Innovation is the holy grail of medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers because it helps build a protective barrier against competition. Countless books and articles guide businesses on this quest with suggestions for greasing the wheels of creativity. But the articles usually overlook the significant role that teams play in innovation.

Breakthrough products are not often the result of a singular effort. While one individual may have thought up the idea, turning it into a producible product requires synergistic collaboration and teamwork, with no room for ego. An analysis of patents filed by companies shows that most contain a lengthy list of contributors, each of whom played a vital role. Even Thomas Edison, considered the inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, toaster, and many other appliances, worked with a team of assistants at his lab.

In product design and development, several heads are almost always better than one. Creating a goal-driven, supportive team is critical to bringing a leading product to market. Also important are fostering ideation sessions and nurturing an innovation-friendly company culture. Failure must be acceptable, and the culture should support and encourage new efforts and directions.

An emerging technique called Directed Innovation uses ideation and brainstorming sessions to develop a proprietary product meeting a distinct market need. Following this method helps push a firm head-and-shoulders above the competition.

How to draft a team

Selecting a team for a product-development project and brainstorming sessions is a bit like a draft in a professional sports league. Participants' abilities should complement each other, and each “position” must be suitably filled or the entire team suffers.

Just as each baseball team needs a power hitter and an all-around fielder, an ideation team must include members with in-depth knowledge relevant to the task at hand, as well as individuals with broad-based expertise. This is because many breakthrough innovations are the result of expertise from a completely unrelated industry. In one example, engineers applied military sonar-detection technology to produce a more-accurate fetal heart monitor, showing how a team with a range of expertise from biologics and materials to mechanical engineering can spark creative solutions to complex design problems.

Team member experience is important, but don't staff brainstorming sessions solely with senior personnel. True, they can rely on past knowledge to solve problems, but newer engineers are more familiar with novel technologies and usually bring a fresh and questioning perspective to the table. It is often helpful to invite a non-technical but knowledgeable end user to participate.

Also, members of ideation teams should be self-confident and open-minded. Individuals with high egos and non-contributors simply waste time and impede innovation. Choose flexible individuals who are not afraid to speak their minds. Participants must carefully listen to ideas proposed by others. No one is ever wrong. Leaders should encourage every member to speak up.

An example of good teamwork comes from a project where The First Years Inc. in Avon, MA, asked us to design a baby bottle. Our brainstorming team included qualified engineers who consulted heavily with nursing mothers and lactation nurses. In this case, The First Years wanted to meet a distinct market need for a device that would let mothers switch between breast and bottle feeding.

This had been a problem for mothers because breastfeeding is significantly more difficult for babies than bottle feeding. Babies often refused to breastfeed once they experienced the ease of bottle feeding. By involving nursing mothers early on, we crafted a solution called the Breastflow Bottle Feeding System, which emulates the interaction of a baby's mouth with a mother's breast.

Lead and build

Selecting a team leader is a make-or-break decision. The leader must be technically qualified and have a deep understanding of the subject matter. In addition, the leader must have the trust and respect of group members and show a high level of respect toward participants. Humor makes for a key lubricant in these sessions.

While you want individuals who go against the grain, avoid the continual naysayer. Calling an idea stupid or worthless is a surefire way to dry up the flow of innovative thinking. Negativity puts people on the defensive and might result in the loss of a potentially revolutionary idea.

Grow your team with builders. They improve ideas, figuring out how to make them work. This approach helped our engineers develop the patented biomimetic valve and nipple-assembly system behind the Breastflow Bottle Feeding System. A team member questioned preconceived notions on how the human breast actually delivers milk to a baby. It was discovered that breastfeeding babies perform a pumping and suckling motion to extract liquid from the 16 to 20 milk ducts in their mothers' breasts. Babies pump the milk out by compressing the milk ducts.