How to Create a Community Around Your Medtech Product

When you develop something new, it’s like your baby—you know every detail, and you see its potential to change the game for patients, providers, and the healthcare system. But getting others in the industry to notice what you’ve built? That’s on you. You need to give them a reason to care. Here are some strategies from industry veterans on how to build a strong community around your product.

Key Lessons from this Playbook

• Gather your crowd: Share your product’s behind-the-scenes journey transparently and honestly. It doesn’t have to be perfect; the right amount of vulnerability is a required ingredient. Once you have an audience, consider including them in your journey through crowdfunding.

• Design with the end user in mind: Creating an engaging, easy-to-use product with a hook can enable organic virality. Use social media platforms to showcase your product in a way that excites potential users and encourages them to share their experiences.

• Empower the patients: Direct marketing to patients may not be a great fit for every company or device. If that’s the case, go beyond marketing your product by educating your audience in a meaningful, non-promotional way. Look to develop creative programs to show people your true mission: improving the overall patient experience.

• Reduce adoption friction: Steer clear of developing an over-complicated product that requires substantial training. Make it so intuitive that the integration process can take care of itself.

• Capitalize on patient information: There’s a reason “data” is a buzzword. Think of ways to accumulate a comprehensive registry of your potential patients and users as early as possible. This can empower your market research, help you improve product development, and speed up clinical trial enrollment.