This episode of The Innovation Engine features Part 2 of our interview with Jason Cyr, VP and Head of Product Design at Cisco Security. 3Pillar Field CTO Lance Mohring jumps back into the conversation to talk with Jason about how Cisco is able to acquire the most innovative, cutting-edge cybersecurity startups and then integrate their products into one unified, user-centric platform.

Jason explains that Cisco embeds designers as low in the organizational structure as possible and is big on the concept of integrated teams. He describes the essential product development triad at any level, where everyone has an equal say: product management, engineering, and design.

Then we pivot to AI: how to design for it, how Generative UI may change workflows in the future, and how it could upend user navigation as we know it. Customers aren’t looking for AI chatbots, Jason says. They’re demanding much higher value processes like cybersecurity data and incident analysis. Product designers need to be ready for this future now.

Lance and Jason, who are both musicians, wrap up the conversation talking about the intersection between music, technology, creativity, and more.  

Episode Highlights:

• How Cisco integrates design into its product development process through triad teams: product management, engineering, and design
• Jason reports that clients are saying they want more than chatbots from AI
• Why the traditional concept of product navigation might be tossed out the window with AI advancements

Resources:

• Listen to part 1 of the discussion
• Connect with Jason Cyr on LinkedIn
• Connect with Lance Mohring on LinkedIn 
• Check out Jason’s blogs on Medium
• Read “About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design” by Alan Cooper

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How does Cisco produce one of the best-integrated cybersecurity platforms in the world? Jason Cyr, VP and Head of Product Design at Cisco, joins The Innovation Engine to talk with 3Pillar Field CTO Lance Mohring about how design is deeply embedded in Cisco’s product development process.

Jason walks us through the market and organizational context that shapes Cisco’s unified product design process, which frequently involves incorporating new products to the overall product mix in the wake of an acquisition. He then gives some specific details on how product design can improve cybersecurity by preventing everyday configuration errors, while also anticipating zero-day vulnerabilities.

Jason outlines the Cisco product, design, and engineering team’s unique GOAT process, which stands for Give Outcomes A Try and is influenced by Josh Seiden’s book Outcomes Over Output. The GOAT process allows product managers, engineers, and designers to identify and align on end-user outcomes before the iterative development process even begins.

Our conversation is so meaty we had to break it up into two parts. Be sure to stay tuned for Part 2 next week, where we’ll dive into how Jason anticipates AI will impact product design in the near future and much more.

Episode Highlights:

• A firsthand account of the modern history of cybersecurity product design
• Jason explains how product design can reduce cyberattacks
• The story of how the Cisco team created their GOAT process and the impact it has had

Resources:

• Connect with Jason Cyr on LinkedIn
• Connect with Lance Mohring on LinkedIn 
• Check out Jason’s blogs on Medium
• Read “Outcomes Over Output” by Josh Seiden
• Listen to Ep. 197 of The Innovation Engine: How to Drive Outcomes Over Outputs, with Josh Seiden

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According to Gartner, 80% of health system CIOs are actively exploring Generative AI use cases, so we break down the basics that everyone in health IT should know about the technology on this episode of The Innovation Engine. 

We cover three main topic areas that will be vital for healthcare leaders to understand the implications of with regards to Generative AI: accuracy, cost, and privacy.

Pankaj Chawla, 3Pillar’s Chief Innovation Officer, and David Evans, 3Pillar’s Director of Global Innovation, join the show to talk with 3Pillar's Healthcare Industry Lead Steve Rowe to give listeners and healthcare leaders a look at how they can and should harness GenAI to be more efficient and effective.

We cover topics including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), data engineering and databases, workflows, Kubernetes, and self-provisioned GPUs, and separate cloud instances.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:00 - Intro to GenAI in Healthcare
• 1:53 - Why hallucinations happen
• 3:56 - Preventing hallucinations
• 11:01 - Cost concerns
• 13:37 - Keeping GenAI cost effective
• 19:25 - Data + privacy concerns
• 21:07 - Protecting data
• 25:30 - Data architecture for GenAI

Resources:

• Read 3Pillar’s white paper: “How Can You Keep Your AI Costs From Spiraling Out of Control?”
• Read about the internal chatbot that JPMorgan Chase developed for employees
• Learn more about 3Pillar’s GenAI Strategy 
• Email Steve Rowe: [email protected]
• Email Pankaj Chawla: [email protected]
• Email David Evans: [email protected]

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In healthcare, it’s the norm for there to be a three-month gap between providing a service and getting paid for it.

