Are you looking for a drill or a hole in your wall?
Last week, I wrote about why we, as an industry, are so bad at finding the software tools that we need. I want to keep exploring different angles of this for the next few weeks, and this week I’m going to focus on a question that I think most of us have asked at some point: Why are most biotech software tools’ websites so bad at telling us what they actually do?
Every single one seems to be a scientific data cloud that accelerates R&D by enabling data driven, collaborative discovery. And sure, that may be what they are. But there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of things that could be described that way. So it doesn’t actually tell us what they… are.
But look, this post isn’t about criticizing these web pages. On the contrary, as I’ve started working with a number of software startups on how to better communicate what they do to the biotechs that need them the most, I’ve come to a much better appreciation of why this problem exists. And while I don’t necessarily have a good solution (yet), I’ll do what I often do on here and try to just explain why it’s hard.
I’ll also give it a name: I’m going to call it the drill problem.
In the world of sales and marketing, there’s a saying that someone doesn’t buy a drill because they want a drill. They buy it because they want a hole in their wall. The idea is that while there are a few technical experts who will instinctively translate the technical parameters of the drill into how easily it will get them a hole in the wall, most people won’t. So to sell that drill, you shouldn’t describe the technical parameters - you should describe the hole in the wall.
The problem is that if someone tries to sell you a hole in your wall, you don’t know if they’re selling you a drill or a jigsaw or a sledgehammer.
In the world of biotech data, the hole in the wall is having all the data accessible in the cloud, better collaboration, accelerated R&D, etc. The drill is capturing data, deploying pipelines, creating structured schemas, and all those things that these software tools actually do.
If you’re reading this newsletter, there’s an above average chance you’re one of the people who know how to translate the technical parameters of the drill into what the hole in the wall will look like. (In this analogy, though maybe literally as well.) But these web pages have to be written for a broader audience, and everyone understands the hole in their wall. (Again, in the analogy.) So that’s what the marketers do, and we technical experts are left wondering if they’re describing a drill, a jigsaw or a sledgehammer.
This is less of a problem in domains that have been more stable for long enough for real categories to emerge. Categories create short-hand ways of talking about the tool (drill vs saw vs hammer) without taking too much space away from talking about the hole in the wall. We don’t have those short-hands yet.
As I noted above, I’ve been helping software companies in the space figure out better ways to navigate this, and I’ve mentioned in the last few posts that I’m working on a resource that will define better categories. (Yes, this is a shameless plug.) If you want to learn more about either, send me an email at jesse@merelogic.net
But ultimately I think this is mostly unavoidable growing pains. The dynamics that we see today for how data teams work within biotech have only existed for the last few years. As more software tools are created to address this dynamic, we’ll start to see patterns in the different types of approaches. We’ll settle on standardized ways of talking about them. We’ll define categories. And we’ll finally be able to tell if the website is selling a drill, a jigsaw or a sledgehammer.
Thanks for reading this week’s Scaling Biotech! I really appreciate your continued support, and I read every comment and reply.
As a reminder, I offer several services to help connect biotech teams with tools, practices and expertise to make their organizations more data driven.
For Biotech Startups: My Stack Audit will help you create a shared understanding of expectations and gaps around data and metadata.
For Software Startups: Go-to-market consulting to help you find your ideal customers and communicate how you’ll solve their biggest problems.
For IT/Informatics Consultants: White papers and case studies to define and demonstrate your specialized expertise.
For more information about any of these, send me an email at jesse@merelogic.net