#768 Dexcom G7 Design

October 7, 2022Scott Benner

Dexcom Senior Director of Global Product Design, Alex Diener has type 1 diabetes and he's here to talk about designing the Dexcom G7.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 768 of the Juicebox Podcast.

This week, the Dexcom g7 launched in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Hong Kong. If you're not lucky enough to live in one of those places, you're still waiting for the Dexcom g7. If you don't live in one of those areas, I thought perhaps you were having a little FOMO little fear of missing out or even a void. Maybe there's a dark black void inside of you where you want to put the excitement of Dexcom g7. But it just hasn't arrived at your door yet. Well, never fear. Today, Alex Dina is here, Senior Director of Global Product Design at Dexcom. And Alex and I are going to have a lovely conversation about what it was like to redesign the product, and the user interface. It's not quite Dexcom g7 And your hot little hands, but Alex is pretty terrific. So maybe he'll be able to fill that dark hole with a little bit of excitement, just enough to hold you over until the big event. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast doesn't have any ads. It's an extra episode. It's just an idea I had a couple of days ago, I thought oh, I could have Alex I want to talk about g7 design, you know, the UI all that stuff. It would be nice, a little extra something for you. At the end of the week, I was lucky enough to be able to set this up quickly and record the episode. And here it is for you now, I will remind you that the podcast is supported by advertisers. And when you click on those advertisers links. Well, that's how you get this stuff. You know, I'm saying like I can't make this podcast for free. Do you think you I think I have my bills. I do I have built like an electric bill. And you know, I gotta pay like for the kids, they go to college people eat. There's a lot of stuff around here. So if you're in the market for the Omnipod five or the Omnipod dash, the Dexcom G six, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, G voc hypo pen, the M pen from Medtronic diabetes. Or if you'd like to learn more about touched by type one. And even in fact, get your diabetes supplies from us med you can do that with links in the show notes of the podcast player that you're listening in right now. Or the links that are available at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on the links or type them in a browser, you're supporting the show on the pod.com forward slash juice box, Dex comm.com forward slash juice box contour next.com forward slash juice box G fo glucagon.com forward slash juice box in pen today.com touch by type one.org and us med.com forward slash juice box. That's it. That's all I gotta do. Now the rest of it is free of me telling you about the advertisers. It's over. Now this part's over. I appreciate you listening to it. Let's talk to Alex.

Alex Diener 3:21
Hey there. My name is Alex Diener. I'm the Senior Director of Global Product Design at Dexcom. And have been here about four and a half years and just thrilled to be part of this team thrilled to be on this mission to make living with diabetes a little bit easier.

Scott Benner 3:38
So Alex, you know you're here because we've got to feed the beast, right? You guys have you guys have announced Dexcom g7 and Europe and a number of countries. And right away people are like, what about here? And I was like, Oh, you don't like it? Do you? Canadians are thrilled, by the way to, to watch America and I get something right away because they're like, now you know how it feels. But, but I just thought what a great opportunity. Because I have to admit, I thought we'd be hearing about g7 anytime now. But I liked that there's this gap here to have these conversations that we don't normally get to have. Because you guys aren't always available to talk to so you're available right now. And I'd like to understand how you take a product or devise an app and change it completely without it changing. But make it better because I assume that's the goal, right? Like keep what people love. Make it Better make it smaller, make it faster, but I don't understand how that happens is just beginning a meeting or you don't I mean,

Alex Diener 4:41
yeah, I mean, I think it's also being in a state of like constantly dreaming big, right like and everyone is kind of like putting their their notes down on paper and and sharing them with each other. But you know, I think at the root of it, it's it's about listening Think to people about listening to our customers. And just really centering the technology on the needs of people of everyday people and hearing their stories and figuring out how can we tailor the technology to fit seamlessly in their life? You know, there's a lot of companies, a lot of companies that are developing technology left and right consumer technology, medical technology, but there needs to be like a real empathy and and focus on, you know, Hey, are we addressing the real needs, and you only discover those real needs by spending time spending time talking to people?

