spanning corporate strategy, M&A, product strategy, product management, and partnerships across stages from company start-up to scale, through Forte / Advarra and Epic.

In this short discussion recorded at the Digital Health and AI Innovation Summit in Boston 2024, she explained a few tips companies can use to improve their product development.

Key points:

Collaboration and Deep Understanding: Startups must dive deep into understanding problems by engaging in extensive collaboration and interviewing diverse stakeholders. Conducting numerous conversations helps reveal recurring themes and deeper insights.

Validation with Customers: Before advancing with a solution, startups should validate it with potential customers, ensuring they are willing to buy and clarifying how it fits into their workflows seamlessly.

Active Listening and Detachment: Companies need to listen not just to respond but to truly understand customer pain points. This involves detaching from pre-conceived solutions and being open to honest, even critical, feedback.

Balancing Customer Focus and Market Trends: While it’s crucial to address customer needs, startups must also maintain an external view to identify broader market trends and potential disruptions, avoiding tunnel vision on current customers.

Learning from Failure: Product failure often stems from underestimating customer differences or lack of scalability. Proactively engaging with diverse customer types before development can prevent such issues.

Challenges in Gathering Feedback: Many startups struggle to gather adequate feedback due to customer reluctance or limited outreach. Live conversations are more effective than surveys, and clarifying that feedback isn't tied to sales can improve engagement.

Market Opportunities in Healthcare: There are unmet needs in system integration and leveraging research-naive physicians for clinical trials. Addressing these gaps, especially through innovation and collaboration, could significantly advance the industry.

Website: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com

Newsletter: https://fodh.substack.com/