Design Strategy

Speed Bumps Ahead: Medical Device Development and the Risks of Moving Too Fast

by Paul Klock Posted Nov 20, 2019 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Competition in the medical device industry is already cutthroat. But an influx of investor-backed startups means the pressure is only ratcheting up. The investors who back these startups often don't have a background in medical devices. And they expect to captur [...]

Designing for Two: Balancing the Needs of Prescribers and Patients for Home Health Medical Devices

by Paul Klock Posted Sep 27, 2019 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The most successful medical devices are those designed specifically with users’ needs in mind. That’s a pretty basic tenet of product design, right? But what happens when a device has more than one group of users, each with a competing set of needs? If your [...]

Me-Too Medical Products: How to Avoid the Top Five Mistakes

by Chris Ross Posted Sep 09, 2019 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Let’s say one of your competitors introduces a successful new medical device to the market that would make sense as part of your suite of products. If you’re like most medical device companies, you’re probably tempted to bring your own version o [...]

Project Diagnostics: Understanding the Crucial First Step in the Medical Device Development Process

by Chris Ross Posted Aug 21, 2019 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

Medical product development is a long and complex journey. Whether your company is an ambitious startup or an established industry leader, of course you already know you need to have a plan. But not all product development plans are created equal. In order to be successful, your development plan [...]

The Future is Now: Conceptual Product Design and the Next Generation of Medical Devices

by John Salisbury Posted Jun 12, 2019 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The medical device industry is more competitive than it's ever been, and rapidly evolving new technologies are adding fuel to the fire. Now more than ever, innovation is a must. Your market share is what's at stake. That means you need to develop a clear vision [...]

How a Unified Brand Language Builds Trust in Your Products

by Chris Ross Posted May 17, 2019 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Imagine an operating suite where a surgeon might use two of your company’s medical devices in the same procedure. She puts down one instrument and picks up the other … and pauses for a beat because the two tools feel different in her hands. They look differe [...]

Why Medical Device Companies Struggle To Design Home-Use Products

by Chris Ross Posted Aug 06, 2018 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A few generations ago, a single computer filled up an entire room. The brightest engineers in the world were responsible for creating it, and either they or their highly skilled technicians were the only ones who could use it. Today, we all have a high powered c [...]

Opportunity Mining: Fill Your Medical Product Pipeline with Innovations

by Chris Ross Posted Jul 06, 2018 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design, User Insights & Design Research

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A medical product company’s lifeblood is their product pipeline. Keeping it full of high quality opportunities is one of the most important jobs of the executive team. If you’re running an established, mid to large sized company the sheer volume of product o [...]

How to use the FDA Process to Deliver a User-Friendly Medical Device

by Chris Ross Posted Jan 24, 2018 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design, User Insights & Design Research

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Seasoned medical device developers know that the FDA cares about safety and effectiveness, and nothing more. And because of the intense focus required to meet stated FDA expectations, it’s easy to put on blinders regarding issue [...]

When Worlds Collide: Invasion of the Consumer Product Marketers

by Chris Ross Posted Feb 21, 2017 In Design Strategy, Healthcare Trends, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The medical device and consumer product worlds have collided.  We saw evidence of this recently at the

Hand-off Dangers in Medical Product Design

by Chris Ross Posted Nov 15, 2016 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you’ve spent any time in the medical product design and development industry, you’re familiar with the phrase “throw it over the fence.”  It’s often used in a playful manner to describe a moment in time when one discipline has completed most of its [...]

The Misunderstood Engineering Prototype

by Chris Ross Posted Oct 19, 2016 In Design Strategy, Engineering, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In developing a new medical device, some start-ups proceed with a high degree of confidence that their core technology engineering prototype should become faithfully transformed into the actual product that will come to market.

What they actually have at [...]

Your Product Design Choice: Me-Too or Breakthrough

by Chris Ross Posted Aug 16, 2016 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A market-leading diagnostic device company approached us to redesign its flagship product.  Not only was this a chance to work with the best, but an opportunity to innovate on a product with global reach.  After more than a decade and a half on the market, it [...]

The RFP Process Deserves to Die

by Chris Ross Posted Jul 19, 2016 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

The system that corporate America has adopted as the way to hire professional service firms is fundamentally flawed.  This is especially true when choosing a partner for a complex engagement like medical product development.  We’ve seen the Request For Proposal process tragically hamper innovati [...]

Beware of Faltering Design Commitment

by Chris Ross Posted Jun 06, 2016 In Design Strategy, Medical Product Design

In developing a medical device, agreement on a design approach brings with it no guarantee that the product will ultimately appear and function as expected. sometimes subtle viewpoint differences cause the development trajectory to veer slightly from the intended path, putting schedules, budgets and [...]