How to Populate the Packaging Design Innovation Pipeline

Developing a formal packaging design innovation pipeline requires reimagining how we generate design ideas, evaluate them, and ultimately ensure their commercial success. Surprisingly, many organizations limit their innovation pipeline practices to the development of their devices, neglecting the critical aspect of packaging. While one might argue for integrating packaging design into the medical device design pipeline, this approach could significantly diminish the unique value of a dedicated packaging innovation pipeline.

The term “innovation pipeline” often describes various innovations in progress rather than the throughput of innovation. The Packaging Design Innovation Pipeline is a formal set of practices aimed at improving package design while ensuring compliance with regulatory guidelines and quality best practices. This pipeline operates in parallel with formal compliance guidelines and practices.

The biggest problem with an innovation pipeline is that most organizations simply don’t have one. Innovation and design are iterative and incremental processes with significant opportunities for improvements across the supply chain and user touchpoints. Here are the key touchpoints to consider when building an optimized innovation process.

The Funky Front End (FFE).

The opening of the pipeline, often referred to as the Fuzzy Front End (FFE), can be seen as the Funky Front End because we must be open to seemingly bad ideas to find really good ones. In my experience with 40 patented technologies, some of my best performers initially seemed funky but later turned out to be great products. The key is to build a thoughtful abstract of the kinds of ideas you’re looking for to find new ways to fill the funnel and narrow down innovations in the pipeline.

Beyond VoC.

I’m not sure if I know anyone who develops medical devices and/or packaging that hasn’t found themselves in a habitual state of using Voice of the Customer (VOC). In other words, they don’t question this old method because everyone else is doing it.

VoC methods have been used for years, involving surveys, ethnography, focus groups, market analysis, and other methods to validate the functional, and market suitability of an innovation. While effective, they have pitfalls.

We use an approach called Soul of the Customer (SoC), which starts with outlining the organization’s pre-beliefs and prejudices about a design or direction. Most surveys are poorly designed, often influenced by preconceived outcomes. In the SoC approach, we use direct language, asking questions like “What do you hate about …?” to gain genuine insights. Post-mortem interviews often reveal starkly different feedback when real language is used. User insights should be mapped thoughtfully across the product journey and user personas.

The key difference between the voice of the customer and the soul of the customer is that the soul of the customer seeks to understand the designer’s own prejudices and beliefs to eliminate them from the insights. There is a cycle of analysis that shows how users and ecosystem insights often bleed through surveys designed to confirm what the designer believes or wants the outcome to be.

The SOC approach uses real human language and thoughtful linguistics to elicit more accurate and actionable insights that can be used to inform the design inputs.

Fast filter.

The best innovation pipelines use toggle switches tied to the innovation strategy to quickly determine the suitability of an innovation submission. For example, if you’re developing Class I and Class II medical devices, you could disqualify a Class III device as inappropriate for your strategy. Filters typically have 15 to 20 toggle questions to quickly qualify or disqualify innovations, eliminating irrelevant technologies from consideration.

Beyond the risk-centered model.

As you progress down the pipeline, evaluate ideas based on opportunities rather than risks. A risk-centered analysis can quickly eliminate products that could be optimized to eliminate risks while improving the core idea.

Bringing it all together.

Leveraging an innovation pipeline that works concurrently with your regulatory and quality systems helps open the aperture for innovation, better insights, and an opportunity-centered approach. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all innovation pipeline, building a robust pipeline with a broad funnel and design optimization strategies creates world-class innovations that deliver both enterprise and user value.