The Art of Building Techbio Teams
Contributed Commentary by Stef van Grieken, Co-Founder & CEO of Cradle
August 23, 2024 | The biotech industry is experiencing a significant shift as technology and biology converge. This intersection, often called Techbio, is opening up new possibilities for addressing health and environmental challenges. To harness these opportunities, companies need to build teams that can bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and technological innovation.
Understanding Different Perspectives (And Why We Need Both)
Traditionally, scientists and engineers have been seen as having distinct approaches to problem-solving.
Scientists are often driven by the pursuit of new knowledge and understanding fundamental mechanisms. They approach problems with a focus on reproducibility and peer review. The scientific process typically involves carefully controlled experiments and detailed documentation of methods.
Engineers, on the other hand, often focus on creating practical solutions and building functional systems. They prioritize efficiency, scalability, and real-world applicability. In software engineering, particularly with AI and machine learning, the emphasis is often on outcomes and performance metrics.
But here's the thing: in the techbio world, the most effective team members possess qualities from both disciplines. The best scientists are comfortable with engineering principles, and the top engineers have a deep appreciation for scientific rigor. To build innovative teams, you need to seek individuals who embody this multidisciplinary approach or who are eager to expand their skills across both domains.
Building a Team Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
Here are my three key strategies for building an effective and high-impact culture where people can do their best work:
1. Foster a Collaborative Culture
Your company's cultural values are its DNA – they shape how you work together and what you can achieve and help foster an environment where interdisciplinary teams can thrive. You want to create a culture that empowers individuals, encourages curiosity and explores ideas, valuing both scientific rigor and practical problem-solving, and promotes fast execution with autonomy.
For example, one of our key values is "innovate with curiosity and optimism." This value recognizes that pioneering advanced technologies is an inherently uncertain journey. We encourage our team to embrace their inner innovator, make bold bets, and view failures as learning opportunities.
2. Align Teams on Shared Goals
In a multidisciplinary environment, team members often gravitate towards optimizing their own area of expertise. To prevent fragmentation, establish clear, shared priorities through a structured goal-setting process.
We start by defining annual company 'objectives', followed by quarterly 'key results' that incorporate elements from all disciplines. These key results start at the company level and cascade down to team and individual levels, ensuring every team member works towards common goals.
An example of an annual objective might be ‘Support multi-property optimization for antibodies, vaccines, enzymes, cytokines, and natural peptides’, with each team and individual defining measurable ‘key results’ to support that goal.
3. Bridge Knowledge Gaps
Clear communication is crucial but challenging in a multidisciplinary environment. It’s not just that different disciplines often use similar jargon with entirely different meanings, but for engineers to create useful tools for scientists, they need to understand the scientists' work and needs. Conversely, for scientists to provide valuable data for AI engineers, they must understand what kind of data is most helpful.
A thorough onboarding process familiarizes new employees with all aspects of the business, from ongoing lab projects and the latest platform improvements to common terminology.
Give people exposure to each allied discipline, like the engineers spending time in the lab to gain an understanding of the biological basics (you haven't lived until you've seen a Silicon Valley engineer fumble with a pipette for the first time.) Similarly, lab-scientists can attend presentations on AI and training such as Python programming courses. This cross-disciplinary learning fosters mutual understanding and respect among team members.
Attracting Top Talent to Techbio
Building a strong techbio team isn't just about fostering collaboration, it's also about attracting the right talent. But how do you convince these brilliant minds to move to your company?
Well, it certainly wasn't with Silicon Valley-style perks like in-house sushi chefs or nap pods (though we do have a pretty sweet coffee machine). Instead, offer something far more valuable: the chance to work on mind-blowing challenges that (I believe) could potentially have a very positive impact on the world.
I've found that a growing number of engineers and scientists are becoming disillusioned with using their skills to optimize advertising algorithms or boost social media engagement. Instead, they're looking for work that aligns with their values and allows them to contribute to solving pressing global challenges. Techbio offers exactly that: a chance to apply cutting-edge technology to issues like climate change, food security, and human health. When your work can have that kind of impact, ping-pong tables and free snacks start to look pretty trivial in comparison.
And let's not forget the power of a tight-knit, passionate group of nerds (in the most positive sense of the word). There's something special about working alongside people who are just as excited about protein folding or machine learning breakthroughs as you are.
The Future of Techbio Teams
Building effective techbio teams is both a challenge and an opportunity. By cultivating a strong company culture, aligning teams on clear goals, and fostering cross-disciplinary communication, you can create an environment where diverse talents thrive and innovate together.
As the techbio field continues to evolve, the companies that master the art of blending scientific expertise with technological prowess will be best positioned to tackle some of the world's most pressing health and environmental challenges.
Stef van Grieken is the co-founder and CEO of Cradle, the software platform that uses generative AI to help scientists design and engineer therapeutic proteins. Cradle allows teams to get to IND faster and come up with designs that increase the chances of success. Before co-founding the company in 2021, Stef was part of product leadership at Google Research & Machine Intelligence, and at Google X focused on AI infrastructure and developer tooling applied research. He can be reached at stef@cradle.bio.