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Event Columbus Startup Week starts on May 5, 2026, 8:00:00 AM (America/New_York)
Innovation vs. Adoption: Designing for a System That Needs to Keep Up
Healthcare Innovation Startup Support
Location: Meridian - 5/7/26, 9:00 AM - 5/7/26, 9:45 AM (America/New_York) (45 minutes)
Innovation vs. Adoption: Designing for a System That Needs to Keep Up
Leah McDougald
Managing Director at ZoCo Design, LLC
Leah McDougald
Managing Director at ZoCo Design, LLC

I’m a strategic design leader with a deep belief that clarity drives change. For over 20 years, I’ve helped organizations solve messy, high-stakes challenges through a blend of design research, behavioral science, and systems thinking.

Today, I serve as Managing Director at ZoCo Design, where I lead growth strategy and healthcare innovation. I work at the intersection of insight, design, and business development, helping organizations unlock new market opportunities and deliver better, more human digital experiences.

Previously, I founded and led McDougald Research, a boutique research firm known for delivering measurable outcomes across healthcare, financial services, tech, and consumer goods. From uncovering hidden patient barriers to designing scalable service models, my work has always been about aligning human needs with strategic action.

At ZoCo, I’m building on that legacy by shaping our go-to-market strategy, expanding our national presence in healthtech, and partnering with teams to apply human-centered strategy alongside the latest design and research approaches.

What I’m known for:

Turning qualitative insight into organizational clarity and product acceleration
Leading multi-disciplinary teams through research, strategy, and execution
Navigating complexity in healthcare and other highly regulated spaces
Building trust with stakeholders, from C-suite to implementation teams
Contributing thought leadership on the future of UX and healthcare innovation


As innovation in healthcare accelerates—driven by AI, digital platforms, and new care models—a critical gap is emerging between what can be built and what can actually be adopted.

This panel explores how organizations—from startups to large enterprises—can design and position innovation with real-world system readiness in mind. We’ll examine the misalignment between innovation velocity and healthcare system capacity, and discuss how to better account for operational realities, stakeholder complexity, and adoption barriers across health systems.

The conversation will challenge attendees to think beyond what to build and instead focus on what will solve a need and what can succeed within the constraints of today’s healthcare ecosystem.