Case study · Skin Analytics · Leadership ready for a scale-up after a raise
Skin Analytics prepared their managers and leaders for a hiring wave following a new round of funding. In the process, they increased their Manager Approval Score by 268%.
Skin Analytics prepared their managers and leaders for a hiring wave following a new round of funding. In the process, they increased their Manager Approval Score by 268%.Increase in Manager Approval Score
Scored by each manager's own team in a 360, on how well they are led. Skin Analytics' Manager Approval Score climbed from 25 to 92.
26
managers and leaders developed together, from the CEO and founder to first-time managers
9.4/10
how the cohort rated their Performance Partners, with 3 of the 4 workshops scored 9 or higher
One room
clinical, regulatory, engineering and commercial leaders, developing together
Executive Summary
- Sector
- Health technology / AI medical device
- Buyer
- People and HR leadership
The Brief
Skin Analytics had just raised funding, and a significant hiring phase was on its way. The company wanted its managers and leaders, the people who would carry that growth, ready to lead well from the first new hire, rather than learning to manage under the pressure of scaling.
The Outcome
A focused programme for every manager and leader at Skin Analytics, from the CEO and founder to first-time managers, spanning clinical, regulatory, engineering and commercial teams. The cohort rated their Performance Partners 9.4 out of 10, and the proof landed where it counts: scored by their own teams in a 360, Skin Analytics' Manager Approval Score increased by 268%.
From the leadership
We had just raised, and we knew a significant period of hiring was ahead of us. Our managers are brilliant at what they do, clinical, technical and commercial, but many of them were about to lead at a scale they had not led at before. We did not want them learning to manage under the pressure of that growth. We wanted them ready first.
Bringing our whole leadership team together, from our founder to our newest managers, and getting them ready before the growth arrived was one of the best decisions we made. Our own teams have told us the difference it made.”
Amie Grice
Head of HR, Skin Analytics
01 / The trigger
Skin Analytics readied its leaders for the hiring wave that new funding would bring.
Skin Analytics is a UK health-technology company whose AI, DERM, helps detect skin cancer early and is used across NHS dermatology services. Having raised new funding, the company could see a significant hiring phase ahead: more people, more teams, and a layer of managers who would soon be leading at a scale they had not led at before. Rather than wait for the growth to test them, Skin Analytics decided to get its leaders ready first.
The choice Skin Analytics made
Most companies develop their managers once the strain of scaling shows. Skin Analytics did the opposite: it raised the leadership early and held it high, so the managers were ready before the hiring wave arrived.
Where Skin Analytics stood
01
Freshly funded
New investment in, and the growth it was raised for about to begin
02
A hiring wave coming
More people and more teams arriving across the months ahead
03
Experts becoming leaders
Clinical, engineering and commercial specialists taking on bigger teams
04
Regulated and high-stakes
A medical-device business where how teams are led has real consequences
The people who would carry the growth were not career managers. They were the experts who had built Skin Analytics: clinical and regulatory specialists, AI and software engineers, and the commercial and operations leads taking the company's technology into the NHS. Each was about to take on more people, and the company wanted them leading well from the first new hire, not working it out as the headcount climbed.
Skin Analytics also understood what was at stake in how those teams were led. This is a regulated medical-device business, where the quality of clinical, engineering and regulatory work has real consequences for patients. Managers who can set direction, coach their people and hold standards under pressure are not a nice-to-have here. They are part of how the company keeps its bar high while it grows.
So the brief was about timing as much as content. Get the managers and leaders ready ahead of the hiring wave, so that when the new people arrived, the managers receiving them already knew how to bring them in, set them up and lead them well.
02 / Getting ready
One programme for every manager and leader, built on the real challenges that growth would bring.
The programme started from where Skin Analytics' managers actually stood. Every participant completed a Manager Strength Index, a situational-judgement diagnostic that scores each manager against the behaviours of good management and surfaces their individual strengths and development focus, so the work met real needs rather than assumed ones. From there it ran as a focused series of workshops across the whole leadership team, each one on a discipline the company knew its growth would demand.
How the programme ran
01
Measured, not assumed
A Manager Strength Index across the cohort set the agenda. The areas the programme worked on, from managing performance to coaching and delegation, were the ones the cohort's own diagnostic surfaced, not topics chosen for them. Their teams then scored them in a 360, so the change could be measured by the people being led.
02
An embedded partner
A 10X Performance Partner worked with the cohort across the programme, known across Skin Analytics and reachable between the workshops, rather than turning up to deliver and leaving.
03
On the real step-up
The workshops worked the situations these managers were about to face at scale: managing performance, coaching and delegating, influencing across the business, and leading change.
03 / Every discipline
Clinical, regulatory, engineering and commercial leaders, learning to lead together.
What made the room work was its range. Skin Analytics put its whole leadership surface through the programme together: the CEO and founder, directors of clinical, commercial, technology, product and regulatory affairs, the leads taking DERM into the NHS, and the engineers and specialists stepping into management for the first time. In a company where a clinical-safety decision, a regulatory submission and a piece of AI engineering all have to move as one, having those leaders learn from each other, in the same room, is the point, not a side effect. In each workshop they brought the real challenges they were facing as the company grew, from delegating as teams expanded to leading through change, and worked them through with peers from other functions, so as much of the learning came from the room as from the front of it.
Who was in the room
Twenty-six leaders, across every discipline of an AI medical-device company.
Clinical & Medical
Regulatory & Quality
Engineering & AI
Product & Operations
Commercial & NHS
Finance, People & Exec
26 leaders, one room
Every participant in the programme, grouped by the part of Skin Analytics they lead. Twenty-six leaders, from the founder to first-time managers, developing side by side.
04 / What changed
The proof is not what Skin Analytics' managers said. It is what their teams said.
At the start of the programme, each manager's team scored them in a 360 on how well they were led. By the close, scored again by those same teams, Skin Analytics' Manager Approval Score had climbed to 92, near the top of a scale that runs to 100. The people being led reported being led well, by managers who were ready before the growth arrived.
Manager Approval Score, scored by each team in a 360
Each manager's own team scored how well they are led, at the start of the programme and again at the close. On a net scale that runs to 100, Skin Analytics' Manager Approval Score climbed from 25 to 92, a rise of 268%.
And the cohort backed it up
9.4/10
how Skin Analytics' managers rated their Performance Partners across the programme, with 3 of the 4 workshops scored 9 out of 10 or higher.
What the cohort took into the scale-up
01
Managing performance and behaviour
Moving from avoiding the harder conversations to owning them, and setting clear standards early, so they hold as teams grow.
02
Coaching, not just doing
Developing their people rather than absorbing the work themselves, the shift every expert has to make when their team gets bigger.
03
Influence across the business
Leading beyond their own function and managing up, so clinical, engineering and commercial priorities move together.
04
Leading through change
Taking their teams through the constant change a fast-growing, regulated company brings, without losing the bar.
Why get ready first
By the time the hiring started, the managers were already stronger leaders.
Skin Analytics did not wait for scale to expose where its leadership needed to be stronger. It got ahead of the hiring wave, measured where its managers stood, and developed them the way a Performance Partnership runs: an embedded partner, the work grounded in a diagnostic and scored by the teams themselves, and the focus kept on the real situations these leaders were about to face. That is what changes when you develop the leaders first, and the growth meets a team that is already ready.
05 / Start here
If you have just raised and the hiring is about to begin, the moment to get your managers ready is before the new people arrive, not once the teams are already under strain. Skin Analytics got ahead of it.
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