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The origin story of a business is rarely clean, and it’s almost never convenient. Oscar and Lawrence sit down for a candid, unscripted conversation. We look back on how their partnership started in grad school right as COVID pushed everything virtual, and why staying committed after the class ended mattered more than the original idea. That disruption shaped the way they think about entrepreneurship, operations, and showing up when no one is grading your work anymore. Lawrence shares why he’s stepping away from the podcast and business for a move and mini sabbatical, and we talk honestly about what was built, what changed, and what Lean by Design and Sigma Lab Consulting are to become next.

The hosts talk through the early days of testing business ideas in the biopharma space, the challenge of standing out in a crowded services landscape, and why momentum gets harder after the class ends and the deadlines disappear.

Lawrence shares a practical view of the technician skills gap and specialized needs like calibration, plus the real-world complications of trying to start a company with coworkers. From there, they get honest about what actually drives operational excellence: consistent delivery, repeat clients, clear communication, and the tough alignment conversations that no AI tool can do for you.

Oscar and Lawrence also cover the habits that kept them sharp, especially reading, research, and pattern spotting as the industry changes every few years. And they share some of the scrappy proof-of-concept work: free networking events, learning to explain the value to people outside biotech, and building systems that make work transferable. Finally, the two reflect on a major turning point: shifting from standard consulting services to building a product, and what that demanded from us in product management, workflows, and support.

If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a friend building something on the side, and leave a review so more operators and founders can find Lean by Design. What part of building a business feels hardest for you right now?

Episode sound familiar? Reach out for a 30 min situation read so that we can look at your situation together. https://sigmalabconsulting.com/call

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Nobody sets out to build a broken system. Every tool your organization is running was the right call the day it was purchased. Someone fought for the budget, ran the validation, and trained the team. And they were right.

But the work still doesn't flow.

In this episode of Lean by Design, Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong explore what happens in the space between your systems — the gap that isn't empty, but filled with people. Analysts, coordinators, and scientists spending their afternoons exporting files, reformatting data, and re-keying numbers into a slide deck for a Thursday meeting. People who have quietly become the integration layer their organization never designed.

The conversation unpacks what it really costs when tools don't talk to each other: the data that gets lost in translation, the rework that never shows up on a budget line, and the growing frustration of teams who can't get a straight answer to the most basic question — what's the right data?

Oscar and Lawrence dig into why this happens — from procurement systems that don't connect to maintenance platforms, to IT contracts that outlast their usefulness, to the reality that as organizations grow, nobody stops to ask whether the tech stack still makes sense. Research shows that 86% of IT leaders say unintegrated tools are adding more complexity than value, and teams are burning nearly 30% of their technical time hand-building integrations that should never have been manual in the first place.

This episode is not about which tools to buy or whether to build versus integrate. It's about recognizing that the space between your systems is not a technical problem — it's an ownership problem. And until someone decides to own the gap, people will keep filling it.

Episode sound familiar? Reach out for a 30 min situation read so that we can look at your situation together. https://sigmalabconsulting.com/call

Learn more about us by visiting: https://sigmalabconsulting.com/

Order Predictably Broken Now! https://books2read.com/predictablybroken

Check out video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanByDesignPodcast

Want our thoughts on a specific topic? Looking to sponsor this podcast to continue to generate content? Or maybe you have an idea and want to be on our show. Fill out our Interest Form and share your thoughts.

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Most organizations believe they have alignment. The strategy is written, the leadership team is on the same page, and everyone knows the goal. But what happens on Monday morning, when the teams spread out and the work actually begins?

In this episode of Lean by Design, Oscar Gonzalez and Lawrence Wong explore why alignment at the top of an organization rarely guarantees coordination at the execution level and why that gap is quietly responsible for some of the most costly breakdowns in cross-functional projects.

The conversation reframes a common assumption: strategy and execution are not the same problem. Research shows that while 82% of executives report being aligned on strategy, actual measured alignment sits closer to 23%. And 67% of well-formulated strategies still fail, not because the strategy was wrong, but because of what happened in the space between the plan and the work.

Oscar and Lawrence unpack the patterns that drive this disconnect: tactical priorities that are assumed rather than defined, dependencies that only become visible when they cause a crisis, cross-functional teams operating without a shared understanding of sequencing, and the kind of over-communication that strong project managers practice but organizations rarely build into their design.

This episode is not about strategy frameworks or planning methodologies. It's about recognizing that alignment should not feel like a meeting outcome, it should be how an organization operates. And why closing the gap between what leadership agrees to and what teams actually execute is one of the most underestimated levers in any organization.

Episode sound familiar? Reach out for a 30 min situation read so that we can look at your situation together. https://sigmalabconsulting.com/call

Learn more about us by visiting: https://sigmalabconsulting.com/

Order Predictably Broken Now! https://books2read.com/predictablybroken

Check out video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanByDesignPodcast

Want our thoughts on a specific topic? Looking to sponsor this podcast to continue to generate content? Or maybe you have an idea and want to be on our show. Fill out our Interest Form and share your thoughts.