hsDNA Podcast

Most startups do not succeed. Whether that means liquidating all assets or missing projected deadlines, it's a disheartening fact. Choosing the right collaborative team to complement your startup's needs and competencies could be one key to success. For more than 40 years, HSD has been educating and guiding entrepreneurs through growth and development processes, sharing expertise, capabilities, and networks that have supported the creation of more than 400 successful products. In this podcast, Tor Alden, Global VP/GM Design, Development, and Human Factors for HS Design, a SteriPack company, discusses tips on how to choose the right partner for your startup with “5 Traps Startups Need to Watch Out for When Engaging with a Product Design Firm”.

Martin Bakstad, the Director of the European Division for Design and Development for SteriPack, joins host Justin Starbird on the latest episode of hsDNA. SteriPack is a contract manufacturer that helps blue-chip companies of this world and with their medical device and pharmaceutical industries. SteriPack preforms contract manufacturing services for class 1, 2, 3 devices and medical class 1, 2, 3 including molding, cleaning, and packaging that helps companies see their concepts through to commercialization and manufacturability. Martin shared that working through the pandemic was “actually surprisingly easy. Everybody just got the status around working on Microsoft Teams and realized that there was no option to travel. Historically, we were traveling and spending a lot of time, effort and money to meet in-person. Now that there was only one option, white it can never replace a face-to-face meeting, we learned that a lot of people have also loved working from home. It cut out all the travels to and from work which made us more efficient as well.” Recently his team was also recognized with the 2022 Gold Edison Award for their efforts on the novel Xpress Collect device to test for COVID-19. As Martin explained, “Xpress Collect is a device that takes away the labor on the backside after testing (for COVID-19). From when the person has been tested, all the way through to a result, is what ur team has optimized with this product. It's a simple device where you take a dry-test and then you liquid without removing the swab which enables you to run high numbers through an automated system. It's novel in the terms that it revolutionized the way that the lab operates because there is literally very little manual labor involved in this.” Listen as Justin and Martin discuss the challenges and success that came out of working with a global team to solve a pandemic issue with future plans to apply to other testing needs.

Listen to the latest episode of hsDNA, as Michael Quinn, the VP of Design & Engineering for HS Design, joins host Justin Starbird to talk about how being agile and adhering to regulatory constraints is sometimes in conflict. As everyone knows, the medical device development and manufacturing space is highly regulated. Everything has to have a process. Some people may hear agile and think programming or software, but the truth is you have to apply a process to every aspect of the design, build, and testing of a new product. As a result, it creates an enormous amount of structure that needs to be built. As Mike shares, "There's conflict between that agile methodology of development and the regulations on how to do development and that's where we're really walking a tightrope or a razor's edge between the two." Mike discusses this conflict with Justin to explain how the HS Design Team has turned these areas that were once headaches, into opportunities.

Today, we're talking to Bobby Boyer, Director of Product Development for HSD, and talking about the process of strategy and planning. Over the years, the capabilities of HSD have certainly widened, and the scope is a little bit bigger than it has been, but in the true sense, not much has changed either. HSD is still very attentive to the details of the customer, what their needs are, and making sure to build the best product possible. The HSD process for strategy and planning is applied to a range of customers. From startups, that have an idea, all the way to Fortune 100 companies that have already created the idea and are about to send it to manufacturing. The process is dependent on what the clients needs are. Creating prototypes, getting the industrial design, mechanical engineering factors aspect, are all incorporated into that design. If customers need the backend, which goes into manufacturing, then HSD also provides a design for manufacturing, packaging options, design for packaging, and labeling. Listen as Bobby walks host Justin Starbird through each element and collaboration. You are listening to "hsDNA."

On the latest episode of hsDNA, host Justin Starbird is joined by Tor Alden, Global Design Development and Human Factor Lead of HS Design, now a SteriPack company, and Mary Beth Privitera, Principal of Human Factors Engineering for HS Design. There are a couple of things that are happening in the marketplace that are directly relevant to successful design in the medical device space. Users are getting more complex as they get more used to easy-to-use products in their daily lives. They expect it in their workplace as well, and medical devices fall into that genre. As Mary Beth points out, "Another thing that's happening is that the regulatory agencies are really looking for strong device design that's validated through usability testings. It's one of the things where if you wait too long and you don't have a significant design, then you run into trouble just in getting over that hurdle. At the heart of it, I think good design is becoming increasingly a customer expectation for medical device users." Listen as Tor and Mary Beth share their insights and boots-on-the-ground experience of what goes into making an award winning medical device project commercially successful.

At HSD, we are fortunate to work with companies of all sizes. Some of our favorites are start-ups that are just out of the gate. Our passion is working with and teaching entrepreneurs what it takes to start a business and take a product from a concept all the way to commercialization. On this episode of the podcast, hsDNA, Bobby Boyer, Director of Product Development joins Justin Starbird to talk about education and the overlaps between teaching and working with startups. In addition to his role here at HSD, Bobby is also an adjunct Professor at Rutgers University where he works with students to walk through the steps necessary to be successful as well as the pitfalls to avoid. We teach as we do here at HSD and continue to be committed to teaching everything from concept to human factors to patent processing and beyond! Listen now!