Start with their world, not the platform
Dr. Reese rehearsed the pitch for a week. Dr. Patel had a clinic in eleven minutes. The redo starts with a question and a long silence.
The 60-second version
Dr. Reese rehearsed a pitch for a week and delivered it to a man with a clinic in eleven minutes. Train wreck, because she never asked a question. The redo starts with an apology and one question, what does the end of your week look like for evaluations, followed by silence. Out comes sixteen years of Sunday-night stress, Maria chasing him on Mondays, and feedback that's worse because of when it's written. Now the same two minutes mean something. She asks for one resident, one week, texts at three like she said she would, and gets a yes. Five moves: ask about their reality, listen for the pain, connect Medtrics to it, find one small next step, follow up.
7:39 · Published October 27, 2026 · With Poppy & Dave
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In this episode
Dr. Reese has been rehearsing a conversation with Dr. Patel for a week, because he hasn't opened the new evaluation system once. She knows what she wants to say and which benefits to highlight. She catches him outside the workroom: it's intuitive, the dashboards are great, milestones take two minutes, it pulls everything together for ACGME. He has a clinic of twenty-two patients starting in eleven minutes. “Faster than what I'm doing is closing my laptop and seeing patients. We've had three new systems in five years. I'll get to it.” Total train wreck.
She said all the things she thought she was supposed to say. But from Dr. Patel's side, the platform isn't the point. The patients are the point, and in that moment Medtrics sounds like one more thing standing between him and them. The bigger problem: she didn't ask him a single question. She told him what she wanted him to know before she understood anything about what he needed.
Dr. Patel hasn't opened the evaluation system once. Dr. Reese gets her minute.
“Do you have a minute? I wanted to walk you through the new evaluation platform. It's really intuitive once you're in it. The dashboards are great, milestones take like two minutes, and it pulls everything together for ACGME.”
Twenty-two patients in eleven minutes. He heard one more thing between him and them. She never asked a question.
“I'm sorry about Tuesday. I came at you with a sales pitch and you had a clinic in eleven minutes. What I should have started with: what does the end of your week look like right now for evaluations?”
Then she stopped talking. Sixteen years of Sunday-night stress came out, and the same two minutes finally meant something.
Different day, different place. An hour before clinic, near the coffee machine, she apologizes for Tuesday and asks the question she should have started with: what does the end of your week actually look like for evaluations? Then she stops talking. A stack of paper on the corner of his desk. Friday in the parking garage on his phone if he's lucky; mostly Sunday night. Sometimes he forgets, Maria emails Monday morning, and he feels like a jerk. It's been awful for sixteen years. And the residents need feedback faster; by Sunday he's trying to remember what someone did two weeks ago, and the feedback is worse because of when he's giving it. Dr. Reese didn't invent that pain. She listened long enough to hear it.
Now the same two minutes mean something: an evaluation on your phone right after rounds, while you remember, so you finish before the weekend and the residents get something useful instead of something written at 10 PM. Tuesday, two minutes was a sales pitch. Now it's connected to something he just said he wants fixed. She didn't get the department, or even a promise. She got one resident, one week, and a text at three that afternoon that he answered immediately: “Tomorrow at 11:40. Show me.” When you're moving someone skeptical, the goal isn't always conversion. Sometimes it's the next yes, and credibility is built in the follow-through, not the pitch.
“That's where credibility gets built. Not in the pitch, in the follow-through.”
Poppy
What the work is for
Dr. Patel
Does an evaluation on his phone right after rounds, two minutes while he remembers, and gets his Sunday night back.
The residents
Get feedback written the day it happened, not reconstructed from two weeks ago at 10 PM.
Maria
Stops chasing on Monday morning.
Say this
You get your redo with the faculty member you pitched too early
“I'm sorry about Tuesday. I came at you with a sales pitch and you had a clinic in eleven minutes. That wasn't fair. What I actually wanted to ask, and I should have started here: what does the end of your week look like right now for evaluations? What's the actual workflow on your end?”
10. The Hard Cases
Premieres November 3, 2026