Kernel Support for Managers

Help your MSLs write effective insights, find strategic opportunities and more.

• Helping MSLs write effective insights

• Analyzing your insights

• Editing your insights

• Creating a team

• Creating reports

• Best practices for creating reports

• Creating personal dashboards

• Using survey questions

• Best practices for writing survey questions

• Identifying potential data gaps

• Validating your medical strategy

• Best practices for tagging insights

• Configuring Kernel for your team

How can I help my MSLs write effective insights?

Sometimes, MSLs are unsure about how to write effective insights. At other times, MSLs may feel their insights go into “a black hole,” where they are asked to submit insights but never receive any feedback. 

We offer these recommendations:

1. Give your team regular feedback. Provide regular feedback to your MSLs on what makes insights effective. Use the CART approach: make sure the insight is Clear, Actionable, Relevant and Timely.

2. Share examples of effective insights. During weekly meetings, share examples of effective insights with your team. Highlight these insights in your reports and include the name of the MSL. Feature insights from a different MSL every month so everyone feels included in the process.

3. Involve MSLs in the reporting process. If you include your MSLs in the reporting process, they will learn what makes an effective insight and why insights matter. This will improve the quality of your team's insights.

4. Share updates with your team. Share the potential actions and outcomes from insights with your MSLs at team meetings. If useful, you can also share the discussion points and feedback from your stakeholders.

5. Record actions and outcomes in Kernel. After sharing reports with your stakeholders, you may learn of potential actions and outcomes. Record these outcomes in Kernel for future reference.

Another idea: plan an insights workshop to introduce new skills and techniques. View our workshop template.

How do I analyze our insights?

To analyze your insights and identify strategic opportunities, here are recommendations:

1. Review Free-text Trends. Click Reports, select Free-text Trends and scroll down to the Top Tags report. Enter a tag (or multiple tags) to create shortlists of insights. Try different combinations (for example, “docetaxel” AND “carboplatin,” “docetaxel” OR “chemotherapy”). 

2. Search for high-impact keywords. Search for high-impact keywords that may indicate potential strategic opportunities. For example, “concern,” “difference,” “ISR/ISS/IST,” “patients,” “prefer,” “research” or “study.”

3. Review your Emerging Tags. Click Reports, select Free-text Trends and and scroll down to the Emerging Tags report. Click the tags marked “NEW” to create shortlists of insights. 

In the Top Tags and Emerging Tags reports, you can also use sentiment analysis. Click “Breakdown” and select “By Sentiment” to filter your insights by Positive, Neutral or Negative sentiment. View the associated keywords and insights to uncover themes. 

How can I edit insights?

For managers with admin privileges, there are two options: 1) you may edit the insight directly, or 2) you may convert the insight to a draft and ask your MSL to edit and re-submit. Here are steps:

To edit insights directly

1. Go to the Home page, select an Initiative and scroll down to view free-text insights

2. Once you’ve found the insight you’d like to edit, click on the insight

3. Under the insight text, click the blue “Edit” option

4. Make your edits and click “Save”

See example below.

To convert insights to a draft and ask your MSL to edit and re-submit

1. Go to Reports, select Team Activity and scroll down to view free-text insights

2. Once you’ve found the insight you’d like to edit, click on the insight

3. In the upper right corner, click “Convert to Draft”

4. Click the button to “Convert to draft and send to the creator to edit”

5. Optional: add a message with instructions for your MSL (for example, “Please revise this insight and re-submit. Thank you!”)

6. Click “OK”

This will convert the insight to a draft and send an email notification to your MSL. See example below.

Need more help? Watch this video.

How can I edit insights?

For managers with admin privileges, there are two options: 1) you may edit the insight directly, or 2) you may convert the insight to a draft and ask your MSL to edit and re-submit. Here are steps:

To edit insights directly

1. Go to the Home page, select an Initiative and scroll down to view free-text insights

2. Once you’ve found the insight you’d like to edit, click on the insight

3. Under the insight text, click the blue “Edit” option

4. Make your edits and click “Save”

See example below.

To convert insights to a draft and ask your MSL to edit and re-submit

1. Go to Reports, select Team Activity and scroll down to view free-text insights

2. Once you’ve found the insight you’d like to edit, click on the insight

3. In the upper right corner, click “Convert to Draft”

4. Click the button to “Convert to draft and send to the creator to edit”

5. Optional: add a message with instructions for your MSL (for example, “Please revise this insight and re-submit. Thank you!”)

