President and CEO of the Clinical Effectiveness business at Wolters Kluwer, leading customer-led innovation and a transformed workforce.
Many industries, including the healthcare market, have seen an acceleration in change over the past four years due to the pandemic. For example, virtual healthcare went from a “someday” technology to a pervasive part of the industry. This change is expected to continue as consumer expectations and needs increase, new technologies emerge and nontraditional competitors rapidly enter spaces vying for market share.
As an example, recently, we have seen big technology players like Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple throw their hats in the healthcare ring, bringing with them outside-the-box ideas for delivering healthcare to consumers in new settings. (Disclosure: My company has a partnership with Microsoft.) I think this rapid change will only accelerate as new technologies, such as generative AI, propel innovation at breakneck speed.
To stay competitive, companies and their executives need to learn that “fail fast” is imperative. The word “failure” is largely perceived as antithetical to success when, in reality, it’s often a prerequisite to achieving greatness: consider market disruptors such as Apple, for example.
The Essential Steps To Failing Fast
Based on my experiences as a leader of a constantly evolving global healthcare technology organization, here are some ways business leaders can fail fast to accelerate learning across their enterprises and help ensure the success of new products, partnerships and other strategic endeavors.
1. Engage customers and potential partners as early as possible.
Failing fast means learning fast. Leaders can avoid blindly pushing an underwhelming product forward by gathering feedback early from trusted customers or other market stakeholders who can help quickly determine if it’s a dud, needs a few fixes or is ready for the next stage in development.
It’s critical to share ideas and beta versions with your target customer base early enough so that their feedback can influence your team’s learning and, subsequently, your product’s design. By listening to customers and avoiding confirmation bias, you can be confident that the product won’t just make it to market but will sell and deliver material impact.
Further, early identification of weaknesses in solution offerings puts leaders on a productive path of considering how a strategic partnership can help fill any gaps. The result is often a more complete product that is more easily adopted and quickly scaled, saving both time and money.
For example, I mentioned virtual care is expanding at an unprecedented rate due to the pandemic. Virtual care providers are working around the clock on new technology to meet consumer demand for convenient care access and, as the market shifts, increasingly realizing that they don’t have the medical content infrastructure needed for meaningful patient engagement. Many of these providers have made the decision to partner with established organizations more experienced in the space, like my own, instead of trying to build from scratch.
2. Avoid the “slow no.”
The natural enemy of failing fast is the “slow no.” While a “no” is never the response you want from a potential customer, it’s much better to get that response sooner rather than later. In a blog post from Customer Think, written for the sales industry back in 2008, the author begins with: “If you’re going to lose, it’s always better to lose early.”
I’ve found this is even more true today, with markets that are constantly shifting and a slew of new players poised to enter and disrupt at any moment. In today’s climate, product cycles are weeks, not months, reinforcing that there is not a moment to waste.
When it comes to failing fast, all customer responses are beneficial—except for the slow no. A quick “no” is arguably just as valuable as a quick “yes” because it serves as an indicator of your solution’s market potential and longevity. Early customer feedback will tell you whether you’re meeting a real industry need or pushing a minor fix. Ultimately, products that prove their value early will be the most successful long-term.
3. Balance risk and opportunity.
It’s no secret that most companies hope their solutions will be industry game changers. Often, speed-to-market is considered a strong predictor of a product’s “disruptor” status, and nobody wants to be late to the party.
However, it’s important to remember that being the quickest to deliver an answer is different from being the quickest to deliver the right answer. The latter wins the long game. In healthcare, we’re seasoned in balancing speed with risk as people’s lives and well-being are at stake.
As we’ve seen with the rise of generative AI, care providers and patients alike are eager to experiment with the latest technology. However, the AI arms race over the last few months has not been without its challenges—from concerns over patient privacy to patients being exposed to false, potentially harmful information via chatbots.
It’s clear that there is still room to grow, and caution must be exercised. The greatest success stories with AI in healthcare won’t unfold overnight. Instead, they will come from the organizations that take the right steps to accelerate their learning and adjust accordingly. Striking this balance between risk and opportunity is especially key for leaders in other highly regulated industries.
Keeping One Step Ahead
Moore’s Law is the principle that states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, meaning new computer models will become smaller and lighter over time. Moore’s Law has been expanded to cover the rapid increase in innovation in almost every industry, including healthcare.
Failing fast is an effective way to stay ahead of the curve, leveraging real-world insights into what your potential customers and collaborators are looking for and what they’re not. Now, more than ever, companies must be nimble and lean into an accelerated learning process.
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