Scott Benner 5:42
I find, especially well, listen, I'm more focused on diabetes, but I've seen so many apps, for example, you know, people are like, well, we have a great idea to help people with diabetes, and they get funding, and it's sometimes stunning how much money people throw into it. And then the app comes and I think this is valueless, like it does, don't you understand what people with diabetes want, they want things to work, and they don't want to put as much effort into it, they're not looking to be involved constantly, you know, what I mean, they're looking to, they're looking forward to do what it needs to do. And when they need to be involved with it, it needs to be fluid and work well and look, right. And when they don't need to be looking at it, they don't want to be looking at it. And people keep trying to drag. I don't know, like, I don't want to I don't want my daughter to have to write down what she ate at three o'clock. You don't mean like I want I want an algorithm that sees a little jump up and pushes it back down again. And then that moments go on, and we don't have to think about it. You know, I went east, I wonder how hard it is for you. When you're working on things. And you have drawings and ideas and designs, you know that this is going to be in the next version of this and you hear people online say, you know, we really want we want this. And your problem. Do you think like overdoing that, but I can't tell you? Have you ever had that thought?

Alex Diener 6:58
Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we have a, you know, a lot of different things that we're pursuing. And, you know, medical devices take time to build really high quality robust, user centered products takes time. And yes, sorry.

Scott Benner 7:18
No, I'm sorry. I'm just gonna say so the g7 app that we're going to be seeing soon is that I guess go back and tell me, when did you start working on it? How far back was it being worked on?

Alex Diener 7:29
You know, it's been it's been a number of years, you know, I've been at Dexcom for for four years. And, you know, it's been in work, you know, ever since then, and, and beyond? And, you know, I think there is there's kind of a layering of generations, you know, where work from one blends into the next ideas and, and thoughts and aspirations, kind of flow into the continuity of building one platform to the next. But, you know, you asked about, you know, how does, how does that happen? How does that become real? And, you know, I think I think part of it is us, you know, as a as a team kind of, you know, setting an ambitious target, like what what do we want to deliver? What have we heard from people? What do they want, you know, they want they want clear, simple, robust, intuitive products. Right? Okay. And then how do we break that down into consider constituent parts of the experience, right, like, ah, you know, how can onboarding be better? How could the web experience be better, and looking for ideas, and each each and every one of those vectors, and, you know, I want to make this super, super clear. Design is a team sport, product development is a team sport, and it takes a tremendous amount of people to make it work and to make really compelling, amazing products. And I'm talking about, you know, research, research and product management, engineering, program management, advanced tech, you know, operations, you know, even the feedback from the sales team, you know, all all of these different groups, bring their ideas and their creative energy to bear on on the product development process. And, you know, the hardest part is deciding is curating curating all those ideas, you know, like, what are we going to start on first and what is what is the highest impact to our customers, right. And then from there, building, you know, building some prototypes, whether that be a worn thing, whether that be a digital experience. Let's build some prototypes. Let's get them out there. Let's put them in front of people. Let's, let's hear what they have to say. And then, you know, adjust the prototype and repeat, build, build, test, repeat

Scott Benner 10:00
So Well, I mean, from simple things like websites, all the way up to what we're talking about today, everybody has used something and thought, did they not let anyone try this before they gave it to us? You know, and especially with diabetes, you think, like, Did no one with type one wear this? You know, and there's been stuff like that in the past. So it's a, it's a perfect idea of, you know, to let people look, I also imagine, too, that there has to be a desire from the top. Because you could be at a company that just is like, look, the other app works, who cares? We're not spending money on it. And you know, so there has to be a desire to want to do that. So that you guys have that from the top down, obviously.

Alex Diener 10:37
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, there's, I mean, there's a spirit of continuous improvement, you know, all the way across the company top, top to bottom. So that, and that's a huge, that's a huge asset to a design team. Sure, right. That have that have that support of chasing, chasing new ideas. Even knowing that, you know, that, hey, not everything's gonna pan out, you're gonna chase some ideas that that won't pan out. And that's, that's okay. You know, that's part of that's part of the process.

