Picking up our discussion on the new product development life cycle, we last talked about R&D and before that feasibility. The next department to work on the new product is marketing. The person who will announce to the world the arrival of this new kit is the Product Manager or Marketing Manager.

(If you do not recognize some terms used here, please ask or check the Marketing Dictionary.)

Today's article is a lesson on how to calculate the size of a market and how to estimate how much money one can make in that market.

During feasibility, marketing provided the committee a financial analysis of the product. This is called the "business case". The key concerns are always around the numbers. There are numerous tasks to keep track of in preparation for a product launch and most of the early tasks revolve around market and cost analysis. The later tasks revolve around the creative aspects of marketing the product (design of . . . More

My travel schedule is set for another year. Every year I tell myself I’m not going to commit to so much travel but whenever I am asked to cover some event, it’s an opportunity for me to talk to people in diverse and burgeoning fields and get new ideas for products, so I don’t say no.  And who doesn’t enjoy attending conferences? So I’ll be traveling to a conference every month from now until October with a break in September.   

Does it sound like fun? There are pros and cons to traveling for work. If you like visiting different cities and enjoy meeting people and talking science all day long, you would love it. If you would rather chain yourself to the lab bench than talk to a hundred people in an 8 hour day, then this part of a biotech job may not be for you. Fortunately, it’s not required for all jobs and you can always decline.

I came up with my list of what I like and dislike about traveling for work.  Maybe this will help some people considering careers in marketing or sales, because this is a big part of the selling life.

*****

The Good: I love meeting scientists, hearing about their work, and getting compliments on our products by scientists

The Bad: Talking for 8 hours a day to strangers makes me want to go back to� . . . More

OK, let’s pick up our discussion where we left off last week, at feasibility. You did it. You successfully convinced a room full of vice presidents and directors, or maybe even the CEO that they should take your fabulous product idea to the next level. You’ve got marketing on board, excited to promote it and now it’s time for the work to begin.

You are the lead scientist so this will be your baby. You most likely are working on other projects too so you have to divide your time wisely. An R&D scientist always has multiple projects as various stages of the development process. You don’t get to spend full time on one thing. You know what your deadlines are and the target dates for giving updates to the committee and you make it a point to meet them.

I think to fully explain how a product is developed it would be helpful to have an example. Let’s use an example of something that no one has ever figured out how to do yet but almost everyone wishes they had a solution for. How about:

A novel method that allows for any protein of any size or sequence or species to fold correctly when recombinantly expressed in E.coli cells.

No inclusion bodies, no toxic . . . More

Think about all of the products you use every day, both at home and at work. Every single thing you use started out as an idea or concept from someone who thought, “If I had something like this, it would make life so much easier.” We all have those ideas. But how does a product go from concept to solid object sitting on a shelf waiting for you to buy it? The process is long and complex and involves many people. Even the simplest more inexpensive item requires the touch of dozens and sometimes hundreds of people.

Most of us never think about how that thing or kit came to existence and what was involved to make it happen.  But if you knew how much work went into every last detail down to the way it looks when you open it and how you heard about it, you would never look at a product the same way again.

Today I am going to tell you how this works.  Naturally this process varies greatly depending on the size of the company and the type of product (for example, software vs a DNA kit, vs a sequencing service are totally different). I am going to describe the process in more general terms. Because the truth is that even in a small company, this process must be followed. The system is in place to make sure mistakes are not made, that lemons are killed before too much t . . . More

Alchemystress is a graduate student working on her PhD in Chemistry. She works on instrumentation, biotech, microfab and nanotech. She is in her first year of a PhD program but second year of graduate school. Alchemystress started out as a biochemistry student and did a BS in biology and has worked in the proteomics field of cancer research for about 2.5 years before starting her work in chemistry.

----------------

I am super feminine, but not girly, I dress classic like Audrey Hepburn but have tattoos, and skulls on my keychain, working on a quarter sleeve in fact. I am a chemist that does engineering and biology. I drive a truck and wear high heels almost everyday. I model, I do runways, I build mass specs and nanodevices. I spin fire, and am an honorary part of a fire circus and I teach organic chemistry. I did Burning Man, I did research on a boat in Hawaii. I have a horrid curiosity to the point where I want to know everything even, when I am not interested. I hike and love the outdoors, camping and getting dirty but enjoy a good dance club as well. I drink whiskey and smoke cigars sometimes, and I also like to run long distances.

