Patient recruitment and up-front enrollment planning are critical to drug development programs. Patient recruitment, if not adequately planned for, can extend your development timeline by several years. Retention of patients throughout the life of a clinical trial is essential in order to have complete data sets for your analysis and subsequent filings. To optimize both, you must have a plan and effectively leverage analytics and technology without losing sight of the participant’s user experience. One must consider the needs of different patient populations, the importance of diversity, how to use digital tech, challenges of consent processes, direct-to-patient models, and many other factors.