When car designers want to test an idea, they don’t just create focus groups. They don’t stop at market research.
They take a much bigger step. The concept car has been part of the automotive industry since the 1950s: nothing else is able to evoke a reaction as visceral and honest as actually building out a concept, even making it driveable, then putting it where it can be seen, touched, felt.
Yet these concept cars will never be seen on the road. So why spend so much time and effort building something that is impractical, even crazy? It’s because car companies appreciate that learning is the most important asset. And the truth is, nobody can really react to something unless it’s first made as real as possible.
Ad boards just don’t cut it. They’re too theoretical.
Ironically, our scientists understand this. They create new molecules and get them into real experiments, animal models, and trials, to really find out what works. They are often surprised. What a shame that we don’t then carry the same attitude into the creative processes outside R&D, ie. commercial and medical departments, where we could be bringing fully-realized concepts to HCPs and patients for a more genuine and powerful reaction.
To be agile, we must build MVPs. Those MVPs need to be real working products. And to build products we need to realize health concepts of the future like the automotive giants do.
We need to generate debate and reaction, positive and negative. After all, if Elon Musk can get people energized about new battery concepts, we must be able to get people excited about the future of health.
Come on pharma!