I think people forget that to be successful doesn’t m . . . More

I am super feminine, but not girly, I dress classic like Audrey Hepburn but have tattoos, and skulls on my keychain, working on a quarter sleeve in fact. I am a chemist that does engineering and biology. I drive a truck and wear high heels almost everyday. I model, I do runways, I build mass specs and nanodevices. I spin fire, and am an honorary part of a fire circus and I teach organic chemistry. I did Burning Man, I did research on a boat in Hawaii. I have a horrid curiosity to the point where I want to know everything even, when I am not interested. I hike and love the outdoors, camping and getting dirty but enjoy a good dance club as well. I drink whiskey and smoke cigars sometimes, and I also like to run long distances.

I think people forget that to be successful doesn’t mean you need one focus, or are one note; we are multi-faceted, all of us, and that one note really is a melody. I used to struggle with this dichotomy that is me. I have learned to embrace it and balance myself between all these things. It’s OK to be many things and yet still one. It took a long time for me to learn that and move forward in life. Science is about creativity and innovation; and I think people have this notion that it is this “stuffy subject” that old men in tweed suits sit ar . . . More

Thank God it's Thursday because I am already burnt out from the first three days of this week. It has been an inordinately stressful week for multiple reasons, one of which I will talk about today.

It's not the lab. Lab work is like heaven for me. I love escaping to the bench, avoiding human contact, and focusing on how to get something puzzling to work.

It's not the next looming product launch, although it does have my stomach in knots and feels a little like a 800 lb gorilla on my back. I am still 75% sure we'll finish on time.

What’s really causing me mad stress this week is managing people.  I can see why experience in managing people is so critical to employers. Because it is tough and every problem situation is unique so there is no way to train for this.  You just have to learn through doing and then figure out what you could have done better after.

It all started with an email. Doesn't it always start with email? Email is so tricky, you know. Intentions and tone can be misinterpreted through email and this happens on both sides. When you send an email to someone, you have no idea what their day was like. They might be having the worst day ever and even the slightest comment may be perceived antagonistically. Even dealing with people you . . . More

I imagine that most scientists are creatures of habit, and some superstition as well. Speaking from experience, I know I have protocols which I've worked with for a decade or more and I'm loathe to change or tweak them. They work, why reinvent the wheel? This same thought process extends to reagents that are typically used in the lab. There were certain manufacturers that I "grew up" using, and remained loyal to that particular brand throughout my graduate and postdoc work. When putting my own lab together, while I was willing to negotiate some* on equipment**, by and large I was more than happy to stick with the "tried and true" microbiological and molecular reagents that I had used for years. For instance, I would never consider buying my restriction enzymes from anywhere but NEB. They work, why switch?

Problem is, projects change, which means conditions change. This point was eloquently brought home to me this past week. We had received some free Taq. We were told that in our system, this Taq would most likely perform better than any other Taq we could find on the market. For general amplifications we use what I would consider a "middle of the line" (in terms of cost) Taq which has worked pretty well in our hands. After all, Taq is Taq, no? Now there were inst . . . More

You know, there are some things which you really shouldn't have to tell people. Like the following little gem of common sense that I'm about to tell you:

When you run a service lab, and someone calls you to inquire about said service, call them back.

Now, there is some work we've been planning to do, and we've been ramping up our efforts. We have all of our ducks in a row and we're ready to launch into the data acquisition portion of the project. We wanted to do it in one big go because doing it "in bulk" would reduce our costs. I've spoken with other collaborators, friends, friends of friends, and a few have mentioned the service lab of a particular university as having unparalleled service. So I sent them an email. Never heard back. I waited awhile and sent off another email. Never heard back. I made a couple of phone calls. Never returned.

Now, in their defense, I was told that they are routinely hard to get ahold of, but if you could get ahold of them, the work they did was great. Ok, fine ... habitually lazy when it comes to getting in touch with people, but do great work. I was willing to put in the effort to eventually make contact (even if I had to drive there as a last resort). And if they were booked solid, I could always go with another option tha . . . More

I would like to thank AGreenMonster for these great questions for discussion. I am going to answer these from my perspective, which is from a life science company. I welcome anyone to give their feedback as well. In fact, if any of the readers out there feels like they have a lot to share, I would be happy to host your article on my blog so that you may provide more details. Just drop me a line.