Scott Benner 11:03
So okay, so you say it's down kind of broken down into parts? So I guess visual is a part right? What does it look like? How does it function? What information do people need, like you guys are? Did you blend the clarity app together with the Dexcom? app?

Alex Diener 11:20
Yeah, there is there are insights from clarity that show up on a clarity card with ng seven. So you get a lot of that high impact information right at your fingertips on that homepage. But I could kind of maybe expand on your on your line of thinking there. You know, like within the global product design team, we've got UX, which is like, you know, your information architecture and your flow, you've got user interface or UI, which they're the visual layer, how that how that user is absorbing and interpreting that information. In the end, they're very much integrated with that that UX team in terms of the overall flow, there's the instructional design, there's like the content designers. And again, they are also integrated, both with the digital product and the physical product in terms of like, you know, just making sure that people understand how to use this, how to make it as intuitive how to communicate the functionality. And then we've got industrial design, industrial design, is the hardware design, the physical object, the applicator, the actual sensor transmitter that is on the body, what should that look like, feel like? How does it feel? You know, what does it look like? All those teams are constantly trading notes, as I kind of chatted about earlier in the podcast about with all those other kinds of different groups that are helping us make decisions together, you know, what's going to be best for the user?

Scott Benner 12:49
Right? Hey, you have type one. So are you wearing the g7? Have you been wearing it for a while?

Alex Diener 12:55
No, you know, because it's not out in the United States. I just wear G six. You know, and I have worn the non functioning prototypes, just so I could understand, you know, the, how it feels on the arm or? And yeah, so, you know, I wear the non functional prototypes. But I like many of your listeners am eagerly awaiting g7 to arrive here in the United States.

Scott Benner 13:23
How do you Matt, would you mind telling me how do you manage? Do you use the injections or pump?

Alex Diener 13:27
Oh, yeah, happy to happy to share. So I've got Dexcom G six, coupled with a tandem tandem pump and control IQ. And, you know, I love it, it's offered offered me a level of freedom. You know, I'll give you an example. Scott, you know, before control, like you couldn't fast, you know, like intermittent fasting just for health and wellness. That was kind of unobtainium. And now that I've got the smart algorithm on board, it's really changed the way that that I treat and even stuff like sleeping through the night, you know, you know, having having that level of comfort is is pretty incredible.

Scott Benner 14:09
I tried to explain to my daughter recently, she was on the podcast, she doesn't come on very much. And I said, you know, one days when, like, after you've had a long week at school and you sleep in on Saturday. That's because you, you know, Arden is using a loop. And I was like, Well, that's because you have an algorithm. It's taking basil away and then when you start to rise up and give some back about bah. And she's almost I mean, even though she's lived through a couple of versions of diabetes management, she was very young when she used MDI she doesn't remember particularly you know, and even like first generation on the pod and stuff like that, so she's like, Yeah, you can see how it just normal it is to her that that's like being in it's not a big deal. But for so many people it's it's unattainable like you said, like, how do I how much was asleep and my blood sugar starts to dip right away if I stay sleeping too longer? Yeah. How do I go to a blood test tomorrow morning when the guy tells me I can't I can't eat after midnight. And, exactly, it's a big deal. So, yeah, so So then if you're using control IQ, then this covers one of the questions I know people are gonna want to ask is that how soon after g7 becomes available will integrate with Omnipod? Five and control IQ? And I mean, what are the goals for that? on your end? I know you guys aren't the pump companies. But yeah, I

Alex Diener 15:22
can't Yeah, I can't get into specific dates, but I can't say that, like, everyone sees the tremendous value there to our to our users. And, you know, both on the Dexcom side, and with the partner teams, everyone's just working overtime to get that, you know, once once g7 is approved, and and all the all the regulatory needs are met, then, you know, get that get that to market as soon as possible.

