How to identify the next big thing in clinical research?

Patients centric digital solutions, Omni-channel platforms, decentralised clinical trials (DCT), Risk-based Quality Management (RbQM), Home Care,…

Those are "Established trends". Truths, that everyone agrees on and every competitor of yours is already working on.?Analysing established trends is what take us from 1 to n (amplifying a signal) and not what takes us from zero to one. Innovation however, is a Zero to One risky jump.

Established trends are where the crowd goes. Being part of it might lead to improving the product in the market, but this is only for a little time, till your competitor release its next update.?The next big thing is an emerging trend.

Where is the next big thing?

#Outliers

The next big thing is usually an unpopular idea, an outlier. In science, outliers are interpreted as insignificant and irrelevant and therefore ignored.?Scientific success is based on statistical significance. We follow the crowd of dots in a diagram. Outliers are seen as annoyances to be dismissed and that′s how we tragically miss them.

The majority of professionals in late drug development (Clinical research) are scientists, who are trained to ignore outliers and seek excellence through reproducing statistical significance. To innovate tho, outliers are what we should look for and we, clinical research professionals, need a mindset shift. Then we can't see what we are not looking for.

How can I spot the next big thing?

1. Extroverted thinking

Pharmaceutical companies as many big organisations are predisposed to confirmation bias and therefore are introverted intellectuals. We adapt to the change around us within our industry but are close minded to what happen in the external world. As a consequence, we are absorbed by improving internal processes, to fit in the current standards and we miss the opportunity to change the whole thing to the better.

Extroverted thinking means being open minded to analysing the external world without the lens of clinical research. This involves monitoring external industries, new challengers, and wonder how can we translate their breakthroughs to our industry.

What does AirBnB disruption of the Travel industry tell us about customers′need of self directed research experience? How can we use this knowledge to increase HCPs engagement in our trials?

What does Apple success through innovative design tells us about the importance of UX as a monopolitarian strategy? And how can we translate their success in clinical research as we are looking to upgrade the quality of interactions we do have with patients and HCPs.

How did Tinder and Bumble revolutionise the dating culture globally and which lessons in social behaviours can we learn from them to leverage and expand our circle of influence with stakeholders??

2. Understand your custumor′s pain

Big ideas have one thing in common: they solve an acute painful need. As David Rhew , Global CMO& VP of Healthcare at Microsoft, discussed in his latest interview with Health StartUp "Healthcare is about patients and providers and understanding how we can make their life better." To solve the need of our customers, we have to spend time with them, understand the workflow and keep an open eye to painful needs.?

In a big organisation, customer needs are seen by entry-level employees and strategic decisions are taken at the executive level. The issue here is: the majority of entry level employees in clinical research are not trained to spot needs of their clients nor to engage with them beyond the responsibilities of their role. The ones, who have an ear to acute pains, believe they can′t do much about it and stay silent. Entry-level employees who voice the issue, their feedback get diluted in a wage formulation while climbing the feedback ladder down to up.

But how to access custumor′s knowledge?

2.1. lead from the trenches?

In her book "Rebel talents: why it pays to break the rules in work and life" Francesca Gino , Professor of business administration??and unit head of the negotiation, organisations and Market, at HBS, suggests a bold action: Get your hands dirty!

Executives should spend a day in an entry-level employee role to understand if strategic ideas lead to the desired outcomes and identify faulty processes. Something Frontier Airline CEO Bryan Bedford has done. In clinical Research, the majority of interactions between Sponsor and sites happen through the CRA.?CRAs knows the customers, their needs, their acute pains.

2.2. Invite your 3rd eye to the decision table

In clinical research, your 3rd eye is an entrepreneurial?person who is active in the field, engage directly with your customers. Your 3rd eyes agenda is identifying acute needs, the flaws in the system and emerging trends in the workflow at site level. Ideally, your 3rd eye is entrepreneurial and cross-discipline thinker. When identifying trends and business strategies to follow long term, executives need the opinion of the 3rd eye.

3. Millennial talents

Seek the opinion of millennials. Millennials are seen as Job hoppers but they are not. Millennials are curious, they want to learn more skills. Millennials do understand, that evolution happen at the intersection of expertises. Millennials understand that >50% of skills learned today will be irrelevant 5-10 years from now. They are not job hoppers, they are skills seekers.

Millennials life journey is a true success story in agile development and how to adapt to change. They are raised with the certainty that tomorrow will be different from today and therefore??they are continually scanning their environment??for social, political and technological changes. Millennials understand that to stay relevant you have to anticipate the change.?Take advantage of it!

4. Challenge conservative assumptions:

# Seniority & Expertise

Boomers, who are the leaders of today believes that seniority means expertise. However, the boomers who led to our technological revolutions did so at younger age.?Elon Musk was 30 when he founded Tesla, Bezos was 36, Bill Gate was 19, Steve Jobs was 21, Peter Thiel (PayPal) was 31. The next big idea is not the product of seniority but the product of entrepreneurial mindset.

5. Imagination

Dreams have no restrictions. When facing new ideas, wonder "what implication might this idea have 5, 10, 25 years from now" follow the idea and be flexible in adapting your dream to new realities. This forces you to see the ideas monopolitarian potential, its scalability and impact.

6. Embrace uncertainty

Would it work???

Is a question based on the assumption that ideas are unflexible. In the history of breakthroughs, the majority of implementations required some re-designing of solutions. You rarely get a product Market fit at your first shot. That's why in Tech we have beta-versions. Amazon went from a book store to a every-thing store. Microsoft went from a software company to a cloud computing company.

Peter Gassner the founder of Veeva systems changed the vision of his company in 2016, while keeping the values.?When asked what are veeva systems plans 10, 20, 30 years from now, he replied "Who knows! That's what I learned from my favourite business book Dr. Seuss."

Identifying the best next thing in clinical research is going on an exploratory path with a "who knows" attitude.

7. workstreams are not innovation hubs

To make the next big idea to the next big thing, we have to protect the idea from distraction, hierarchical decision channels and a compromise culture. Big organisations need their own innovation hubs, a safe room to safeguard the ideas potential from change disruptors. Workstreams within organisations are a status quo ideas killer. They are meant for small, introverted changes and not for the next big thing.

At the start, an idea need a small team of max 5 people with a 100% allocation, the freedom to act and the responsibility to deliver. Success needs dedicated minds, entreupreuneurial charisma. A core united by an idea and driven by a deep need for creation and exceeding expectations. A bunch of vision-fanatic, dedicated dreamers, resillient winners, not afraid to give it all because it will be worth it.