Bernhard is the CEO/Founder of Pathfinder where he applies lean startup principles and agile development to launch successful products. As a product of the Chicago-tech industry, he has a passion for launching successful software that makes a difference in the world and helping local startups make ti big. He leads the Chicago Lean Startup Circle and the Chicago Product Management Association (ChiPMA).
I attended the 2012 mHealth Summit in Washington DC earlier this week and came away impressed with the how fast things are moving in this space.
The conference itself, now in it’s fourth year, has grown to over 3800 attendees and over 300 exhibitors. Major players like Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Healthcare, Aetna, United Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, Qualcomm and Johnson and Johnson were well represented, as were startups, service providers, physicians and government agencies. These organizations are beginning to recognize the transformative power of mobile on the healthcare sector and are putting serious money and manpower into their mobile efforts.
A couple of trends stood out to me from this year’s conference:
Changes to Reimbursement are Here Already
Just before the conference, a study came out claiming that 31 million patients were already enrolled in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in which reimbursement is tied to population health. While there is some debate about the findings, they certainly brought home that changes to reimbursement models are not purely theoretical, or something for the distant future.
There was a lot of discussion on readmissions, the patient centered medical home, and meaningful use. Whether patients are in an ACO or not, changes to reimbursement are are already here and impacting hospitals, clinicians and patients, and those changes will only accelerate.
Reimbursement Changes Spurring Innovation
These reimbursement changes are spurring outcome and cost focused innovation both inside and outside the hospital. While much can be done to improve effectiveness within hospitals (see Atul Gawande’s recent analogy between healthcare and the cheesecake factory) there is likely even more opportunity outside the hospital, through patient behavior change and earlier, more frequent feedback between physicians, patients, and machines. More on the machines part later.
The Promise of Mobile
This is one area where Mobile really shows a lot of promise:
Experiments in Patient Engagement.
Mobile provides great tools for patient engagement, but most organizations are in the early stages of grappling with how to use them, and there’s a lot of confusion and conflicting information out there. For example, one panelist claimed that it was impossible to get more than 11% of patients over 65 to use mobile apps to engage, only to be immediately contradicted by an audience member from Montana who suggested that in his experience providing financial incentives like copay reimbursements worked wonders with seniors.
The good news is there are lots of data driven experiments and learnings being shared, including work in persuasive design and the dynamics of social networks, so I expect lots of progress in this area.
Platforms and Big Data
Of course you need better integration to get all of this data together, analyze it and provide meaningful information where it’s needed.
Integrated groups like Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain have a head start on all of this – they’ve been dealing with patient engagement and reimbursement for population health, have data on this, and are actively using that data to improve outcomes for their populations.
But there’s lots of room to improve on the current state of integration. That’s where platforms like Qualcomm Life’s 2net and Aetna’s CarePass come in.
The 2net Platform is a cloud-based system designed to be universally-interoperable with different medical devices and applications, enabling end-to-end wireless connectivity while allowing medical device users and their physicians or caregivers to easily access biometric data, with two-way connection capabilities and a broad spectrum of connection options.
Aetna’s CarePass takes this one step further. The platform enables consumers to share information across apps and create a personalized, coherent experience to manage their whole health, from getting care to staying well, all with one sign-on. Aetna has integrated a number of their own apps, like iTriage, Medicity and ActiveHealth Management.
For Aetna, this fits into their vision to build out the infrastructure platform for ACOs and get as many providers and consumers onto the platform as possible.
Which brings us back to reimbursement and regulatory changes. The MHealth Summit provided a great look at the state of MHealth in 2012, a glimpse of where we are going, and of the challenges we still face. I can’t wait to see where we go in 2013.
It’s been a whirlwind year at Pathfinder. Our focus on bringing innovative solutions to the healthcare space has continued to bear fruit. We’ve added Fortune 500 clients and innovative startups in the device, diagnostic and health insurance industries.
Mobile
Our clients continue to innovate in their use of mobile technology. Many of our projects now involve developing mobile applications on iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones and tablets. Projects this year have included:
Staying Agile in an FDA Regulated Environment
Our approach to making extraordinary healthcare apps relies on a few key ingredients:
Quite a number of the products we develop are considered Class II and Class III medical devices and require clearance or approval by the FDA. Applying an agile approach in this environment poses significant challenges, but carries great benefits for quality, speed and market viability,
We’ve met these challenges by developing a quality management system that conforms to the IEC 62304 standard for software development supported by the FDA, and have integrated our process to our clients quality management and hazard analysis processes.
