Leading in disruption with McKinsey

Everyday is Diabetes Awareness Day at Quin

I joined Quin early last week at a time I thought would be quite exciting as it was in the midst of Diabetes Awareness Month. By day two, I quickly realised that for our team, every day is World Diabetes Day and I don’t say this lightly. You may be aware of this if you’ve been following our blog for a while, but one doesn’t quite realise the depth of this until they’re in the exact environment. We’re constantly learning about participants through our research programme and building our app to truly reflect the needs of people that take insulin.

My personal diabetes awareness before Quin

I confess, was limited. I had a very generic definition in mind when it came to insulin-treated diabetes. I knew roughly what it meant but never imagined how much goes behind every decision that had to be made. As I sat with the team to find out what they do and why it makes sense to, it didn’t take much time for me to realise that- the app we’re building is different. Something more user-friendly, that still takes into account the data analytical side of things, but really keeps the human in mind. I like to think of it as a bridge between the user and the science. 

Sharing awareness and Leading in disruption 

By day three, I attended the McKinsey BLINK Conference on leading in disruption alongside our amazing Head of Marketing Vanessa, and our wonderful Head of User Safety & Compliance, Barry.. There was no doubt that we were amongst a talented crowd.Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, one of the speakers of the event who emphasised how “disruption will not slow down” and that it is up to us to essentially, pivot and change our mindsets to meet our end-goals. It became clear to me that amongst the challenges many face as startups, being able to pivot and stay true to your original mission is key which, at Quin of course is to adhere to our values: find truth, be excellent and share love. It’s an interesting thought to take away as a software app aiming to disrupt our industry. Especially considering that, after two days sitting alongside the team and truly getting to understand the people behind the mission, I knew I wanted anyone I came across to feel as passionate as I do about Quin’s mission.I was beyond excited with the opportunity to do so, so early on at this conference. 

As the day progressed, it was interesting to hear first hand how RBS’s new CEO Alison Rose, and Uber UK’s Chairman Laurel Powers-Freeling were able to combine this disruptive behaviour that startups naturally embed, with changes in their market to stand out from a saturated crowd.

Getting to know our audience better  

In between these talks, there was a chance to network and discuss with other attendees what we had been up to at Quin. Now, at Quin we like to stand out: whether it’s by displaying a rather large jar of jelly babies or handing out our favourite branded stickers we like to do our part to be disruptive. This time we used the chance to stand out with our jelly babies. Now, you might wonder why a medical app which aims to help people with insulin-treated diabetes bring jelly babies but that’s exactly the type of disruption we want. We want our users to be able to use Quin to alleviate everyday stress from the hundreds of questions they’d typically have to ask themselves before such actions.  

Seeing first hand the reaction to our app demonstration was exhilarating: people couldn’t wait to sign up for our research programme or tell their friends about it. 

My main takeaway from this conference was that if we are able to inspire people with our app this early on-  imagine what we can do over a longer period of time. 

We have big dreams here at Quin and we’ll be opening our doors soon to invite you to join us. What would you do when presented with a chance to be a part of this? I hope your answer would be to join our family and be part of our mission. 

To find out more about Quin and how we’re disrupting, email us on [email protected].