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Intelligent Diagnostics, Inc. / askRed.com Start-up health care company struggles to shift organizational focus from Research to Production. Background: askRed.com was a start-up medical diagnostic portal leveraging the reputation of Dr. Red Duke, director of trauma surgery at the UT-Houston Medical School. The goal of the site was to advise visitors when to seek medical treatment based on their symptoms, suggest a possible diagnosis, conduct online physicals and provide information on potentially dangerous drug interactions. The site would also feature videos of Duke giving health-related information such as how to avoid getting sick during cold and flu season. Challenge: A team medical experts from the Middle East, Asia, US, and South America was initially assembled as a research and development group. However, from the start this diverse group of medical professionals approached the initial concept research and feasibility investigation as more of a giant research project rather than a business. Compounding the problem was that the majority of the team had come from competitive academic research and medical practice backgrounds, there was no firm action plan or development timeline, and as doctors, most of the team had limited software development knowledge. To complete the portal, huge volumes of information on thousands of ailments had to be integrated into one medical diagnostic engine. Because there was no prioritized schedule or deadlines for completion, each team member gravitated to his/her specialty, which led to competition on some topics and the exclusion of others. Additionally, this lack of collaboration meant that there was no uniform structure to the finished product, quality varied from person to person, and everyone involved was frustrated by the lackluster progress. When the project received additional venture capital funding, it became mandatory that the company rapidly establish a cohesive, cooperative team, and increase output to meet deadlines, reduce development lead time, improve the quality of the output, and reorganize the organizational structure to reduce reliance on a few key players. Strategy/Solution: The Plaid Group mapped the existing process and uncovered several critical areas that needed to be addressed. For example, originally, the team did their research, built the module, and then brought in medical experts to review the prototype module. We suggested they bring in multiple specialists to define a strategy prior to conducting research, which significantly reduced the amount of lost time and capital. We also redesigned the development process, reorganized the teams, prioritized the development schedule and worked with the doctors to define timelines and milestone dates. As part of the team reorganization, we cross-trained staff to reduce bottlenecks caused by the entire department’s reliance on a few key people. Results: We established and implemented new organization structure, and developed and implemented a new production process and related management system for software development. The resulting work management mechanisms expedited the project’s completion and increased employee productivity. With a sense of organization and clearly defined roles, what was once a competitive environment had became collaborative. Other results included:
Testimonial from Debora Simmons - Former Vice President of Clinical Operations, Intelligent Diagnostics |
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