In this episode of GuideWire, Devin Hubbard and fellow FastTraCS engineers, Nicole Wiley and Nabil Khan, discuss problem discovery techniques they use to identify unmet medical needs. One of their goals at FastTraCS is to not only discover problems, but find them quickly and optimally.

 Today’s Topics Include:

Where to begin? Shadow existing contacts in network and departments of interest

Nicole’s Background:Small-scale medical devices and biomechanics research

Nabil’s Background: Biomedical engineering for medical device and development

Learning Point: Discover, gather, explore, and mine problems before thinking of solutions

How to select a clinician to work with? Find a spark connection—someone who is enthusiastic, energized, and passionate

Pros and Cons of Problem Discovery Techniques: Shadowing, focus groups, and sprint method to identify, track, and solve problems or parts of problems quickly

 Links and Resources:

Sprint by Jake Knapp

Google Ventures

Devin Hubbard

FastTraCS

GuideWire Podcast on Twitter

GuideWire Podcast

 Quotes:

“I was not as attracted to the intangibles, as I was the tangibles.” Nicole Wiley

“Don’t think about solutions first. Try to discover, gather, explore, mine novel problems.” Nabil Khan

“The spark connection is critical.” Nabil Khan

“The best way to get in touch with folks is to work your network.” Devin Hubbard