This effort culminated in a series of passed audits on our quality management system this summer.
Scaling Lean Innovation in the Enterprise
2012 saw tremendous progress in our lean innovation practice. Our summer lean startup teaching program, the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge taught 107 teams how to accelerate from Idea to traction. The videos from our Semifinalists tell a great story of how much you can accomplish in 8 short weeks.
We’ve been collaborating with a number of enterprise customers to apply the lean innovation approach at scale, using innovation accounting and stage metrics within a portfolio management approach. This approach allows our customers to make better investment decisions on their innovation portfolio and develop more disruptive innovations faster. We’ll have lots more to share on this in the coming months.
We’re proud of what our clients have been able to accomplish in 2012, and are excited about what we can accomplish together in 2013.
Todd Wyder and I gave a talk on marketing mobile apps at Mobile Mondays Chicago at Morningstars swanky offices on State Street.
Selling mobile applications is far more difficult than selling SaaS applications. Currently, there are over 732,609 available apps to download. As of September of 2012, the iPhone App Store averaged 394 new apps every day. The Android Market averaged 243. Long gone are the days of throwing an app up into an app store and watching the dollars flow.
We launch a lot of mobile applications for our customers, and one of the things we’ve found is that in order to achieve success, you need to start marketing before you start building, and that your marketing efforts may be greater than your development effort.
Topics covered include: - The many different marketing channels you can use to market your app
It’s a rapidly evolving field, so if there are additional techniques that work for you, please share them in the comments.
Find out about the fastest path to launch a mobile business at PathfinderMobile.
I gave a talk at the Chicago Product Management Association together with Pathfinder Software’s Amy Willis and Reid MacTavish on the lessons we’ve learned in integrating Lean Startup, User Experience Design and Agile Development. Here are the slides from the talk – a video recording will follow soon.
The innovation engine in most companies is broken, burning large quantities of fuel, generating lots of heat and smoke, but doing precious little to accelerate company growth beyond a few sputtering lurches.
Most efforts to boost innovation focus on generating or capturing new ideas. Yet for most companies, this is not where the problem lies. Instead the problem lies in determining which of those ideas can be successfully scaled into profitable new lines of business. Most companies place big bets on the wrong ideas for the wrong reasons. As a consequence, 9 out of 10 new products fail.
We’ve been collaborating with a number of large enterprises who are pioneering the use of lean startup techniques to make better investment decisions and reduce the risks of new product failure. Through this work, a new model has started to emerge that promises to turbocharge enterprise innovation efforts to generate explosive growth.
Next Sunday at Tech Week, Chicago’s largest digital innovation conference, I’ll be sharing some of our lessons learned in a talk titled Building a Better Enterprise Innovation Engine.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
If you’re interested, you can sign up at Techweek – the lineup of speakers is very impressive. You can use discount code twspeakers_30 to save $115 on admission.
If you’re unable to attend but would like to find out more, drop us a line.
In September I did an interview with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle.
Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe Interviews Eric Ries on the Lean Startup.
Eric was in fine form – funny, engaging, with self deprecating humor, great stories and insights. If you’re involved in innnovation, either at a startup or a large organization, I think reading the book and watching the video will be great food for thought.
Congratulations to SoapBox, the winner of the first annual Chicago Lean Startup Challenge, for an excellent presentation and execution of the lean startup ideals. They’ve created a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, that gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension in real time. Now students have the ability to ask questions digitally, without the embarrassment of raising their hand, and teachers have a tool to understand their students comprehension in real time. Our fantastic sponsors provided $75,000 in cash and prizes to SoapBox and our other finalists to continue their endeavors.
A Great Group of Finalists
A special thank to our finalists ScoutmeCoach, Farmfixe, Travel720, and all of this years participants. It was incredibly hard to pick a winner with the high level of competition. The agility, ingenuity and persistence all of our finalists demonstrated on Thursday night was awe-inspiring. These fantastic founders made great progress over the 3 months of the challenge, and we are eager to see how their companies continue to evolve.