Scott Benner 15:49
And then is the step there, then it's up to the pump companies that part at that point to submit to the to the FDA. Is that how that works?

Alex Diener 15:58
You know, I probably not the best person to talk to you in terms of like all the regulatory steps and sequences, but you know, I think you're, I think you're along the along those.

Scott Benner 16:10
Right, right? Well, I think it's just comforting for people to know that it's, I don't know why anybody wouldn't understand that it's being worked on behind the scenes, but it always freaks people out. We're like, well, when's this gonna start? I was like, I believe, I'm assuming they've been working on it for a while. So yeah, it's very exciting. Okay, so what's your I mean, you're the Senior Director of Global Product Design, that's a seems like a big title. What does that mean? What do you do day to day?

Alex Diener 16:38
You know, every day, it's about seeking design opportunities, and helping the helping the team that design that collective design team, you know, really, Chase chase these big ideas? How can how can we bring them to market? What should they look like? What should they feel like? What is the experience that we're delivering, and we employ so many incredible designers? So it actually makes my job much, much easier? Because there's tremendous amount of creativity and empathy for the for the diabetes experience across the team. I will say, you know, you mentioned earlier, like, hey, you know, have you have used products that, you know, you felt like maybe people who were living with it may or not have have tried it. Over half our design managers either have type one themselves, or are a caregiver for somebody with diabetes. And so I think there's a tremendous amount of expertise there. And also, you know, just to make it super clear, even those folks that who, who are not living with diabetes, everybody, you've never seen a company that is more mission driven, and more focused on educating themselves to the experience and what we're trying to deliver. It's pretty incredible. And yeah, so really, it's about you know, how can we make an impact for people? What should that impact look like? And how do we, how do we get it to market so

Scott Benner 18:16
let's break it down a little bit down. So we, everybody who knows what a G six looks like, understands that the transmitter pops into the sensor bed. And you know, you take it off every 10 days, and the transmitter keeps getting recycled for you know, the life of it, which I guess is 90 days if I'm remembering right? And and then you bring in a new transmitter, but G seven is going to be nothing like that, like everything's going to be one use disposable. Is that right?

Alex Diener 18:42
That's right. Yeah. So the sensor and the transmitter is combined. Yeah. So kind of takes away that extra extra step a little bit easier, a little bit smoother to use.

Scott Benner 18:53
What about the application process in? It's just like a, it looks like a little plastic cup to me, and you hold it to your skin and just press it down?

Alex Diener 19:00
Yeah, that's right. That's right. You depress it down. And once you get enough compression with the skin, you hit the, the button there, the release button, and then very much like G six and once you hit that button, you know, there's just that brief second where that sensor is put in subcutaneously. And yeah, it's, you know, for me personally, on some of those, some of those trials, you know, it's very, very comfortable.

Scott Benner 19:31
Good. Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, it's obviously much flatter. It appears to be, you know, in diameter, maybe like, is it even as big as a quarter? I don't think it is right.

Alex Diener 19:44
I I believe it's a little bit smaller than a quarter. Yeah, had to have to go back and look at the look at the specs. Exactly. But it's very close.

Scott Benner 19:54
So wearing it. More comfortable. You said?

Alex Diener 19:58
Yeah, you know, one of the things we We talk a lot about in terms of the wearable is the Z height. And the Z height means it's the distance from the surface of the skin to the top of the wearable. And, you know, with with G six, compared to G seven, there's a big, there's a big difference there a big reduction of Z height. So, you know, the daily activities like, you know, putting on a shirt, you know, toweling off seatbelts, these types of interactions of things that could make contact with your wearable, you know, we think that people are really going to notice, notice interference, they're gonna notice that that wearable, less, okay,

Scott Benner 20:40
so what about on the on the app side? Because I mean, obviously, we've got the device down to almost like, it's almost taking up no space in the world. So you know, that's, I don't know how much smarter, smaller, you can get it one day, but that would be amazing. But now, the apps really where you live, right? Like, once it's on, you don't think about the device anymore. It's all about the app. So what has what what are we going to see, like, in your opinion, what are people going to, like be struck by what kind of changes do you think will they at first see, and then what will they experienced over time that they really end up? Enjoying?

