Paul​ Granby

What’s the most rewarding part of your role?

The most rewarding part of the job is knowing that our work shapes real-world decisions and ultimately helps medicines reach the patients who need them. Whether it’s helping a client navigate a complex evidence base or turning fragmented data into something usable, it’s satisfying to see our insights bring strategic clarity. When an acquisition is made or a drug gets regulatory approval, it’s not just a professional win. It’s a reminder of the stakes and the impact we can have, and so it’s very motivating.

What excites you most about the direction of VISFO right now?

I’m excited by how VISFO is embracing AI and automation, not to replace what people do best but to enhance and accelerate it. We’re finding smarter ways to scale our thinking, handle complexity, and surface insight faster than ever. It feels like we’re stepping into a new era of scientific decision-making, where technology helps us learn from the evidence at the speed decisions need to be made.

If you had to explain what you do to a 10-year-old, how would you describe it?

I help doctors and scientists make sense of really complicated stuff so they can make better decisions, faster. That might mean looking through loads of studies, spotting important patterns, or helping them ask the right question in the first place. I use big libraries of science and clever tools to find the best answers. It’s somewhere between Alfred and Lucius Fox.

What’s your go-to approach when solving a difficult problem?

I keep a big stack of blank postcards to hand and they’re my go-to tool for breaking the problem down. They’re small enough to keep things focused but flexible enough to hold complex or messy information. I jot down anything that might be relevant: questions, risks, dependencies, things that don’t quite make sense yet. Once I’ve got enough, I put them on a magnetic board so I can move them around and test how the pieces relate to each other. This helps me see gaps, overlaps, and points of pressure more clearly. It’s especially useful when a project has a lot of unknowns or when the scope is changing. Being able to physically rearrange the cards lets me adjust my thinking without losing track of the bigger picture. It’s a simple way to manage complexity and move the problem toward something actionable.