Making a Difference
We created theChicago Lean Start Up Challenge to teach Chicagoland founders how to practice the lean startup method in order to create a wave of lasting startups in the Chicagoland area. Based on the presentations by our finalists, the first season was an overwhelming success. Our finalists showed not only a great depth of knowledge, but the value of developing a idea based on reality, not assumptions. Each of our finalists developed their original idea based on actual feedback from their target customers, be they teachers, organic farmers, college coaches, travelers, students, or even strangers at the grocery store. This feedback allowed each team to modify their original assumptions, and rapidly evolve their business model based on the reality of the market place.
Crain’s Chicago had a nice feature on the event last week as well, so it seems we’re making something of a wider impact.
The 2012 Lean Startup Challenge
In true lean startup fashion, we’re gathering lessons learned from this year’s competition and applying them to make next year’s contest even better. If you want to keep up to date on next year’s contest, or are interested in applying, join the Lean Startup Challenge mailing list.
In September of this year, Todd Wyder and I organized the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge. It’s the opposite of a business plan competition. Instead of creating huge documents and proformas based on assumptions, contestants spend ten weeks making meaningful progress on their business based on real market feedback.
On October 1st, 146 startups answered the call, and entered “The Challenge”. After 8 weeks of accelerated experimentation we are down to 10 semi-finalists. After December 8th only the four finalists will remain.
Who will be crowned the Lean Startup Champion, and collect $75,000 in cash and prizes?
Come to the finals on Thursday, December 15, and watch the four finalist pitch to a panel of judges and a select audience of 250 entrepreneurs, and investors. Network with other entrepreneurs and investors over beer and wine, listen to 4 fantastic pitches, and ask the finalists your own questions while they are on the hot seat in real time via twitter.
This event will sell out, so if you want to be a part of the biggest lean start up even of the year, sign up today.
The Semi-Finalists
A new site that’s going to revolutionize the way human capital and opportunities are introduced, matched and placed. Whether you are a talent candidate or a talent seeker you will gain a commitment while saving time and money.
Connects college coaches with student athlete prospects so they can recruit while they sleep.
Say goodbye to filling out lengthy profiles and say hello to a more timely and cost effective recruiting experience, in a few clicks.
We help get your trip started, then turn your travel experiences into a gift registry.
Connects your book to the power of online media, while preserving your reading experience. Our ebooks expand on what you’re reading, let you browse without leaving the comfort of your book and provide an intuitive system for navigating enhanced ebooks.
Making it easy to promote your vacation rental through social media
Is a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, and gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension, in real time.
Myeuphoria is a mission driven Social Events Search Engine that provides responsive and efficient methods to promote social events by using a combination of marketing techniques to make your social event better and more desirable for the consumer. Let party for a Cause!
Developed to give landlords of all sizes the ability to minimize the time spent on their investment property while still maintaining a strong level of control. Property Panda gives property owners the tools to process applications electronically and safely including credit and eviction checks.
Is redefining local food, members gain access to our inspired selections of artisanal food.
The team at Red Radius is working hard to come up with a comprehensive, user friendly tool to help Medical Science Liaisons properly Identify and Establish relationships with key opinion leaders.
Who will win? Join us on the 15th to find out.
Our Sponsors
We’re very grateful to our sponsors without who’s support we would not be able to put on the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge:
We’re doing a 3 hour workshop on how to integrate Lean Startup, User Experience Design and Agile Development on January 20th.
This is a more in depth workshop that extends the sold out one hour workshop we gave at the Chicago Product Management and Association in November.
Lean Startup, Pragmatic Marketing, User Experience Design and Agile Development are all approaches to improve your odds of creating successful products. Are they mutually exclusive, or can you assemble them together to make a lean, mean product success machine?
Join Pathfinder Software’s Amy Willis (UX) Bernhard Kappe (Products Strategy) and Reid MacTavish (Agile Development) as they share their lessons learned in making lean+ux+agile work.
We’ll cover:
Are you hungry, smart, and analytical?
Can you write persuasively?
Do you dream about changing the world with technology?
Pathfinder is at the epicenter of Chicago’s tech scene. We mentor and incubate startups, build and launch products, and run things like the Chicago Lean Startup Circle and Lean Startup Challenge.
We’re looking for a marketing intern to join our team. You’d be working directly with me organizing, writing, running experiments and learning on your feet.
If this sounds a challenge you’re up for, put on your AIDA hat and write us why you’d be the right person for the job. Extra credit for getting someone we know to refer you.
Bernhard Kappe
Founder and CEO, Pathfinder Software
Organizer, Chicago Lean Startup Circle and Lean Startup Challenge
Twitter
LinkedIn