Alex Diener 21:16
Yeah, yeah. You know, I think, you know, as, as we kind of hit on before, I think one, they'll notice the fact that it's combined, they will notice that immediately, I think that they will notice that the height, you know, as they put it on their body, like wow, this is this is really quite at quite a bit lower. I think that they will also notice, you know, this new app design, kind of the more modern interface, card based architecture, a navigational tray on the bottom, that allows you to move into different sections of the app. 30 minute warmup time, is going to be transformative for a lot of people, I like that distance between getting the glucose values between one session and the next, you know, to go from two hours to 30 minutes is a big jump. Having the flexibility of grace period, you know, like, ah, you know, your your child is maybe going to school or you're about to go to work. And, you know, you don't you you don't want to change your, your wearable your sensor yet. So, you know, having that 12 hour grace period is is really key. For those people who prefer to use a receiver, that g7 receiver is, you know, a huge change, it's much smaller, much lighter, the battery life is far extended, you know, high high contrast screen on that. And it's also less expensive. So I think a lot of people will be incredibly surprised, pleasantly surprised, and kind of the upgrade on that on that receiver.

Scott Benner 23:01
Can I go back to two things I just want to bear, because I believe I understand you. But I want to make sure people listening are so in the app. Right now, when you open up the Dexcom app, if you're the user, it's just it's a screen. It there's not much more there. You can turn it sideways go to landscape, you can choose three 612 24 hour views. And yeah, there's like some settings. But that's pretty much it. It's sort of and that's what you mean, when you say card? That's sort of a one card app. Is that right? The way it is?

Alex Diener 23:29
Yeah. It's more or less Yeah, it's more like just one homepage.

Scott Benner 23:33
Right? Right. But But now at the bottom are we going to see icons are we going to see like swiping left or right. At the

Alex Diener 23:41
bottom, you'll have the glucose, what we would call tab, the glucose tab, which is basically your home screen. And then you'll have your familiar backglass, you'll have your trend graph. And then as you swipe down, you'll also have the clarity card. So it's a functionality that's offered that gives the user more information. So you know, it's like, Hey, your real time information, still going to be up front first and foremost. And then if you want to learn a little bit more about how you've been doing in the last three 714 plus days, you can go down to that clarity card and have that experience. Now you know, these other tabs, you know, history connections, there's going to be more on that in the future that we're going to build on that. You know, the g7 app is made for connections is made for integrations and everybody knows our share follow you know companion functionality that's a connection right and we're going to continue to build on that. So excited for what the future we'll we'll hold their

Scott Benner 24:49
will is there a updated follow up?

Alex Diener 24:54
It is in development but not the time timeline not not released yet.

Scott Benner 24:59
Okay. Alright, so it won't happen at the same time. So g7 users will see the new software g7 followers will still just keep using what they're using. Correct. Okay. All right. Okay, so the other thing I wanted to ask you about was the grace period again. So it's a 12 hour grace period. But let me put you into a real life scenario, the, I get a warning that says in six hours, my CGM is going to expire. And I forget, and six hours later, it's two o'clock in the morning, and I really wish I could change it in the morning instead of in the middle of the night. Does that work? That way? I can push 12 hours from the drop dead time. That's right. Wow. That's right. Well, that that basically covers the day. Right. Yeah. Right. It should give you the opportunity to put the change where you want it to be.

Alex Diener 25:46
That's right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and people want that flexibility. Like you said, it's huge. Yeah, you know, yeah.