Our guest today, Zachary Kelly, talks with 3Pillar healthcare industry lead Steve Rowe about what FinTech innovations can do to help physicians and private healthcare practices close that gap. 

Zachary is the Head of Growth for Chello, a credit line product from Oriental Bank that serves small-to-medium sized healthcare businesses. He explains how their market research showed that healthcare SMBs were facing two main pain points: not having a clear picture of their cash flow, and trouble getting timely access to lines of credit.

We then dive into the solutions. We discuss how Chello is bringing the robust use of APIs over from the financial world and integrating it into the healthcare ecosystem. We also discuss how Chello can directly tap into data about claims approval to better underwrite cash injections for practices.

If you currently run a healthcare SMB or have hopes of one day starting an independent practice, this episode will get you excited about the brighter future ahead.

Episode Highlights

• Market research findings on the FinTech needs of healthcare SMBs
• Developing a tech stack to provide a clearer view of cash flow for practices
• How using claims data can lead to better underwriting quick cash injections for independent physicians

Resources

• Learn more at chello.bank
• Connect with Zachary Kelly on LinkedIn
• Follow Zachary Kelly on Twitter
• Connect with Steve Rowe on LinkedIn
• Read Steve's latest blog posts for 3Pillar

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According to Gartner Research, 60% of new custom business applications will be built using composable products by 2025. So what exactly are composable products, how should they be used, and which businesses should use them? Join 3Pillar Chief Innovation Officer Pankaj Chawla, Information Services Industry Lead Bernie Doone, and Field CTOs Scott Young and Rich Waller as they break down everything you need to know about composable products.

Composability and composable business products are a foundational architecture approach, in which companies are essentially creating modular building blocks of software that can then be quickly assembled into internal and external products. They discuss its lengthy list of business benefits: innovation, agility, operational excellence, accelerated business outcomes, and more.

But before you jump on the composable products bandwagon, they warn, you need to keep a few things in mind. First, mature companies with multiple products are typically the ones that can fully benefit from this approach. Second, business outcomes should lead the process–don’t just produce the next shiny product because composability makes it easier to do so.

Take a listen for a full, well-rounded conversation about composable business products to find out if they’re right for your organization.

Episode Highlights

• A breakdown of what composable business products are — essentially building blocks of software that can be quickly assembled into products, services, or experiences and, importantly, reused in the future 
• Find out how large and mature a company should be to consider composable business products
• Understand how composability translates into company culture, enabling innovation at scale and accelerating software development cycles

Resources

• Connect with Pankaj Chawla on LinkedIn
• Connect with Bernie Doone on LinkedIn
• Connect with Scott Young on LinkedIn
• Connect with Rich Waller on LinkedIn

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Most healthcare organizations — from payers to insurance companies to providers — are so bogged down with maintaining disparate, decades-old legacy systems that they lack the resources to create the technical solutions they want. That’s where Unqork comes into play.

3Pillar’s Healthcare Industry Leader, Steve Rowe, hosts this episode and talks with Andrew Sullivan, Industry Partner at Unqork. Unqork is a codeless platform for application building that was founded to help companies eliminate the technical debt that accrues any time companies introduce code-based solutions into their technology stack.

Andrew walks us through a few of the challenges commonly seen in the healthcare vertical, including prior authorization systems still being ruled by COBOL and other difficult-to-maintain legacy technologies, client portals that don’t meet customer expectations in 2024, and poorly customized and integrated off-the-shelf SaaS products.

Then, Andrew and Steve dive into how Unqork solves these problems. Unqork is a codeless platform for application building that provides users with an easy, modular, drag-and-drop solution for application development. It enables batch processing, mainframe database connections, and APIs to tie systems together, orchestrate data, and put everything users need in a single application. It comes with a library of components that can be easily selected, visually rendered for review by non-tech folks, and then quickly up and running. 

Steve’s conversation with Andrew will resonate with just about any healthcare executive. 3Pillar is an Unqork partner; if listeners are interested in exploring how to use Unqork to explore some of the topic areas covered in this episode, please feel free to reach out to Steve or Andrew!

