# Customer Discovery for Medical Device Companies

- Show: [Global Medical Device Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast)
- Published: 2022-11-02
- Length: 38m
- Episode: 287
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies
- Listen: https://podcast.greenlight.guru/episode/customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies

## Summary

Kari Haab, Partner at Cantilever Business Partners and former VP of Product Strategy at Aquaro Histology, explains the critical importance of customer discovery in medical device development. She argues that startups must validate user needs and market fit before prototyping, warning against the 'bias of technology' where engineers build solutions without verifying the actual problem. Haab details how to conduct effective interviews, emphasizing the need to understand the entire customer ecosystem—including users, purchasers, and distributors—rather than just the end-user. She provides specific guidance on avoiding common pitfalls like confirmation bias and insufficient sample sizes, advocating for 50-100 interviews to confirm business viability.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=0) Introduction: Kari Haab and Cantilever Business Partners
- [3:21](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=201) Defining Customer Discovery and Business Canvas Models
- [4:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=262) Team Composition: CEO, Marketing, and R&D Collaboration
- [6:30](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=390) Case Study: Aquaro Histology and the Cost of Ignoring Discovery
- [9:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=577) Handling Technology-Looking-for-a-Problem Scenarios
- [10:24](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=624) Conducting Scientific Hypothesis-Driven Interviews
- [13:44](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=824) Defining Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Avoiding Gold-Plating
- [16:28](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=988) Identifying Beachhead Markets and Pain Points
- [20:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=1233) The Ecosystem: Users, Purchasers, and Distributors
- [27:42](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies#t=1662) Common Pitfalls: Confirmation Bias and Sample Sizes

## Topics

- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Mechanical engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/mechanical-engineering)
- [Quality & yield](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/quality-and-yield)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Green Light Guru (company)
- Cantilever Business Partners (company)
- Aquaro Histology (company)
- Western Michigan University (other)
- National Science Foundation iCorp program (other)
- ISO 13485 (other)
- ISO 14971 (other)
- G2 (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [S4E47 Mark Byrne | Startup Engineering, Funding, & Assumptions](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2023-12-08-s4e47-mark-byrne-startup-engineering-funding-assumptions) (Being an Engineer)
- [Five Biggest Mistakes Hardware Startups Make with Customers with Dave Millman of BizDev Global](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/predictable-designs-podcast/2020-01-07-five-biggest-mistakes-hardware-startups-make-with-customers-with-dave-millman-of) (Predictable Designs Podcast)
- [S2E40 Voice of the Customer, Using Questions, and the Technology Adoption Life Cycle Curve | Ted Newill](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-09-17-s2e40-voice-of-the-customer-using-questions-and-the-technology-adoption-life-cyc) (Being an Engineer)
- [Dakota Welker | User Needs, Design Inputs, Verification & Validation](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2026-09-25-dakota-welker-user-needs-design-inputs-verification-validation) (Being an Engineer)
- [005 - “Compassionate Product Development” with Cameron Jones](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/lets-combinate/2021-11-03-005-compassionate-product-development-with-cameron-jones) (Let's Combinate)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-11-02-customer-discovery-for-medical-device-companies. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Global Medical Device Podcast.