Upstream marketing Archives - Page 4 of 5

26Sep 2021 by cesare ferrari

7 Practical Actions To Promote Integration Between Marketing And R&D

After publishing a recent post that you can read here. I received feedback regarding the content, where one of the readers pointed out that the post was a bit academic. And not providing practical and actionable suggestions to increase integration and reduce the inter-functional conflict between marketing and R&D. I’ve decided to revisit the topic and provide some implementable tools to promote integration and reduce the risk of functional or dysfunctional conflicts. Highlighted below are some of the detailed points. 1. Alignment Any formal and informal opportunity should be used to make sure that the cross-functional team agrees on the fact that a successful product depends equally on the customer’s needs satisfaction, as on technological capabilities. 2. Team building Team building activities are available in a vast range to address specific limits…

11Sep 2021 by cesare ferrari

Why The Number One Reason For Product Failure Lies In NOT Satisfying Customer Needs

Upstream marketing

In 2007, the pharmaceutical giant; Pfizer withdrew from the market only a year after launching the first inhalable insulin, making Exubera one of the biggest flops in pharma and the whole healthcare business. I would like to use this example to support the thesis of using a proper VOC to identify customer needs and develop products to solve customer problems. To make the point clear right from the beginning, I know that in hindsight, it is easy to find the weak points that were not identified or not fully considered during the development process. Again, the aim of this example is not to criticize. But to bring attention to customer needs and discuss these critical elements in medical device development once more. Brief Story Of Exubera Pfizer Exubera, the first…

04Sep 2021 by cesare ferrari

How To Reduce Marketing And R&D Conflicts And Develop Better Medical Device

Upstream marketing

Have you ever seen new products that arrive too late on the market, costs of development that overrun and new products that do not offer real value to the customer? Well, one of the root causes are the conflicts between marketing and R&D. I think everybody agrees that effective coordination between various groups in the organization, such as R&D, marketing, and engineering plays an important role in the process of developing a medical device. However, the reality is that an effective and harmonious relationship is the exception rather than the rule. Problems related to poor inter-functional cooperation, communication, lack of clarity of goal and inadequate definition of project responsibilities, are frequent in any kind of organization. And you do not need to be a brilliant manager to know that poor…

22Aug 2021 by cesare ferrari

Ethnography: The (not so) Secret Ingredient Of Your VOC- Voice Of The Customer

Upstream marketing

Introduction Since you've been following my blog content closely, by now you already know that I'm an advocate of the VOC (Voice of the customer), as it's a source of innovation for medical device companies. More so, I have already treated the interviews extensively as a method to collect input from customers. Today, I will provide you an analysis of customers’ observations known also as ethnography, as a complementary tool to collect customer needs and wants. What Is Ethnography? The term “ethnography” is an academic and more polished way to refer to observations. Ethnography is a research methodology used by anthropologists, and it implies the observation of people in their natural environment with the goal of understanding how people live their lives. Furthermore, Ethnographic research involves collecting data in real…

19Jun 2021 by cesare ferrari

How To Conduct Effective Qualitative Interviews That Will Produce Great Data (part 2)

Upstream marketing

This is the second post where I'll be talking about qualitative customer interviews and here, I'll discuss the process of preparation, implementation and their most common problems. I will also enlighten you on all the serious issues that prevent you from getting useful data for better product development. You can refer to part 1 here and follow the guide below on how to conduct qualitative interviews that yield results: Piloting Another element to the interview preparation is the organization of a pilot test with colleagues or participants. The pilot test will help you in finding out limitations, or weaknesses within the interview design and will allow you to make necessary revisions. The pilot test will also assist you with the refinement of the questions and it will be a helpful…

05Jun 2021 by cesare ferrari

How To Conduct Effective Qualitative Interviews That Will Produce Great Data (part 1)

Upstream marketing

In this previous post, I discussed the importance of VOC, especially at the beginning of a new product development process and various methodologies to collect it. I also mentioned that a VOC study should include different forms of data collection, to provide the development team with a well-rounded database of information for analyses. And one of the techniques to gather the VOC is customer interviewing. With that being said, this is the first of 2 posts that explores an effective way to conduct qualitative interviews, by employing a simple process for implementation. What Are Qualitative Interviews? Qualitative interviews are well-structured conversations with a subject that represents the targeted customer. Interviewees are asked identical questions and the questions are worded so that responses are open-ended. This structure allows the participants to…

22May 2021 by cesare ferrari

You too… Do you think that the VOC (Voice of the Customer) doesn’t Work? I don’t!

Upstream marketing

I have already analyzed; the fundamentals of the Voice of the Customer (VOC) in my previous post, and today I will go through some ideas against the VOC. Introduction Speculations have already been raised, as to the effectiveness of VOC, and to some, they feel that it's actually not needed in the process of developing medical devices. In case you're wondering if there's really a need to clarify this, the instances below should clear your doubts. A couple of friends; experienced medical device marketers once said to me that VOC is not working. And they explained further, saying that real innovations are generated by visionaries. Likewise, two sentences supporting this thesis, that I’ve heard more than once are: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster…

08May 2021 by cesare ferrari

Voice Of The Customer Fundamentals – For Medical Device Marketing

Upstream marketing

In developing medical devices, there is an aspect to it that is overlooked, sometimes. And that is probably because in producing medical devices, some marketers and developers have never really understood its significance and benefits. Well, in today's quick guide, I would shed more light on the fundamentals of VOC in Medical Device Marketing, and as you read on, you'll find every detail useful. What is VOC? In simple terms, the Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a process that captures customers’ needs and requirements. In my experience in Med-tech, I've seen a lot of people use the word VOC for any customer interactions, in relation to the entire process of product development. Sometimes VOC is used after the product’s launch, and there, the term is used as a synonym of market research, market analysis, customer satisfaction assessment, and customer…

24Apr 2021 by cesare ferrari

A Practical Guide on Writing High-quality User Requirements For Successful Medical Devices Development

Upstream marketing

In the previous post, I examined the crucial subject of user requirements, and I went ahead to define what it was and gave an analysis to support the claims. I figured out that I had done enough justice to the topic, as you might have found out already. However, after publishing the post, I had an interesting discussion with a friend. And I have decided to revisit the subject to provide some, hopefully useful, information regarding writing quality user requirements. Why User Requirements Are Important? As a quick recap: User requirements are a critical part of the medical device creation process and are essential for a solid foundation in product development. And if poorly written or overlooked, user requirements will lead to an unsuccessful product. What Should A Well Written…

11Apr 2021 by cesare ferrari

How To Define User Requirements That Make Successful Products

Upstream marketing

Having a successful product is a growth requirement for any company and to achieve this, it revolves around the product manager, the development team, as well as the final “consumers”. In the process of medical device development, the definition of proper requirements is critical to develop a product which brings value to the customer. The role of the product manager is to constantly unveil the customers' perspective to the company and he/she must be obsessed with user requirements. What Are User Requirements? User requirements have to do with the functionalities, characteristics, attributes, and capabilities of your product. And user needs, product requirements, design requirements, customer requirements, are all synonyms of user requirements. With that being said, the basic user requirements of a medical device, consist of: What your product doHow…

Category: Upstream marketing