Breaking Logjams in Process Development

"Who wants to be a Millionaire?!"

I’ve been fortunate to have been part of, and led, highly successful process development teams for many years. Much of that success was the result of the amazing people, technology, and a rigorous focus on data quality, but we also built platform processes that simplified the design space and sped technology to scale.

But what if you don’t have an established platform?

I’ve had the opportunity lately to talk to new entrepreneurs who are breaking ground with new strain, process, or product technology. It’s rewarding to bring a new idea to market, but without prior experience in the journey, there can be more technology hurdles to overcome, and the clock is ticking.

There will be moments when it feels like you’ve hit a log jam - progress is stalled. You need help. What to do?

Over the past decades, I’ve been involved in many different processes and many successful commercializations, and we had to overcome all kinds of different challenges (technical, quality, regulatory, logistics, etc.) While I don’t promise that the following approaches will work, there are some tried and true approaches that could help break your logjam. So at the risk of forcing a little camp into the post, let’s loosely follow on the “Who wants to be a Millionaire?”™ help line set:

The 50/50

First, tap into your in-house expertise. You very likely have a great collection of scientific thinkers. Reach out to colleagues inside your group, or better yet, outside it - you may be surprised by what you might learn. At the very least, they may be able to help deprioritize a few options. 



Not too long ago we were developing a process at two different sites, and for months we couldn’t understand why we weren’t achieving the same results at both sites. Then someone (ok me 🙂) suggested a deep dive - aggregating the results into a concise pre-read and inviting multiple different voices into the room. It worked - just the action of assembling the pre-read forced a deeper dive into the data and helped highlight differences in protocol. This allowed the team to identify and focus on the right problem. Success! So get over any discomfort and talk to your colleagues, especially those with different perspectives.

Ask the audience

If you have a particularly difficult challenge, it might be that you are missing something important. This can be the right time to “Slow down to go fast”. In this case, spend a little time and organize a 1-2 day deep-dive on the topic with a collection of EXTERNAL scientific experts. Again, just the act of taking the time to organize the critical data/results and background information into a pre-read can help the team, and, a diverse collection of experts can help make connections that were out of reach of the internal team. I’ve seen it happen many times. It can be a great use of time – at the right frequency.

Phone a friend

Lastly, sometimes an easy and quick option is to bring in someone to help advise on a decision or direction. Varied life and work experiences can often provide a perspective that helps you think differently. And often just simply talking with someone you trust can help you solve the problem yourself. I’m sure you’ve had this experience.

If you need a helping hand from someone who has seen a lot of different fermentation-derived technology development and implementation, please feel free to reach out! Always happy to have a 15 minute call to see if your challenge is something I can help you with.

Note: “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” is a trademark of its respective owners. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the program. Not that you thought it was 🙂.