By applying a lean-value approach to our product management, engineering and architectural strategies, we continuously deliver impactful tech solutions that drive our business forward.
This is an exclusive article series conducted by the Editor Team of CIO News with Raghu Punnamraju, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Velocity Clinical Research, Inc.
Today, technology investments must deliver returns quickly, making outdated methods and approaches counterproductive and even cost-prohibitive. Every technology dollar should propel an organization forward in market relevance and strategic impact without compromising quality.
But every CTO in a commercially-minded organization is performing the perfect balancing act: aligning the engineering team’s goals with the overall objectives of the business.
At Velocity Clinical Research, our technology team’s guiding principle is ruthless prioritization to maximize value, accelerate research, and, as a byproduct, drive revenue. We focus on what’s essential, ensuring that every initiative directly impacts our business goals.
We deprioritize non-critical tasks that don’t align with our lean-value approach. Instead, we prioritize developing the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), obtaining feedback, and iterating swiftly.
Lean-value increment (LVI) is our framework, an extension of MVP thinking, for realizing accelerated returns. We focus on developing capabilities with the highest probability of delivering benefits. We then supercharge this by integrating multi-modal large language models (LLMs) to accelerate innovation and strategic foresight.
LVI framework
Many organizations limit MVP to feature prioritization, but we extend this methodology to our entire enterprise architecture. Our goal is to extract maximum value by applying lean principles across engineering and architecture, avoiding the pursuit of perfection in the initial build.
We clearly define and review non-functional requirements (NFRs) weekly, ensuring they align with our objectives. This approach prevents unnecessary coding and focuses our efforts on products and markets that will drive revenue for the organization until it’s strategically relevant to do so otherwise.
For example, with our patient app, Vision Engage, our first LVI targeted the US. We know eventually this will be rolled out to other jurisdictions, but instead of building an architecture ready for localization, including features like language capabilities, we delivered the core features of the app, focusing on patient engagement and payments. Now that we have feedback and validation from relevant stakeholders on these features, our next LVI is to release the product in the U.K., Germany, and Poland.
Our approach enables us to adapt quickly. By eliminating superfluous architectural principles and embracing a modular microservice architecture, we ensure flexibility and control, allowing us to make changes incrementally without the need for extensive redesigns, leading to quicker product rollouts.
Supercharged LVI
We supercharge our process by leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT-4o to generate architectural and feature recommendations rapidly, saving considerable time and costs. Managers now have the time to critically assess these recommendations rather than spend months writing the code themselves, ensuring they align with our lean-value model.
While this approach could be seen as shortsighted, we mitigate risks by maintaining rigorous assessment of each increment, ensuring each lean-value increment is production-ready, and incorporating feedback, which is crucial to our strategy. This strategy allows us to build efficiently while remaining agile and responsive to feedback, ultimately saving time and money.
Enterprise-wide embrace
Our LVI framework permeates every function within our technology organization. Here are the non-negotiable principles each function must adhere to:
Product Management
- Strategic Alignment with Dynamic Planning: Align every feature with overarching business objectives.
- Continuous Value Assessment: Evaluate each feature’s impact on customer satisfaction and bottom-line results.
- LLM-Enhanced Feature Definition: Use AI to generate and validate ideas for new features before development.
Software Engineering
- Extreme Modularization for Flexibility: Develop software in independent, replaceable modules for future adaptability. Be future-ready, not future-proof.
- Quality and Performance Assurance with Simplified Integration: Maintain high standards for quality and integration.
- LLM-Enabled Architectural Design: Leverage AI to define and refine software architecture and generate code.
Systems Implementation
- Streamlined, Modular Deployment: Implement systems modularly, allowing for efficient updates and replacements.
- Proactive Feedback Utilization: Continuously integrate user feedback to optimize
- LLM-Guided Implementation Strategy: Use AI to strategize deployments and ensure smooth transitions.
The Importance of Humans in the Loop (HIL)
Maintaining human involvement balances technological innovation with wise judgment. While we harness cutting-edge AI, the insight and oversight of our skilled professionals ensure our technology solutions remain ethical and practical, promoting quality, privacy, compliance, and security.
By applying a lean-value approach to both our development and architectural strategies, we continuously deliver impactful tech solutions that drive our business forward.
The LVI-Supercharged framework integrates deep AI insights with robust strategic planning, revolutionizing how we create, implement, and benefit from technological solutions.
This transformative approach ensures our technology investments consistently deliver enhanced value and innovation, positioning us for a future of sustained success and creating a commercially-minded technology team that will ultimately contribute to generating revenue.
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