Women in science - Alison O'Neill at YPrime on thinking out loud and collaborating
She brings her global experience across multiple therapeutic areas to her current role leading operations at YPrime. In this position, Alison oversees project management and all teams responsible for the quality of project delivery - she ensures the excellence of services provided to sponsors, sites, and patients.
Could you give us an overview of your work?
As the chief operating officer of YPrime, my job is to lead the teams that deliver projects for our customers. We have two platforms, an eCOA platform and an IRT platform. And once we are awarded a project by a customer – usually a sponsor or CRO - my team handles the project delivery. We configure the system for the particular protocol requirements. We launch that system. We then work through the maintenance phase, liaising with the sponsor team to ensure that the system continues to meet their expectations and to make sure it's functioning appropriately and that they receive any support, data, reports, etcetera that they need.
A lot of the people who report through me are project managers, but in addition, we have support services which include our customer-facing help desk, data management, and data services. There are more than 200 people on the operations team. We provide global coverage. There isn't anywhere you can't use our eCOA or IRT product. We have staff supporting them round the clock based predominantly in the US and the UK.
We also work with a group of people who manage warehouses for us because we also provide devices for our eCOA projects for our sites and patients to use. Some prefer not to use provisioned devices and instead employ a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) method, using their own handhelds.
When did you realize you were interested in science - as a young child, teen, or older?
I don't think I ever realized I was NOT interested in science. If you like, it's in my genes. My father was a research chemist who, for most of his working life, conducted research into novel antibacterials and antivirals. My mother is a pharmacist who ran her own business.
Science was always what I was going to do. I started my professional life as a bench chemist and worked for a large pharmaceutical company. I realized pretty quickly that whilst I enjoyed that at the time, I didn't feel scientific enough to make chemistry my whole career, so I looked to find alternative careers in the pharmaceutical industry and the one I fell into happened to be clinical research.
So, I suppose you could say I ended up in clinical research by accident because of my scientific background. I've progressed through the ranks from being a CRA to a project manager to running operations groups and ultimately to being the Chief Operating Officer of a software delivery company.
Could you describe your personal journey bringing us to where you are now?
Some people with careers in clinical research are here because they have had big moments in their lives, such as a personal experience with a disease or the loss of a loved one, that made them stop and think, 'this is what I’m meant to do'. My experience, however, was more of a natural progression. And while I am in a leadership position today, I don't consider myself ambitious.
Everybody makes their own opportunities, but I don’t remember sitting down and thinking, 'where do I want to be in three years or five years or 10 years?' I have had several situations where people many decades younger than me have come to me and said, 'Ali, how can you help? How can I get to where you are?' And I find that really difficult because I never had such a plan myself. I never sat down and thought, 'what do I need to do to get to where I want to go?' So, it's quite thought-provoking for me when people ask me this. I always tell them to make sure they do not ignore or dismiss any opportunities presented to them.
That said, I’ve always strived to do my best in every role and to try to understand the wider picture, which undoubtedly has led to me taking a great deal of interest in my managers’ challenges and activities – I guess that has set me up as a natural successor for their roles.
What challenges did you face - as a woman or otherwise - along the way and what is the most valuable lesson you have learned?
The first thing to say is that I don't believe that my challenges were because I'm female. Let’s look at my background. I was brought up in the UK and lived there until 20 years ago. The head of state was female, and for much of my life, the Prime Minister of the UK was a powerful woman.
My mother was a scientist who ran her own business. I was not brought up to think that being a woman puts you at a disadvantage—probably the other way around.
However, I can certainly speak to valuable lessons learned. One important lesson is to keep a very open mind and develop the art of being curious. Make sure you listen to every side of every story and learn from the people you work with. Even if you don't like something about them or the way they work, you can learn from them. You can learn what you don't want to be like. You can learn how you don't want to interact with people or portray yourself. Don't dismiss anything as a learning opportunity.
Another valuable lesson I learned early in my management career was that I was a better leader when I couldn't do my team member's job. With roles I knew well, I'd just say, 'do this,' and they'd say, 'hey, thanks Ali,' and do it. But when the same issue arose later, they'd be back asking again because I hadn't taught them the why or how. Contrast that with managing, say, a biostatistician. I'd have to ask them to walk me through options and pros and cons. We'd decide together, and they'd learn about decision-making. I ultimately applied this approach even when I knew the job and the next course of action. This meant I sometimes had to pinch my leg or bite my tongue to keep from blurting out, but the team member would learn!
What ignites your passion in your current role?
What I'm passionate about isn't specific to my current role - it's something I've been keen on throughout my career. I'm genuinely enthusiastic about mentoring, developing, and training people. Whether it's someone on my team or someone seeking guidance, I take great pleasure in supporting their growth. There's nothing more rewarding than watching people progress in their roles, especially those I've worked with early in their careers. Seeing them take on more senior positions and truly come into their own - that's what really motivates me.
What is your current work ethos or style?
I don't know whether I'm the best person to answer that or whether you should ask the people who report to me or have reported to me in the past! I would like to say I'm collaborative. Whether you report to me, whether I report to you or whether you are one of my peers, I'm collaborative. I like to think out loud and brainstorm, and I believe that if you get the right people together, you can always solve an issue. There's no issue in our professional lives that can't be solved just by talking to the right people, getting the right experience in the room, on the phone, on video calls, or whatever it is. With true brainstorming, you ignore whether or not something is actually possible. You ignore today's reality and you work through what could be in an ideal world. And that, I think, is where the best solutions come from.
Could you share some advice for young women starting to develop an interest in science or wanting to pursue a career like yours?
My advice is for anyone interested in science, not just women. Do what really interests you – don’t do what other people think you should do if it doesn’t inspire you. Stay curious and open to all sorts of opportunities. I'd strongly recommend getting hands-on experience or shadowing someone in a role that’s intriguing to you. Schools are quite helpful with this today. You know, sometimes work experience is just as useful for figuring out what you don't want as what you do. Pursue what you enjoy, be open and flexible, and the right experiences will come to you!