Resources:

• Learn more at Unqork.com
• Connect with Steve Rowe on LinkedIn
• Connect with Andrew Sullivan on LinkedIn 

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Innovation in Healthcare: Why the Future Has Never Been Brighter

Driving innovation in the healthcare space has traditionally been a challenge to say the least. The good news? Many of the challenges that have stood in the way of unlocking healthcare innovation in the past are now fading into the background. VP of Client Success Carl Rudow and our healthcare industry lead, Steve Rowe, unpack why we may well be entering a golden age of innovation in healthcare on the latest episode of The Innovation Engine. 

The reasons why healthcare organizations have been slower to innovate than companies in many other industries are many. Root causes include a dearth of incentives for payers and providers to innovate on their services, an inability to attract engineering and product expertise to the space, and increasingly ossified systems that increase tech debt and hamper innovation. 

Recent years, however, have seen a number of positive shifts in the healthcare landscape. These shifts include the emergence of low-code/no-code platforms for application development, the maturation of offerings in the RPA space, and more recently, in areas like generative AI, Vision AI, and machine learning. Each of these trends should give healthcare leaders hope that the industry in general is moving beyond more conversations around healthcare strategy.

Episode Highlights

• The healthcare industry faces challenges in driving innovation due to bad incentives, lack of engineering and product resources, and difficulties in implementing new systems and integrating data.
• Low code and no code tools are emerging as solutions that empower healthcare organizations to build high-quality custom apps and workflows, enabling engineers to be more productive and improving user experiences.
• Investing in good user experience design and product strategy for internal applications can lead to strong ROI and better serve patients and members.
• Innovation in healthcare requires innovative solutions to overcome the barriers and challenges in the industry. Emerging tools like robotic process automation (RPA) and AI have the potential to transform healthcare organizations by automating manual processes and improving decision-making.
• The ultimate goal of healthcare innovation is to provide better care and improve patient outcomes, and technology plays a vital role in achieving this.
• Healthcare organizations need to embrace these emerging tools and invest in the necessary infrastructure and talent to fully leverage their potential.

Resources

• Check out the 3Pillar blog
• Connect with Steve Rowe on LinkedIn
• Connect with Carl Rudow on LinkedIn

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On this episode of The Innovation Engine, we dig into the recent past and upcoming future of innovation in the Financial Services industry. Rob Murray, 3Pillar’s Financial Services Industry Leader, moderates a conversation with Jennifer Mun and Albert Thibault, two integral members of our Financial Services industry team.  

The trio discusses some of the key trends they saw shaping the FinServ space in 2023, including the evolution of consumer behavior toward a cashless (and sometimes even cardless) society, and examining how data and personalization are revolutionizing customer experiences.

Looking ahead to 2024, we predict further enhancements in customer and employee experiences, driven by evolving AI applications and data analytics. We stress the importance of ethical AI deployment and data use in a globalized landscape and the strategic decisions between buying or building solutions.

Tune in to this robust conversation as we navigate through these exciting developments and lay out a roadmap for the future of financial services.

Episode Highlights:

• The transition to a cashless economy and its impact on financial services.
• Data-driven personalization as a key to enhancing customer experiences.
• The crucial role of talent in driving innovation in financial services.
• Prospects for AI and data analytics in shaping the future of the industry.
• The balance between innovation, security, and trust in financial services.

Resources:

• Connect with Rob Murray on LinkedIn
• Connect with Jennifer Mun on LinkedIn
• Connect with Albert Thibault on LinkedIn

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In this episode of The Innovation Engine, we're thrilled to welcome Arjun Pillai, the visionary co-founder and CEO of the emerging company, Docket. Arjun, a seasoned entrepreneur with a rich history of successful ventures, delves into the critical concept of Go-To-Market First Product Management (GTM First Product Management). This episode is a deep dive into why it's essential to consider market strategy, distribution, and user acquisition right from the inception of a product.

Arjun brings to light the importance of aligning product features with market needs and ensuring these are effectively communicated to customer-facing teams. He shares valuable insights from his experiences at ZoomInfo, emphasizing the evolution of product management and the pivotal role of product demos. Listeners will gain an understanding of how to empower teams for effective product demonstrations and the significance of setting clear goals for feature adoption.

