The “cheap” argument doesn’t hold up under scrutiny: governments absorbed development costs, guaranteed markets, and funded distribution entirely, meaning the cost didn’t disappear; it was shifted from pharmaceutical companies to taxpayers. Similarly, the speed was real but came at the…   Read more»

The points raised here about proactive versus reactive communication are well-taken, but I think there’s an underlying issue worth naming more explicitly: communication plans fail not because they’re absent, but because they’re treated as static documents rather than living frameworks….   Read more»

Partnering with a CRO doesn’t eliminate risk so much as it redistributes it. You’re trading execution risk for coordination risk; gaining the CRO’s expertise and infrastructure while simultaneously introducing new potential failure points: misaligned expectations, communication gaps, and reduced visibility…   Read more»

The points raised about timing and legal versus ethical disclosure really stand out to me as I think Dev’s framing is spot on: meeting regulatory minimums is not the same as being ethical, and in medical devices especially, that gap…   Read more»

Both points about false alignment and the danger of locked-in assumptions really resonate with me. During my time at Boston Scientific, working on a delivery system for a next-generation heart valve, early-stage assumptions about component tolerances were often treated as…   Read more»

Building on the point about revisiting cost estimates as the project progresses, it’s worth highlighting that in the medical device space specifically, PMs can leverage a risk-based contingency framework to navigate budget uncertainty more strategically rather than reactively. Since medical…   Read more»

One dimension worth adding to this discussion is the role that supplier qualification and audit processes play in preventing this situation from arising in the first place. Ideally, before a contracted company even begins verification and validation, the hiring company…   Read more»

A technical lead telling upper management that a timeline is unrealistic will land very differently if they frame it in terms of regulatory risk, potential FDA audit failures, or product liability exposure rather than purely technical constraints, because those are…   Read more»

One angle that hasn’t been fully explored is the idea of designating a lead PM who serves as the final decision-maker when conflicts arise, essentially functioning as a tiebreaker while still distributing workload across multiple PMs. Without a clear hierarchy,…   Read more»

There’s a difference between a company that rushes a product to market while deliberately concealing known safety concerns versus one that makes a calculated, transparent decision to accelerate timelines while openly acknowledging the remaining uncertainties to all stakeholders involved. As…   Read more»

Instead of only adding buffer time at the end, it can be more effective to distribute smaller buffers around high-risk or high-variability tasks, especially those on the critical path. Building on the idea of real-time data, I also think iterative…   Read more»

One point that stands out to me from this discussion is how critical it is to treat the initiation phase as a stage for managing uncertainty rather than eliminating it. In fields like medical device development, it’s often impossible to…   Read more»

One strategy that stands out to me is the role of organizational procedures, because they create the structure that allows the other tools, like meetings or tracking systems, to work effectively. While status review meetings and project management information systems…   Read more»

One aspect of EVM I find particularly valuable is its ability to improve communication between project teams and stakeholders. While several posts mentioned tracking performance and forecasting outcomes, the standardized metrics in EVM also make project status easier to explain…   Read more»

I agree with many of the points mentioned, especially about creativity and negotiation leverage, but another possible reason could be strategic flexibility for upper management. Sometimes the total budget for a project is part of a larger portfolio of projects,…   Read more»

I agree with many of the points about checklists and pre-review meetings, but another helpful step is making sure the story of the design is clear before the meeting. Instead of just compiling documents, the team should prepare a short…   Read more»

One idea that stood out to me in this discussion is that the decision to return to a previous phase is less about the amount of error and more about the type of issue being discovered. Sometimes early results appear…   Read more»

One angle I find interesting is how collaborations like BoneFix and FactoSet aren’t just about leveraging expertise or cutting costs, they also distribute regulatory and technical risks. In biomedical products, especially injectables, the FDA or other regulatory bodies scrutinize both…   Read more»

I agree with Dev Doshi and Ehab B. that avoidance isn’t always the best strategy, especially for life-sustaining devices where eliminating risk could mean removing essential features. I’d add that avoidance works best in the design phase, while manufacturing and…   Read more»

I really appreciate all the insights shared here, especially the idea of running parallel validation to minimize production disruptions. Building on Dev Doshi’s point about regional divergence, one thing I’d add is considering how AI and digital twin simulations could…   Read more»