Lessons from a medical devices startup that scammed Silicon Valley In the book ‘Bad Blood:: Secrecy and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup’[1], John Carreyrou talks about the rise and fall of a start-up Medical device company called Theranos which promised a simpler and cheaper alternative to full range of blood tests. Theranos claimed that its device would allow patients to test their blood at home with finger pricks (as opposed to venous blood draws) and send the test results to the doctors digitally. It was all smoke and mirrors until Theranos was exposed for making false claims about a product that was nothing close to being workable. The CEO of Theranos was eventually indicted of conspiracy and wire fraud2. 2019 is touted as the year that will see the identification of use cases gain strategic advantage from emerging technologies like Block Chain and Virtual Reality. The first logical step in the process would be to identify use case and build limited implementations that can establish ROI – essentially, Proof of Concepts that can demonstrate value or Proof of Values (PoV). What can IT organizations learn from the Theranos story when it comes to building such Proof of Values? First Line of Defense: The first line of defense for Theranos were its board of directors. Unfortunately, no one on the board knew the subject well enough to check the claims made by the CEO. Some checks and balances in early PoV stages helps ensure that the outcome reflects the organization interests. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Based on the technology selected, ensure you have the right technical skill set – if you don’t have the right skill on the team, try to find someone who is enthusiastic about picking up a new technology.
- Identifying the right business case is critical for the success of a PoV – Listen to the right stakeholders and find out what use cases are valuable to the organization.
- Use the technical expertise to establish which use cases have the least technical complexity when it comes to implementation. Use case that are most valuable to business and least difficult to implement will your team’s quick wins.
- Provide regular feedback to the team if it needs a course correction but at the same time give them the recognition they deserve in the absence of structured incentive mechanisms – Remember, praise in public and criticize in private!