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Lean by Design explores how organizations can fix what’s predictably broken in their operations — starting with the systems, decisions, and behaviors that shape how work gets done. Hosts Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong speak with leaders from biopharma and beyond, drawing lessons from industries that share the same pursuit of clarity, efficiency, and sustainable execution. Each episode breaks down real challenges into practical insights that help teams align better, think smarter, and move faster. Produced by Sigma Lab Consulting, Lean by Design helps organizations design for what works—and eliminate what doesn’t. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
45 Episodes
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Send us Fan Mail Tiny breakdowns are easy to ignore. A missed handoff here, a confusing process there, a training shortcut that “works for now.” Then one day the team feels slow, brittle, and frustrated, and everyone starts hunting for the person to blame. We take a different view: most research operations failures are predictable, and they rarely come from one catastrophic mistake. We walk through the idea of “death by a thousand cuts” from our book Predictably Broken and what it looks like...
Send us Fan Mail We pull an excerpt from Oscar’s book Predictably Broken and ask the question so many biopharma teams avoid: if the work feels broken, why doesn’t anyone fix it. We argue the issue isn’t apathy or ignorance, but the real weight of diagnosing root causes, aligning stakeholders, and sustaining change in a system that normalizes constant firefighting. We also separate symptoms from root causes, because most teams try to cure the cough while the virus keeps spreading. A handoff p...
Send us Fan Mail A tiny stain on a garage ceiling doesn’t feel like a big deal until it comes back, darker, wider, and harder to ignore. That’s the exact pattern we see in operational dysfunction: the real problem isn’t loud, it doesn’t send alerts, and it rarely shows up where it started. It creeps in through missed deadlines, vague responsibilities, unclear ownership, and reporting requirements no one truly understands. As we close out season three of Lean by Design, I’m sharing shor...
Send us Fan Mail The origin story of a business is rarely clean, and it’s almost never convenient. Oscar and Lawrence sit down for a candid, unscripted conversation. We look back on how their partnership started in grad school right as COVID pushed everything virtual, and why staying committed after the class ended mattered more than the original idea. That disruption shaped the way they think about entrepreneurship, operations, and showing up when no one is grading your work anymore. L...
Send us Fan Mail Nobody sets out to build a broken system. Every tool your organization is running was the right call the day it was purchased. Someone fought for the budget, ran the validation, and trained the team. And they were right. But the work still doesn't flow. In this episode of Lean by Design, Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong explore what happens in the space between your systems — the gap that isn't empty, but filled with people. Analysts, coordinators, and scientists spending the...
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