Scott Benner 25:54
Yeah, I just, I mean, there's, it's, if you don't live through it, you don't know. But the idea of like, oh, I have to do it. Now. Whether it's Dexcom, or it's your pump, or it's anything like not now and I know, you know, it's funny, Alex, I believe that. Do you ever hear people say things happen at the worst times? When when's a good time for your insulin pump to stop burning? You know what I mean? There's never really a good time, but at least if you can get into the thought process of I control when this happens, and I think that's going to be a big deal for people. I really do.

Alex Diener 26:26
Right? Yeah, we agree. I mean, we pursued that change, because we really heard it from a lot of people.

Scott Benner 26:34
So are you working on the team working now on things that you think will be integrated along the way? Are we going to have to wait for like, like rebels? Or how Yeah, I think it's gonna be

Alex Diener 26:49
incremental, incremental change to the g7 experience? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're absolutely working on, you know, changes and upgrades to the to the g7 experience. And we'll be delivering that over time. As opposed to, you know, big, big changes only being reserved platform to the platform.

Scott Benner 27:09
Okay, yes, you don't have to wait for whatever comes after g7. Not that I'm trying to put it in your head that you need to come out with her. But you don't have to wait for the next thing. You guys are gonna kind of become like, maybe you could kind of do it the way Tesla does it when they're like, look, here's this one little add on, we'll give it to you in a software update. And here it is. I mean, I think that's, I think that keeps things from getting stale, which was, which is important. Plus, it keeps you from getting into a situation where you recognize, wow, we should have done this. Or we should have pushed harder for this, you know, back when we did it, and instead of having to wait years, which brings me to the question, are there things that were cut from the app that you right now think, Oh, I wish we would have done that? Or Is there stuff that you saw? Like, how does that happen in the room? When someone's like, No, we need to do somebody else is like, no, it's got to be this like,

Alex Diener 27:56
No, I think I think anybody in product development always has a wish list. And we have a long wish list. Right? And you're never able to get everything, everything you want into into one release. So yeah, we definitely have aspirations and future plans for delivering, you know, kind of more new and different experiences expanded capabilities. Yeah, so there's always things that, that you got to you know, pencils down. Time to time to ship.

Scott Benner 28:27
Yeah. Yeah, I just I would love to know what popped into your head when I asked, because I'm assuming the recycle. Yeah, that I would have liked. Well, I can tell you, that I, the years that have gone by since someone reached out to me from Dexcom, and said, Would you talk to a person once they ask you a bunch of questions about what you think about the app? It's so long ago, and the company is so different now than it was back then? I mean, can you give me a feeling for I mean, I don't need exact numbers, but the size of the group of people that work on this compared to that group five years ago? Is it just like before you got there? Like, have you seen that transformation in four years of things growing and becoming?

Alex Diener 29:13
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously, as as, as a company grows and matures, and its, you know, aspirations, expand with it, it needs it needs a larger team. I mean, I can speak for the design team. I mean, the end end is I think there's also a kind of speaks to you know, how Dexcom C's and values, you know, product design, the product design team has, as you know, doubled in the last four years and we want to do more, we want to deliver more to our customers globally, and that requires, you know, a lot of planning a lot of a lot of thought a lot of careful thought and, and work to make that happen. So Yeah, I mean, there's definitely been an expansion. I think we also, I'm feeling like, ah, you know, there's, there's so much we can do. There's so much that we can deliver to people and the team needs to scale to be able to accomplish that.

Scott Benner 30:13
Let me ask you a couple other questions. How about a rate of change? I mean, it's it's public now. Right? You can tell me? Let's see. So delta, like, do I see in the last since the last reading, I've gone up five points or down three points or something like that.

Alex Diener 30:30
Rate of change is not in there. Okay.

Scott Benner 30:33
Well, if you're gonna ask me later, what I want, we'll start with that.

Alex Diener 30:38
Yeah. That's, that's top of your top of your list.

