Connect 2 Develop

The episode contains solid practical guidance on Voice of Customer session design - cohort selection, moderator techniques, pre-planning, reimbursement considerations - but much of it is intuitive best practice rather than surprising or non-obvious. The reimbursement story and empowerment concept add some substance, but padding, repetition of core themes (the 'because,' the 'why'), and conversational meandering dilute density. A smart B2B operator would extract 4-5 actionable ideas but encounter considerable filler.

“you need to do your homework on the cohort. Because the cohesiveness of a cohort in the voice of a customer focus group actually takes what may be a not so great moderator”

“if you want the voice of a customer, then you need to give the customer a voice. I know that sounds a little circuitous, but a lot of companies don't give their customers a voice”

The episode recycles well-known frameworks - buyer advisory boards, stakeholder engagement, pre-planning discipline - without fresh theoretical angles or counterintuitive findings. The polling/icebreaker technique and hierarchy-flattening tactics are sensible but standard practice. The reimbursement and empowerment emphasis adds modest originality, but the overall conversation lacks contrarian or first-principles thinking.

“what is the problem? Everyone thinks, let's find some solutions. And half the time people don't understand the problem they're trying to solve”

“if you have super users of XYZ product or technique or whatever, and you know, you're kind of just as you said, kind of putting it to a sounding board, it's like an echo room of, you know, continuing the status quo”

Excellent guest selection: Dr. Kirschenbaum is Chair of Orthopedics at a major health system and editor-in-chief of an innovation journal; Dr. Rush is a fellowship-trained spine surgeon actively engaged in emerging tech adoption. Both are proven practitioners, not media personalities. They speak with operational credibility about real clinical and reimbursement workflows. This is exactly the practitioner caliber a B2B operator should heed.

“Dr. Ira Kirschma, chair of orthopedics at BronxCare New York. He's also the editor in chief of the Journal of Orthopedic Experience and Innovation”

“Dr. A.J. rush, a fellowship trained board certified spine surgeon specializing in minimally invasive and technology driven spine care, including robotics, AR and emerging digital tools”

The episode relies heavily on generalizations and best-practice frameworks rather than hard data or named case studies. The reimbursement example (prior auth letter, formulary inclusion) is the strongest concrete evidence but lacks specifics (drug name, timeline, outcome metrics). Most advice is principle-based ('find the right cohort,' 'align leadership') rather than grounded in metrics, dollar figures, or time-bound examples from product launches or strategic initiatives.

“if you're trying to figure out, for example, how to position your technology in an ASC and you find out that three of your people who do, who are in your cohort only do like 8% of their cases in the ASC, this is not going to be such a great discussion”

“six weeks later, they put the drug on formulary”

The hosts ask fair, open-ended questions and do follow up (e.g., 'what signals to you that a company is genuinely listening?'), but rarely push back or probe disagreement. When guests repeat themes, hosts nod along rather than challenge or dig deeper. The moderators occasionally redirect but do not ask tough follow-ups like 'how often does this actually work in practice?' or 'what percentage of VOC sessions actually lead to real product changes?' The conversation is warm and collaborative but lacks the friction that produces insight.

“And for me, M. That's really interesting, A.J. you being in a high tech, high innovation specialty, what are the questions that you look for”

“And just to kind of piggyback off your comments, Dr. K. I'm just going to kind of unpack that a little bit more. What are the signals that indicate a company's truly listening?”