A real-world perspective: Building and executing an integrated customer engagement roadmap that bridges the gaps in traditional medical device development processes

Abstract

Today, up to 88% of medical technology companies fail to deliver significant return to their investors. Clearly, the traditional stage-gate process employed in new product development is not dynamic enough, nor tactical enough, to provide a product’s success. The new product development process should address each stakeholder’s perspective (i.e. payers, patients, hospitals/healthcare systems, and governmental agencies) and generate data and corresponding messaging that speaks to them. Incorporating a global launch strategy, which is common today, amplifies the data burden when one considers each country’s constellation of stakeholder groups and regulatory requirements. Thus, launch strategies must map out total required stakeholder data needs before launch to capture efficiencies and lower total costs. This type of new product development process requires a unique team in place at the beginning of the product cycle. The Core Team must be an integrated, collaborative, flexible, cross-functional team that incorporates core strategic functions (Clinical, Regulatory, Legal, R&D, Reimbursement, Engineering, Sales and Marketing), but also has the ability to execute the tactical plans. The members’ differing perspectives inform the data-driven marketing and launch plans, claims matrices, key message development, competitive analysis, clinical publication strategy, and market conditioning plan. This article will address the gaps we have observed in the traditional stage-gate new product development process in the current healthcare landscape and will outline the marketing best practices we have used to bridge those gaps: creating an integrated customer engagement roadmap that fully aligns with a value-oriented global market and executing that roadmap with the cross-functional expertise of a Core Team.