Endoluminal Robotics Stakeholder Needs Mapping
I conducted early-stage foundational research on navigational bronchoscopy platforms, developing a comprehensive understanding of the procedure and setting the stage for medical device development.
Project Info
Client: A Major Medical Device Manufacturer
Time: 2020, 9 Months
Role: Project Lead, Principal Investigator
Project Overview
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The project commenced with a kickoff workshop where I led a core client team comprised of engineering, design, and marketing stakeholders through a series of activities to clarify objectives, build alignment, and identify knowledge gaps to address through our research.
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With a good sense of the learning objectives and client expectations, I developed a study plan and moderators guide for the interviews and worked with a trusted recruiting partner to identify hospital sites for inclusion in the study.
We identified a total of fifteen hospitals and interviewed lead users and their support staff experienced with the procedure. In some cases, we were also able to have the staff provide us with webcam-enabled walkthroughs of navigational planning, system setup, and other aspects of the procedure where the patient wasn’t present.
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Through the process of language analysis and theme identification, we reviewed our research data and developed a stakeholder needs map framework. This asset provided a comprehensive and organized documentation of user needs which would later be used to drive concept development. We also delivered a series of key insights, and opportunity areas for the client to drive innovation.
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The project concluded with a presentation of findings to an extended project team including the head of lung health. Here in my presentation, I highlighted a set of the most relevant and impactful insights, supported with imagery and quotes to not only bring the findings to life, but to underscore the experiential gaps and areas for improvement.
Key Takeaways
Highlighting the Need to Delight Users
Our client’s organization was engineering driven and very good at solving technical problems, but in the face of emergent competition were seeing their market share erode. By including both customers and non-customers in the research and maintaining a focus on user needs and the identification of pain points, we were able to highlight the importance of considering the end to end experience of using their offerings.
Honoring the Procedural Choreography
Through discussions with nurses and respiratory therapists we came to realize that good surgical teams move through a procedure as a unit and seamlessly flow from one phase of a procedure to the next. Navigational platforms that are predictable and can, in a sense “go with the flow” are easier to accommodate and work with.
Challenges
Engaging at a Distance
The biggest challenges with this engagement were access and budget. Ideally, I would have liked to conduct a series of contextual inquiries at hospitals across the US, to observe surgical teams use their equipment and document procedures from start to finish. We made up for this by conducting a series of virtual enactments with hospital staff. This helped us understand workflows and use environments where we were not able to get on-site.