Building Systems That Work

Another week, another city (or 3) and another blog post! This week has been another whirlwind, I’ve been in Milan, Amsterdam and Oxford to continue my market exploration journey. For those that have been reading from the start, you may remember that as part of the 12-week ICURe programme I have been challenged with having over 100 meaningful conversations with people from across the world to better understand the digital health market and explore commercial opportunities for my clinical AI research. Given that I’m now on week six (!), I have managed to have over 30 of these meaningful conversations!

Time is honestly flying by and it feels like only yesterday I was telling you all about my very first meeting. In this post I want to pause briefly on updating you on my travels and journey and get a bit more practical. Managing all the different parts of ICURe (conferences, meetings, travel, training etc) is no small task. As I get deeper into the entrepreneurship journey I’ve tried and tested a lot of different methods and processes for managing my time, budget, contacts, data and general life. In this post I’m going to share some tips and strategies that have helped me stay organised and keep up with the fast pace of the ICURe Explore programme. Whether you’re navigating a similar entrepreneurship programme or just looking for ways to manage a hectic schedule more effectively, these insights are for you!

Systems Management

Ok so not the most exciting sub-heading for a blog post – but stick with me! By this stage in my journey, I’ve met so many new people and learnt so much information that my conversations and learnings are all starting to blur together. Generally, I like to think of myself at being quite organised and good at maintaining a high-level view of things while managing large amounts of information. However this week, I have found myself utterly drowning in the details and struggling to remember who told me what information and when. I rarely have time to process what I’m learning from people and consider how this impacts my research or my market exploration route (not to mention time to manage e-mails, follow-ups, expense claims, travel bookings, conference registrations, LinkedIn posts and team meetings!!). That’s why I’ve found it vitally important to have a well-organised system in place, with clear processes and workflows for every task that I do.

Setting up a system like this takes time, but trust me – it’s worth it! It streamlines mundane tasks like expenses, note-taking, and travel bookings, so you can handle them almost on autopilot. So what do I mean by setting up a system, what does this actually look like in practise? Well let’s take an example – consider one of the biggest things I’ve been doing during ICURe – having meaningful conversations. So what are the steps involved in having a meaningful conversation? Let’s say:

Step 1: Identify person to meet with
Step 2: Contact person to ask for a meeting
Step 3: Schedule the meeting (if they reply)
Step 4: Book travel to attend the meeting (or schedule online but make sure this fits with your travel itinerary)
Step 5: Prepare for the meeting
Step 6: Have the meeting
Step 7: Collate notes and learnings post-meeting
Step 8: Debrief team on meeting outcomes
Step 9: Follow-up (if required)

That’s quite a lot of steps isn’t it? So you don’t want to be re-inventing the wheel every time you need to identify a new person to meet with. Ideally, you want to follow the same method each time so that you can streamline each step and start to work as efficiently as possible. I won’t go through the processes I have in place for each step, however below I’ve pulled out a few of my top tips and workflows that I’d highly recommend for anyone starting their entrepreneurship journey:

Top Tools and Strategies for Staying Organised

1. Use a CRM or Tracking Tool – A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software can help you keep track of contacts, outreach, and follow-ups so you don’t lose sight of important conversations over time. This becomes a lifesaver as your network grows. You don’t need anything fancy – Airtable or even a well-structured Excel spreadsheet works perfectly. Keeping a clear record ensures you always know who you’ve spoken to, what was discussed, and what the next steps are.
2. Create Email Templates – Save time by drafting templates for initial outreach, follow-ups, and thank-you emails. I set aside maybe 5 minutes to quickly learn some key facts about the individual I am messaging, add in some personalised content to the template and then send the message (either via LinkedIn or e-mail).
3. Schedule Smartly – Reduce back-and-forth emails by using a calendar scheduling tool like Calendly. To make it even easier, I add the link to my calendar in my email signature so I can then invite people I am e-mailing to schedule in a slot. If travel is involved, try to batch meetings in the same location to make the most of your time. I do this by using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to search for individuals/companies located in a certain city and then contact them from there.
4. Standardise Meeting Prep – Have a checklist or template for researching your contact, preparing key questions, and noting discussion points to ensure every meeting is productive. For me, this usually involves reading through the person’s LinkedIn, learning about their company’s product or service and then pulling together a list of questions and a rough agenda for the meeting. I also like to write down 3 things I’d like to take away from the meeting (calls to action).
5. Streamline Note-Taking – The best way to take notes varies from person to person. Some people prefer to record meetings or use live transcriptions, which is more suited for online calls. Personally, I’ve tried to have as many in-person meetings as possible and I take bullet-point notes (either on paper or my laptop) during these. I then immediately record a voice note with my key thoughts and takeaways. Later, when I’ve got more time I revisit the notes and voice-recording and write a more detailed debrief.
6. Automate Follow-Ups – Set reminders for follow-ups so you don’t lose momentum with key contacts. A quick message a few weeks later can turn an initial chat into a real opportunity. It also shows people that you are interested and keen, which is only ever a good thing when you are starting out!
7. Act Immediately – When something pops into your head, maybe you think of a good idea or strategy for your company, or maybe you remember you were going to look into a particular company or person but haven’t got round to it – write. it. down. This may not sound like a big deal, but trust me, there are so many things that go through your head every second of every day when you are out on the road exploring the market and meeting hundreds of people. The chances of you keeping track of anything that is not written down or part of a system are slim. I use a notes app on my phone to write doing fleeting thoughts I have during ICURe and these have been a life-saver!

Finding the Right System for You

The systems and strategies above have genuinely been a life saver and hugely reduced the mental load of the repetitive tasks I do daily. I’ve also found they free up my energy (and mind) for concentrating on what is really important! I would say that you really need a bit of experience finding out exactly what works for you as we all work differently and have varied preferences. So my general advice would be to put in place a rough process and then go out and test it a few times, assessing how feasible it is in practise and how easy it is to actually stick to. There is no point in making hundreds of steps and processes for yourself if you aren’t going to actually follow them, I think I spent a full day creating an expense tracking system for myself and in the end I’ve resorted to just sending myself picture of the receipts on Whatsapp and uploading them directly to the university portal – the more simple the better and your system doesn’t always have to be glamorous – it just has to work!

Working through systems I’ve created for myself form the core of how I spend everyday and they have been essential in allowing me to keep up with the fast-paced ICURe programme and really get the most out of it. It took me about 2 weeks to refine and develop these methods and strategies. This might sound like a long time but as things have continued to get busier and more chaotic I am reaping the rewards of these systems and couldn’t recommend investing time in this at the start of any big endeavour. Whether I have to track an expense, meet a stranger for lunch, write a LinkedIn post, pack for a conference – I know that I have a system in place for making my life easier to do these tasks, this has given me time to really enjoy all of my travelling and conversations. Finally, if you are like me and love to-do lists and plans, keep reminding yourself not to get stuck in the planning phase, take action! Having a starting point is key and then in the first week or two you can amend and streamline your management systems in a way that works for you.

Travel Plans

Just a quick note to end this post – I’ve written this post between 2 cafes, the first in the beautiful city of Milan and the second in a lovely bar in Amsterdam that looks out onto the canals. I’ve had an incredible time in both Milan and Amsterdam, with a particular highlight being a visit to OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam with Dr Patrick Thoral. Dr Thoral is an ICU consultant and AI/Data science maverick! His knowledge and insights really blew me away and learning about the differences between the healthcare systems in the Netherlands and the UK was really eye opening. I’m now heading home for a few days before setting off to… Nashville! Next week starts my month long trip to the US and I cannot wait to share my journey over there with you all. During my visit, I will be attending 3 big conferences:

1. ViVe – Nashville, TN
2. HIMSS – Las Vegas, NV
3. DisasterExpo – Miami, FL

I’ll also be travelling to New York City and Cleveland to fit in another few hospital visits and meetings with companies. In my next post I’m going to update you on the training I’ve had with the ICURe mentors which focused on learning when (and how) to pivot, and the importance of resilience during market exploration and the early days of entrepreneurship.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!