About XLR8 - Bringing real-world learnings and experiences in Life Sciences
Hosted by Jalilah Gibson and Caz Hanrahan, Wavestone's XLR8 podcast series delves into answering your most common pain points and questions as you progress through your digital transformation journey in the pharma world.
We’ll be bringing you real-life stories and experiences from distinguished guests who have delivered customer and business value through the use of digital, starting by designing around the customer.
Find out more about Wavestone Life Sciences: https://www.wavestone.com/en/what-we-do/life-sciences-consulting/ (https://www.wavestone.com/en/what-we-do/life-sciences-consulting/)
Culture first, customer always: the hidden driver to great customer experience
Culture first, customer always: the hidden driver to great customer experience
16 Jul 2026
Global Pharma Tech Conference: AI in Life Sciences
Global Pharma Tech Conference: AI in Life Sciences
26 Feb 2026
Augmenting the voice of the patient
Join us as Michael George, a global leader in patient engagement, explores how amplifying the patient voice can transform healthcare and the life sciences sector. He outlines what meaningful engagement looks like and shares practical steps organisations can take to strengthen patient partnerships - showing why lived experience, long‑term thinking, and true collaboration are essential for a more human‑centred healthcare system.
26 Jan 2026
Beyond buzzwords: demystifying CX Management to unlock value
Join us as Florian Gäng shares how customer experience management is transforming the pharmaceutical sector, focusing on building shared understanding, pragmatic tools, and outcome-driven strategies. Discover practical insights on balancing customer and business value, fostering experimentation, and making customer-centricity a core part of organisational culture.
4 Dec 2025
Reflections on Reuters Customer Engagement Europe 2025
In this episode, we reflect on the topics covered during Reuters Pharma Customer Engagement Europe. We explore how organizations can humanize customer engagement by balancing global consistency with local flexibility, breaking down internal silos, and using data purposefully. Tune in to discover practical frameworks to help teams deliver empathetic, unified, and impactful customer experiences in a digital world.
30 Jul 2025
Building a customer-first omnichannel strategy
In this episode of the XLR8 podcast series we are joined by Muireann Byrne, Digital Engagement Manager at Viatris Ireland. We explore what it means to lead with a customer-first strategy and Muireann shares how she drove a local omnichannel transformation by putting customer vision, collaboration, and growth mindset at the core.
3 Jun 2025
Reflections on NEXT Pharma 2025
Jalilah Gibson and Caz Hanrahan reflect on the NEXT Pharma 2025 summit, exploring cross-functional collaboration and AI's impact on the pharmaceutical industry in this interview episode.
3 Apr 2025
Optichannel vs Omnichannel with Olena Shchepina
In this episode of the XLR8 podcast series we are joined by Olena Shchepina, European Digital Transformation Lead at Viatris. We explore the shift from omnichannel to optichannel and Olena shares her experiences and insights on strategies, KPIs and the future of personalized customer experiences.
22 Aug 2024
Patient Experience with Angela Blake
In this episode of the XLR8 podcast series we speak to Angela Blake on patient experience and engagement and how she has successfully built out patient support programmes that are based on patient and healthcare professional insights and leveraging new capabilities such as digital
27 Jun 2024
Digital Health with Nigel Brokenshire
This episode focuses on Digital Health where we hear from Nigel Brokenshire, Head of Digital Health in Bayer Pharma UK/I.
Nigel is enhancing the collaboration between Patients, NHS and Bayer Pharma to deliver solutions for better health and wellbeing of patients and the public. Before joining Bayer, Nigel worked across the NHS delivering large-scale digital programmes, with his recent roles seeing him as Digital Programme Director for two STPs (precursor to ICB).
In today’s session Nigel shares his insights on what to consider when embarking on a digital health initiative in your organisation.
11 Jun 2024
Omnichannel Readiness
In this our second episode of the XLR8 podcast series we share the key themes from the 2nd Omnichannel in Pharma conference which brought together industry experts to share their perspectives on delivering a connected experience for healthcare providers and patients. This follows on from our first podcast that looked at the power of digital to engage customers and insights on how to effectively deliver a Digital First customer engagement strategy.
Today we share the insights from the experts across 4 themes:
1. The importance of change management
2. Linking your omnichannel efforts to customer and business value
3. Improving digital fluency
4.The challenges in getting to a shared understanding of omnichannel
17 Apr 2024
Digital First with Andrew Peryer
In our first episode, Jalilah and Caz are joined by Andrew Peryer, former Head of Digital for Established Medicines at Kyowa Kirin. Andrew is a highly experienced senior leader with a demonstrated history of working in pharma marketing and business development. He’s passionate about applying technology, customer-first thinking and data to healthcare problems through collaborative network models.
In this episode, Andrew will explore:
Embracing a customer-first mindset
Transitioning from a product provider for your customer to a trusted partner
Understanding how experiences beyond our industry shape customer expectations
Overcoming challenges in reshaping your go-to-market strategy
Implementing an iterative approach in your digital transformation
Strategic prioritisation and investment strategies for success
Listen to the full episode to accelerate your digital journey from theory to delivery.
If you have any questions/or comments feel free to reach out to Jalilah or Caz via their LinkedIn here:
Jalilah (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalilah/)
Caz (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-caz-hanrahan-27455122/)
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