Scott Benner 30:41
I have to say, I think so. I think I think that's one of the bigger ones. I think other people might say, Watch integration, right, which I don't see as a. I mean, I don't know. But it to me that feels more like a limitation of Bluetooth and the hardware than it does other things. But I think that I would hear from people watching integration, for sure. I think Delta rated change is a big deal. I think it's, it tells you a lot about what's happening. In the moment, it gives you that feeling of like, okay, it's moving, but it's not. You don't you mean, like, I don't know why it's different. Like you see the arrow? It's because you don't have to remember, right, like your diagonal down. 96 The next time you look, you're at eight, you don't have to go six, I've moved eight points. You know, I mean, like, it just you just see that there. And it just I don't know, it takes away a level of I don't know, it takes away a level of having to think about it, which is nice. Yeah,

Alex Diener 31:40
yeah. I mean, there's a grant the granularity of like, you know, how, what is what is my ascent or descent? And what am I doing right now, that may have an impact on that? Or, you know, or that rate could have an impact on what I'm doing? And vice versa? Yeah. In

Scott Benner 31:57
that example, like, the way I would hit me is okay, the thing I did is working. And it's working the way I expected it to, or it's not, you don't I mean, like, it's, oh, geez, I thought it was gonna move farther by now. Or that kind of thing? So I don't know, I find that completely valuable. Yeah. What else are you said? You have questions for me. I didn't realize this was gonna happen, Alex, but we can turn around. Go ahead. What do you what do you got?

Alex Diener 32:20
Yeah, I mean, those are, those are my two big ones, you know, from from artists perspective, what is what does she want? And then you as as a as a parent? What do you want? I mean, ready to change? Got that?

Scott Benner 32:37
I think Arden would say that she wants one app to rule them all. I think that's what she would say. I think that if I mean, if felt like, absolutely being completely, like open aren't used on the pod five for a number of months. And in the end, she said to me, I want to go back to the loop. Because I only have to look at one app, one loop. And I don't have to carry another device, which I know some people don't want to work from their phone, and that's fine. But for her, she wants it to be on her phone. And she doesn't want a ton of different apps. So as the integration comes together, I think that's something everybody's wondering, which is how do you with your pump partners? Come up? And can you like I don't even understand and maybe you don't know, either. But from a regulatory standpoint, like I'm not even sure if you're able to but I don't want to have an omni pod five app and a Dexcom app. I want everything to work in one place. I would bet a lot of people would say that for certain. And then I don't know, just to become cluttered. Like what kind of a design problem does that become then? Yeah. So

Alex Diener 33:45
and that, you know, I think we responded to that. In our in our own kind of way. Our own ecosystem is like where people like yeah, you know, I want more access to my clarity information. Yeah, so

Scott Benner 34:00
and then I think on screen is huge. I don't know if this is a you thing, or an apple thing, or, or Android or whatever. But like I have a widget, you know, that shows where the hell's my camera. That's amazing. I don't order my own cameras. So I have that widget there, which is amazing and works terrific. But I would love it if it was on my lock screen. If I could see stuff on the lock screen. And I know a lot of people, parents of younger people would like to see treatments and boluses on the follow up. Yeah, that's a big that's a big thing too. Like anything that stops you from having to bug your kid, I think is a big deal. That gives you a little insight like okay, I asked him to Bolus and he did I see it here. Good. I'm done. Yeah, I definitely think that's a big, big deal for people. Now having said all that, and I know we're running out of time, but having said all that. What I love most about the software is that it fades away from you eventually. And so as much as I want it to be amazing, and I want to look great, I wanted to do all this stuff. I don't care as much. I don't think I care what it looked like, it could be an eight pixel. If it if I didn't have to look at it, you don't even if I didn't have to see it that much. And I think that after somebody uses Dexcom, for a long enough time, like we have, the truth is that, you know, I need rate of change, and I need the number and I need an arrow, and pretty much the rest of its is extra, in my opinion. I don't know, what do you think you use it? Do you agree? Or do you? Do you not?