Hi Jade!

The question from me would be, what would you say is the biggest difference between academic research and industrial research?   You say you don't have the same independence- how does that translate day by day?  Does that mean that you're given a project and are told what procedure to do at every step?  Or do you mean, that you told you need to work on x and get y in whichever manner you can?

To answer this question, let's first list some of the pros about working in an academic setting. You get to ask your own questions, questions that are interesting to you personally. No one is telling you what to do, how to do it, or for that matter keeping track of your time in any way. As long as you are productive and moving forward, you are doing well.

In contrast, in a company, you may have to work on a project that doesn’t interest you much. You ma . . . More

Many thanks to the scientist who sent in these great questions for discussion.  I welcome input from everyone so please share your advice with this reader. If anyone has more questions, please feel free to email me privately if you prefer. These questions were edited to remove specific details and indentifying information.

******************

Hi Jade,
I'm a frequent reader of the blog, if a rare commenter. I thought I would ask your advice on moving into biotech jobs. To give you a bit of background, I am doing my PhD at a UK university and still in my first year, but I'm certain I would like to work in industry. I spent two and a half years before grad school at a small company, working in a contract research division that ran tests looking for acute toxic effect in pre-clinical compounds from pharmaceutical companies. I found I liked the company environment for research, and quickly figured out that tenure-track faculty positions aren't what I'll be looking for. My work has mostly been happenstance, not that I don't find it interesting, but I have many other research interests, like cancer biology, immunology, and virology. I want to have a game plan in moving forward in my career, and figure now is better than later to have one. I am curious for your opin . . . More

These are tough times. Everywhere you look money is tight, budgets are stagnant or shrinking, we're being asked to cut costs, and incorporating money saving methods to keep those costs down are becoming commonplace. I started out 2011 (actually ended 2010) intent on doing my part in not only cutting costs in the operation of my lab/office, but greening them up as well.

As I looked about my office there was one thing that jumped out at me. The volume of paper which was cluttering my desk and shelves (I actually have a set of metal shelves I purchased two years ago to hold all the scientific papers I've printed out in the past several years).

Paper, paper, everywhere,

Until all the trees were dead.

Paper, paper, everywhere,

Nothing interesting to be read.

Coleridge, if he had ever seen my office.

Between the cost of paper and the price of ink, I imagine that I have spent a lot of institutional money printing out versions of my manuscripts, other peoples scientific papers, progress reports, and other assorted stuff. It all adds up over time.

I'm not sure how much my institution pays in paper and ink costs each year (though I'm going to ask), but I'm sure it's significant. As such, it seemed like an . . . More

For those of you who follow the tweets of @DivaBiotech, you are already familiar with the varied interests and activities of outgoing world traveler and international marketing guru in the area of genomics, Ruby Gadelrab. Ruby is one of my favorite tweeps, keeping me up to date on the personal genomics scene and the latest biotech science news. I asked Ruby to guest post on LabSpaces so we can hear more from this former molecular biologist turned marketing executive supertalent. Her background and experiences in biotech and her love for cutting edge science make her an excellent source of information and inspiration for up-and-coming biotech scientists.

Thank you Ruby for sharing this article with us. I hope we can print Part 2, when you report the results of your genetic profile. Depending on what comes back, I may do the same.

*********************************

During the summer of 2009, I came across a fascinating Genetic Study that I decided to participate in. Part 1 of this blog will describe the study and some of its features I particularly liked. In Part 2, I will share some of my personal experiences in participating in the study.

The Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative ( . . . More

I am a scientist for profit. This means, as you are well aware, I have to work with marketing people to generate pretty pictures showing perfect results with any product that we sell. You know those flyers and brochures and ads in BioTechniques where a tiny picture of a gel or a qPCR assay with photoshop perfect curves or bands is plopped on the page next to some meaningless picture and supposed to convince you to call or go to a website? Those things.

