Moving beyond product-centric healthcare towards customer-centricity

A customer-centric strategy is an organisational approach. It places the customer's needs, outcomes, and experience at the core of every business decision. This spans from R&D and product design to market access and post-sale support.

Who are your customers?

In healthcare, life sciences, and MedTech, the term "customer" is fragmented. You must serve three distinct customers, each with unique priorities and value metrics.

1. Payers

| The economic arbiters |

Payers, such as NHS England or health insurance companies, act as the ultimate arbiters of market access. Their core Job-to-be-Done (JTBD) is to ensure financial solvency and allocate resources .

Your focus must be to deliver clear economic value. Prioritise cost-effectiveness, budget impact, and resource utilisation. Show how your solution reduces hospital stays, lowers readmission rates, or ensures efficient staff time use. For example, track the reduction in the 90-day readmission rate.

2. Providers

| The efficiency drivers |

This group includes hospitals, primary care, care homes, and individual clinicians. Their core JTBD is to provide optimal patient care and maintain operational flow.

Your focus must be how you enhance operational and clinical efficiency. Your solution must integrate easily into existing systems and workflows. Usability is critical. Reduce procedural complexity and minimise time spent on non-clinical tasks. AI-assisted robotic surgeries, for instance, have demonstrated a 25% reduction in operative time and a 30% decrease in intraoperative complications in recent studies.

3. Patients and caregivers

| The end users |

Patients and their caregivers focus on personal well-being and life quality. They are the true end users. Their core JTBD is to live a normal, independent life and feel confident and in control of their health.

Focus on the human value through improved quality of Life, reduce pain or symptoms, and increase independence. Ensure a positive overall treatment experience. Develop user-friendly digital tools that simplify adherence or provide immediate support.

Use Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs). Track the change in EQ-5D score or a validated disease-specific PROM. In mental health, for example, treatment programs have shown a marked improvement in the EQ-5D value score.

The key shift for MedTech, HealthTech, and Pharma

The old product-centric model focused only on superior features or molecular efficacy. Your metrics were simple: product sales volume.

The new customer-centric model demands a focus on customer enablement. Your success measures and metrics must change accordingly.

Move your success metrics from:

• Product sales volume

• market share percentage

To customer enablement metrics like:

• Patient adherence rates

• Reduced hospital length-of-stay

• Improved clinician satisfaction scores

This requires a deep understanding of the "Jobs-to-be-Done" for each customer segment. You must define success from their perspective, not just your quarterly sales target.

This strategic shift is not optional; it is required for your future viability.

Are you struggling to connect your product's value to the specific needs of Payers, Providers, and Patients?

Can you articulate your solution in the language of economic, operational, and human outcomes?

Buoyancy Health Strategy can help you to map your solution to the highest-priority Jobs-to-be-Done for your critical customer segments.