Painstorming
Maximizing the effectiveness of new solutions for better health outcomes.
Through painstorming workshops at the CoLab at Dell Med, diverse stakeholders — including physicians, scientists, community members and patients — come together to uncover unmet needs and create well-defined health challenges.
How It Works
The CoLab team convenes multidisciplinary stakeholders for workshops that take a deep-dive into unmet needs. Using an approach that emphasizes starting with a problem before developing a solution, a moderator from the CoLab engages the group to discuss a particular challenge that project members all face in different ways, surfacing viewpoints in a collaborative setting that otherwise go unaddressed.
Painstorming Framework
Together with the client, the CoLab holds information-gathering sessions to map out key objectives, create a project roadmap and review a list of potential participants.
The CoLab then brings in multidisciplinary stakeholders to understand clinical pathways and identify clear pain points and opportunities without any biases toward or against a particular product. In this phase, clients also explore a customer journey map along with currently available solutions and their respective deficits.
The CoLab conducts internal discussions with attendees to further define and elaborate on pain points and then extends those conversations to external audiences for a holistic understanding. Additionally, this phase consists of gathering information on what it takes to change existing processes and mindsets.
The client then works together with the CoLab to hypothesize the value proposition of the product for main project stakeholders.
In a second workshop, the CoLab brainstorms with experts to come up with the ideal product for the selected pain point(s). In this phase, the client validates the hypothesis and receives unbiased feedback and guidance. This phase also extends to external audiences for a holistic understanding.
The result? A new, aligned perspective on the key obstacles that stand in the way of a promising solution. A problem and opportunity summary document from the session gives stakeholders a clearer picture of unmet needs and opportunities for project transformation, which often leads to ideas for new products and features.
Start a Session
Researchers, entrepreneurs and perspective industry clients can email the CoLab to engage in a painstorming workshop. Develop problem statements and product profiles; introduce potential collaborators and partners; and identify, define and frame unmet clinical needs.