Before working for a company, I would take a look at those pictures but I never put much stock into them. I mean, of course they're going to show perfect data. What else will they show? Their kit sucks next to a competitor? So marketing data never really did sway me much. I looked at it, but not in any depth. I guess, I expect there to be some attempt at science in the ad, but it's merely representative data.

My first biotech job wasn't in marketing. The company I worked for was and still is considered one of the best in the world and I was so very proud to be a part of that company. When they would introduce a new product, the product manager would come present all the beautiful R&D data proving the product works and it was convincing. I would walk away from those meetings absolutely positive that . . . More

. . . More

This month's LabSpaces blogging theme is all about mentoring styles. The topic is pretty open ended, so we'll see where everyone ends up! We decided that the basic theme would be mentoring styles and we'd all write on the topic from our chosen perspective as mentee or mentor and then provide some insight on how we think the process can be improved upon. I'll keep updating this summary post as more entries go live! Happy reading.

Genomic Repairman kicked this one off early. He's off on his honeymoon but gave us a great post on his experiences as both mentee and mentor. Appearances by lazy PI, Awesome PI, and the amazing Genomic Repair Girl.

Dr. Girlfriend thinks that the mentee-mentor relationship should be an open one with mutual respect and the knowledge that the mentor is not all knowing, but there to provide some support and guidance as long as the mentee is willing to put in the effort

GertyZ thinks the mentor is there for support and the relationship . . . More

When I started graduate school at Iowa, I went in there with a chip on my shoulder.  They didn’t choose me, I chose them.  They weren’t a highly ranked “elite” institution, so to make my mark I had to work for the biggest and the best that Iowa had to offer, or so I thought.  I sought out the highest profile researchers at Iowa and picked the one that best aligned with my interests.  No matter what school you look at, there’s always, “That Professor.”  You know who I’m talking about.  The professor who publishes the most papers, who has the most respect.

I did my homework on my mentor.  I read a bunch of old papers, I understood the direction and the goals of the lab.  I remember our first lab meeting vividly, well, I remember how I felt after the lab meeting.  I was exhausted.  My brain physically hurt.  I thought I knew it all going into that meeting and I realized I didn’t know anything.  It was a wake up call, but I think I liked that feeling.  It was fresh and challenging.

During my rotation, I put in ungodly long hours, not because I thought it was expected of me, but because I wanted to.  At this point in time I was enamored with the science.  It’s funny how this changed for me as I look back on my four and a half years in t . . . More

This is a guest post by XrayManCoUk about his experiences as mentee and mentor as a crystallographer in the UK.


They say you never forget a good teacher but to be honest this is somewhat, erm, crap, you never forget a bad teacher either. So in short you never forget a teacher. Unless they were wholehearted bland. So this is wholly transferable to you never forget a good mentor or boss. In my somewhat chequered life I can remember the woes and follies of my supervisors and the purity and talents of my bosses. How I tried to learn from them and then put into practise their mistakes and triumphs.

My own experience as an underling

In academia we have always got some sort of hierarchy, the lecturer lectures to us via whichever medium they can utilise to get the job done. In my day blackboard and if lucky photocopied handouts, then OHP transparencies and photocopies of OHP transparency as handouts. Then came powerpoint and photocopies of powerpoint print outs, now a whole world of technology is there to transpose this information.

So whilst my PhD supervisors (I had two) had of course gone through this mellay of learning themselves, no one had really stopped along the way and given them a . . . More

A while back I posted a great story (ok well I thought it was a great story) about a bad day at work that I had.

In continuing with the telling of what bad days at work are like, I thought you might like to know what happens when a rocket test goes a little bit not exactly right. As with my last ‘bad day’ post, no one was hurt, and no damage was done.

-----

Sometimes you go to work in the morning and you think to yourself ‘self, this is going to be a good day’, and self thinks back at you ‘yea, yea this is going to be a great day!’

Well in this case self was wrong.

As with many things in life, rocket science does not always go the way you want it to. During my time in the biz, I, like anyone else, have had some good days, some bad days, some happy days, some mad days, and also some scary days.

This day, had its scary moments.

It all started during my first week on the job. I was told I’d be working with the VP of engineering. I was told we’d be working on setting up a sub scale rocket motor test stand, to be used asap to test various fuels. I was told I’d be learning fro . . . More