Alex Diener 35:36
I mean, I think having additional contextual information is always great. And you know, certainly, you know, trying to get to, I'll give you one example. You know, I also love Fitbit. And I use aura, an aura ring for my sleep. I love all those different data sources. And I'm, you know, I'm a little bit of a data a data nerd. Right. So, I like to have that. But, you know, it would be you know, that's definitely something that is of interest of like, oh, yeah, how can how can you get that information all in one place. And I think that's, you see that with Apple Health and Google Health, right, where people are trying to get kind of a consolidated view. So I think that's a super, super interesting space. And always just trying to make sure that, you know, things are as simple and as robust as they possibly can be.

Scott Benner 36:35
And as you want them, I listen, every time I talk to somebody, I floated the same idea, it never happened. So I might be talking to myself. But as an example, if you use Adobe Elements, there's tabs at the top, it's like basic, medium Pro. And when you click on those tabs, the software becomes visually something else, you get more or less depending on what you're asking for. And I do wonder if there's not, not a space for a basic view? You know, what I mean, a more deep dive view, and then the the data that some people want that other people would find confusing, and then you just get to decide. I mean, I've never designed an app before. I don't know. But to me, that makes a lot of sense. You have one app could could apply to a lot of different people's needs. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Plus, that'll keep you busy for years. Alex.

Alex Diener 37:23
That's right. That's right.

Scott Benner 37:25
give you something to do. I know, we just have a couple minutes of ask you one question that I'm gonna let you go, right. Yeah. What's it like working in the health space where it's not just about how it looks, or how it functions, but it's about the FDA saying it's okay, or it's about it definitely has to work? Like, you can't, you can't say to the FDA, this thing's gonna be at a certain number, it's going to show me something that it can't happen, right? Like, it's, is that an extra pressure? Like, how much of that do you think about? Like, after you're done designing it, somebody else has to say, okay, to it beyond just the design perspective?

Alex Diener 38:01
Oh, I don't think of that as an extra pressure at all, because it's, you know, obviously, we want to develop, you know, products that are incredibly safe and effective and meet the needs of people. I think those you know, those other organizations are just helping us in that, in that mission, it's always good to have an outside perspective. And look at those things. So from a design perspective, I don't I don't see that as, you know, an extra pressure, really, the pressure inherently is doing the best job you can for the needs of people in managing their disease. And that's a we'll take that challenge all day long. Because it's it's incredibly gratifying both to hear from patients and from caregivers, doctors about that kind of the impact and so, yeah, sure. Is there is medical device development. slow and methodical. Absolutely. Is there a reason for that? Yeah. And and we, we love that challenge. Obviously, there's there's some days that you wish, I wish, you know, this process could go faster, but there's a reason why it has a certain pace and, and it's all about making sure we do the best we can for for people living with this chronic condition.

Scott Benner 39:23
Well, thank you. I appreciate you doing this very much. Hopefully I can have you back on after the device comes out. We can pick through it a little more. But I you know, it was great talking to you.

Alex Diener 39:32
Yeah, yeah. Scott. Hey, it was great to meet you this morning. You know, I've definitely listened to the the Juicebox Podcast a number of times and thanks for you know, thanks for everything you do for the community and kind of keeping everybody up to speed on what's what's coming down the pike and how best to manage It's

Scott Benner 39:47
my pleasure. It's nice of you to say.

First, I'd like to thank Alex for coming on the show and thank you People who helped me set it up. You know who you are. I know you're listening. Thank you. What else? What else I got for you? Oh, yeah, if you want to check out the Dexcom go to dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox Get started today with the next GM G six, you may even be eligible. What do I say in the ads, you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six, find out more@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Of course, the other advertisers that I mentioned the beginning on the pod Contour Next One G vote glucagon Impend for Medtronic, diabetes, US Med and touch by type one. links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, or type two diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast on Facebook. It's a private group with over 30,000 members Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. Are you looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series or some of the other series within the podcast? look no farther than juicebox podcast.com or diabetes pro tip.com or the featured section in the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, there are lists everywhere. You will be able to find what you're looking for. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.