What Medtech Can Learn from Starbucks

In the medical device industry, it's common to see innovations that gain traction in the marketplace because of an unmet need it fills that clinicians have specifically asked for because they knew it would make their job easier in some way and lead to better patient outcomes. On the other hand, there are times that the marketplace goes gangbusters for something they would have never even thought to ask for. During a panel session on product design at MD&M West, Dave Saunders, used coffee as a prime example of that.  "If you ask people to describe their perfect cup of coffee they'll tell you 'rich, bold, dark roast', right? It's almost like Folgers programmed us to know [that response] for decades," said Saunders, the chief technology officer at Redwood City, CA-based Galen Robotics.  Then Starbucks came along (and other coffee companies as well) and began offering every variety of coffee flavor and intensity imaginable, from blonde to dark. Starbucks even refers to this on its website as the Starbucks Roast Spectrum. So just because the marketplace isn't demanding different variations of existing technologies, doesn't mean manufacturers shouldn't step outside the product development comfort zone to broaden platforms anyway. "We're dealing with a market that is mostly made up of practitioners who are taught how to do a thing and they're not necessarily technology-oriented themselves so they're not coming out and asking you, 'hey, I need to replace the jigs used for tota...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: MD & M West (Anaheim) Design Source Type: news