6. Click “OK”

This will convert the insight to a draft and send an email notification to your MSL. See example below.

Need more help? Watch this video.

How do I create a team in Kernel?

To create, delete or rename a team, visit the Team Admin section. 

Teams are typically based on a disease area, geographic region, or both (for example, “US Oncology” or “EU Sleep”).

How do I create reports?

We offer these standard reports:

1. Team Activity displays activity metrics for your team (number of interactions, insights, survey responses and time spent). 

2. My Activity shows activity metrics for an MSL (number of interactions, insights, survey responses and time spent). 

3. Insights Summary displays the number of insights by initiative over time.

4. Free-text Trends shows your Top Tags and Emerging Tags over time.

Filter your reports by Team, MSLs, Contacts and more by clicking “Filters” at top of the home page. 

To download a report in PPT, Word or other formats, click “Custom Reports,” select a report and click “Export.”

You can also create custom reports. Watch this video.

Questions? Ask your Kernel representative or email support@gokernel.com.

What are best practices for creating reports?

We recommend focusing your reports on potential strategic opportunities:

• Create customized reports for each of your stakeholders 

  • Commercial, Clinical Development, etc

  • Customize for each stakeholder's needs and priorities

  • Include data and insights to support your recommendations

• Share your reports on a monthly or quarterly basis

• Record any outcomes from insights reports in Kernel

• Ask for feedback so your reports can evolve as your stakeholders' needs evolve

See an example.

How do I create a personal dashboard? 

Watch this video.

Questions? Ask your Kernel representative or email support@gokernel.com.

When should I use survey questions?

Surveys let your MSLs quickly select answers based on feedback from HCPs. Use surveys when you're aware of some (but not all) potential answers and want to:

• View breakdowns of answers by HCP role, Institution type, etc

• Compare answers to previous time periods

• Minimize the burden on your MSLs

Kernel supports these features:

• Up to 10 answers 

• Single choice so your MSLs can select only one answer

• Multiple choice to select multiple answers

• Open ended to enter a free-form text response

• "Other" to contribute a free-form answer

• "More Details" to explain the "why" behind the HCP's answer

What are best practices for writing survey questions?

Define your objectives. Identify knowledge gaps in your Medical Strategy and the decisions that need to be made to focus your surveys. Solicit input from your internal stakeholders to understand and incorporate their needs.

Check for bias. Once you've defined your objectives, determine the data that needs to be collected to make decisions. The structure of your questions will be reflected in your reports.

Ask for feedback. Try not to ask leading questions or phrase questions in a way that limits the type of HCPs who could share insights. Share your survey questions with colleagues and ask their feedback. They will help to make sure your questions and answer choices are clear and effective.

Reassess quarterly. Revisit your Initiatives and Surveys every quarter to make sure they're still relevant and timely.

How do I identify potential data gaps?

Write a survey question to identify the data gap. Example:

• Are HCPs aware of the latest study data for our product?

  • Yes

  • No

  • Unsure

• If yes, do HCPs have concerns about the study data?

  • Yes

  • No

  • Unsure

• If yes, what additional data would they like to see?

  • Additional cut of existing data

  • Longitudinal studies

  • Real-world evidence

  • Other (write-in text field)

See example:

How can I validate our medical strategy?

Write a survey question to test your assumptions. Example:

• Which stages of disease would HCP consider treating with product X?

  • Onset

  • Stages 1 to 3

  • Stages 2 to 3

  • Maintenance care

See example:

If your product is only indicated for stages 3 and 4 of disease but HCPs are willing to treat at stage 2, this may represent an expanded label opportunity.

Remember to make sure your N is sufficient to draw accurate conclusions.

 What are best practices for tagging insights?

See these guidelines.

How do I configure Kernel for my team?

To configure Kernel for your team, click your initial in the upper right corner and select “Configuration.” Scroll down to view your options.

To make entering a State or Province during the insights workflow “Required” or “Optional,” click the down arrow.

To make your Surveys, Insights, Time Spent, Interaction Type, Activity Type and Reason for Meeting settings “Optional” or “Hidden,” click the down arrow.

To set a maximum number of characters for the More Details, Other answers, Open-ended survey questions or Insights fields, enter your desired number of characters.

To customize the labels used in Kernel, enter your desired term in the text field.


Click the “X” in upper left corner to save your changes.