Nmblr Scout Step 2: Evaluation Criteria

Purpose of this step: We’re aligning on one shared lens so markets and functions compare competitors consistently.

1. Generate ideas for the competitive dimensions that should be used

Outcomes lens

  • Brainstorm outcomes that matter—clinical, life quality, and system/economic.
  • “Remember: desired outcomes might differ across payors, patients, and HCPs.”

Technology lens

  • Brainstorm the technology dimensions that best capture how competitors might optimise today’s game or reframe it.

Innovation lens

  • Brainstorm innovation dimensions that reveal whether competitors are creating value through improvement (better within the current paradigm) or change (a new paradigm that rewires value).

2. Finalise Outcome Criteria

  • Pick outcomes that will change real behaviour (prescribing, adherence, access/coverage).
  • Keep outcomes that, if improved, would strengthen the value story, clinical differentiation, positioning, and/or matter to regulators.
  • Keep outcomes you can credibly rate using magnitude of impact + credibility of proof (e.g., RCT strength, RWE, feasibility).
  • Leave behind outcomes that are “nice to have” but won’t change decisions, or where every competitor looks the same.

3. Finalise Technology Criteria

  • Select the few that are most likely to change competitiveness, not the ones that are merely interesting.
  • Prioritise criteria that can create future opportunity or threat (i.e., potentially disruptive).
  • Ensure you can rate them: you should be able to add evidence and judge competitiveness consistently across markets.
  • Leave behind criteria that are too speculative to evidence or don’t materially affect outcomes, adoption, access, or scalability.

4. Finalise Innovation Criteria

  • Select the innovations most likely to reshape the “rules of the game.” (These are often independent of who leads today.)
  • Choose criteria that help you spot market shifts (e.g., category redefinition, shifts in power, white space creation, new risks).
  • Leave behind “innovation criteria” that are just features—keep the ones that change stakeholder expectations, evidence requirements, access, or care delivery.

Assessment checklist

  • Is there agreement on the priority outcomes that the stakeholders care about? (outcomes might differ for each stakeholder)?
  • Is there agreement around the technologies that are likely to change competitiveness
  • Is there agreement around the innovations that most likely reshape the rules of the game.