Join us as we explore Arjun's unique approach to product management at his new venture, Docket, where customer discovery and collaboration are key. His perspective on media consumption and engaging with industry experts offers a glimpse into the mind of a true innovator.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from Arjun's expertise and understand the nuances of bringing a product to market successfully. Tune in for a masterclass in product management strategy and execution.

Episode Highlights:

• Exploring the concept of Go-To-Market First Product Management (GTM First Product Management) and its importance 
• Arjun's experience at ZoomInfo and how it highlights the alignment of product features with market needs
• The evolving role of product management, shifting from holistic approaches to more specific tasks
• Importance and strategies for effective product demos, including the use of synthetic data and maintaining separate demo environments
• Setting and managing goals for feature adoption, with different expectations for different company sizes and markets

Resources:

• Sign up to learn more about docketai.com
• Connect with Arjun on LinkedIn

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On this episode of The Innovation Engine Podcast, we dive deep into the realm of innovation, change, and the human resistance to new ideas with David Schonthal, an award-winning professor at the Kellogg School of Management. David, co-originator of the revolutionary "friction theory," sheds light on why promising innovations often stumble before reaching their full potential.

David and host Scott Varho explore the profound influence of human psychology on the acceptance and adoption of change. Why do people love the idea of innovation but dread the concept of change? David presents insightful real-world examples, highlighting the necessity of understanding the human element for successful innovation.

As the discussion unfolds, listeners will be intrigued by the power of subtle shifts in approach, like shifting change management or marketing strategies to foster self-persuasion. It's an enlightening conversation that delves into the intricacies of introducing change, managing resistance, and ensuring that innovations don't just shine but also find their rightful place in the market.

Tune in to discover the hidden challenges that await new ideas and how to navigate them successfully.

Episode Highlights:

• The challenges faced by promising innovations and the nuances of "friction theory," including the four types of friction
• The significance of empathy in product development and the limitations of traditional marketing personas
• Real-world examples of subtle marketing techniques that can influence consumer perception

Resources:

• Learn more at davidschonthal.com
• Read: The Human Element by Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal
• Connect with David on LinkedIn

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3Pillar’s Financial Services Industry Lead, Rob Murray, joins us on the latest Innovation Engine to share some of the latest insights he’s gleaned from serving 3Pillar clients across the Financial Services space.

Rob and Scott Varho dive deep into what it takes to successfully drive innovation in a tightly regulated industry like Financial Services, where many organizations feel handcuffed by the legacy software and systems that power their customer experiences. In this episode, we explore the myriad of opportunities and challenges that the rapidly evolving banking, insurance and broader Financial Services sector presents, and how institutions are navigating this ever-changing landscape.

Throughout the conversation, Rob sheds light on the pivotal role of innovation in shaping the future of banking. From the adoption of groundbreaking technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence to strategic partnerships between traditional banks and FinTech startups, Rob provides a comprehensive overview of the forces driving change in the industry. He emphasizes the significance of customer-centricity and how banks are leveraging data, analytics, and technology to enhance user experience and meet the rising expectations of consumers in the digital age.

In addition to his work at 3Pillar, Rob has extensive experience in leading digital transformation for renowned banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, and he recently co-hosted our episode on Innovation by Design, which featured a conversation with JPMorgan Chase’s Chief Design Officer, Sam Yen. 

Tune in to this episode for a deep dive into the state of innovation in Financial Services, where Rob offers valuable insights, discusses future trends, and shares his vision for a more connected and customer-focused banking experience.

Episode Highlights:

• Rob delves into the significance of innovation in the financial sector, discussing how it shapes competitiveness and meets the ever-evolving expectations of customers in the digital age.
• The potential and challenges of blockchain technology, highlighting their impact on trust distribution and the financial industry’s future.
• The shift towards a customer-centric approach in banking.
• The hurdles of digital transformation, including regulatory compliance, cybersecurity threats, and the integration of emerging technologies into legacy systems.
• Future trends and developments in banking, focusing on the integration of new technologies and the emergence of customer-focused business models.

Resources:

• Connect with Rob Murray on LinkedIn
• Read: "The Product Mindset" by David H. DeWolf and Jessica S. Hall
• Read: "Amp It Up" by Frank Slootman

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