Our 1,461-Day Journey Towards Excellence

Looking back on the past four years leading technical delivery transformation at Signant Health , I'm struck by how much our team has grown. What began as a challenge to improve delivery throughput became a journey of innovation, collective learning, and personal growth for everyone involved.

In 2021, at the height of COVID, our organization faced an existential challenge: double our throughput, overnight, while keeping quality and cost in-check. Through countless conversations with team members at all levels, we recognized that sustainable improvement would require more than just new processes – it would need a fundamental shift in how we approached our work together.

Lesson One was to ensure that our leadership team is aligned and equipped to drive this transformation. I remember interviewing all line manager and delivery manager candidates, focusing on their ability to lead global teams and facilitate data-driven decision-making.

Our team's commitment to improvement has led to meaningful progress in several areas. Working together, we've steadily enhanced our delivery quality, achieving consistent on-time delivery rates and maintaining quality scores that reflect our team's dedication to excellence. Through collaborative problem-solving, we've reduced our rework rate to 0.8%, though we continue to look for ways to improve further.

Lesson Two was to make our performance visible through team scorecards which were reviewed weekly and root cause analysis exercises conducted for every non-green metric. We went from crude spreadsheets to live BI-enabled scoreboards.

The journey of cost optimization has taught us valuable lessons about sustainable growth. By thoughtfully expanding into new regions and capitalizing on untapped talent pools, we've built strong technical teams while reducing costs effectively. Our teammates in the Philippines, India, and Romania have brought fresh perspectives and expertise that have enriched our entire organization. Together, we've refined our onboarding processes, reducing technical training time significantly while ensuring new team members feel supported and prepared.

Lesson Three required us to increase the expertise levels across the board. We leveraged the Global Resignation to infuse new blood into the organization, drawing from unconventional sources and reshaping the job responsibilities of many.

One of our team's most significant learnings has been around timeline management. Through collaborative effort and innovative thinking from team members at all levels, we've increased our early delivery rates and implemented faster timeline initiatives across our product portfolio. This improvement didn't come from top-down mandates, but from our teams' identifying bottlenecks and suggesting creative solutions, including automation initiatives that have saved thousands of delivery hours.

Lesson Four had us shifting into high gear, making investments in critical automation infrastructure, in order for us to shoo away the competition. Our storied clinical trials reputation kept us ahead.

The most rewarding aspect of this journey has been witnessing the growth and engagement of our team members. Our improved retention rates – now well below industry averages – reflect the strong community our teams have built together. The credit goes to our dedicated line managers and team leads who have created supportive environments where people feel valued and motivated to do their best work.

Lesson Five involved creating cross-training programs that infused variety into a teammate's career journey while multiplying delivery capacity in the process. With a more robust skills matrix, projects got delivered better and faster.

We've learned that employee engagement isn't about grand initiatives, but about creating daily opportunities for growth and contribution. Our pod-based structure has enabled natural mentorship and knowledge sharing. Through collaborative efforts with HR and leadership teams, we've established clearer career paths and ensured fair compensation across all levels.

Lesson Six was an homage to agile ways of working. By pushing decision-making to the front line, we reduced the number of executive escalations and drove problem-solving to the people who knew the answers best.

As we look ahead, I'm grateful for the lessons learned and humbled by the dedication of our teams. The progress we've made in quality, efficiency, and team engagement isn't just about metrics – it's about the collective effort of hundreds of professionals who come together each day to deliver value to our clients while supporting each other's growth.

The most important lesson from this journey? Success in transformation isn't about any one person's vision or leadership – it's about creating an environment where everyone can contribute their best ideas and work together toward common goals. Our progress has been the result of countless small improvements suggested and implemented by team members at all levels.

I'm deeply thankful for the opportunity to work alongside such talented and dedicated professionals. While we celebrate our progress, we remain focused on learning and improving together. The foundation we've built isn't just about the metrics we've achieved – it's about the collaborative, innovative culture that will continue to drive us forward.

#ContinuousLearning #Teamwork #QualityDelivery #EmployeeEngagement #Innovation #TechnicalDelivery #AgileTransformation #CollaborativeGrowth #LeadershipLessons

Special Mention to a wonderful team of senior managers and thought leaders: Saulius Bartkus Michelle Horton Donovan Flynn Val Takita Natalie Nicholson Steve Burke Padraig Clarke Heather Dipietrantonio Biju Abraham