Seeking user feedback is an important step in the product development process, yet it is one that is often missing from clinical trial technology development.
Having spoken to many different pharma technology vendors the reasons for this are often the same:
- It takes too long. Timelines are always tight so adding weeks to conduct and then respond to user research would threaten project deadlines
- Fear of rejection. Prototyping is not common, so products can only be demonstrated once they are built, which means it’s too late to address problems
Additionally, when products are ‘demonstrated’ it is typically through user focus groups, where participants are given tea and biscuits and shown the product but not actually able to interact with it - to play with it to find out what works and what doesn’t - so you can obtain good quality data to work with.
Prototyping can provide the solution to these problems.
By creating prototypes early in the development process, users can interact with a solution that appears real. We conduct 1:1 user testing, putting the phone or laptop into the hands of the participant with something that looks and feels like a real piece of software so we can observe them using the product in real-life.
This provides high value feedback on what they like/don’t like, how they interact with the product, what works and what does not. We also find people are more honest when it’s 1-on-1 and no one else is listening in!
So why aren’t more product teams prototyping?
By prototyping in the design phase product teams can gain valuable feedback and then iterate much easier. But the reality is that in-house product development teams often don’t have the skills needed for high quality prototyping and resources are tight so other areas of experience are prioritised. This is one of the key areas where nuom can help through our product-team-for-hire solution.
There is a misconception that prototyping takes too long. There is intense pressure from the business to get the product built, get it out in the market, and get sales in the bag. Traditional prototyping can take a long time, so it is easy to see it as an obstruction to success rather than an enabler.
However, there are ways to do it a lot quicker. One of the things we do often is the two-week prototype, using our design methodology and prototyping solution ‘Pace’. This allows teams create high quality prototypes quickly so we can validate ideas, identify stumbling blocks and get the concepts changed quickly based on real user feedback.
“Prior to working with nuom we would take a requirement, spend a lot of time and resource building it, including a level of validation, only to realise it’s not what we wanted.”
Gavin Birchnall, BD Solutions Consultant, Exco InTouch
Unfortunately, all too often PharmaTech assume they understand what end-users need, how they will interact with a piece of software, and what they expect from such an experience so user testing is either shelved, or conducted at a high level late on in the development process when it’s hard to make meaningful changes.
Taking an analogy from my recent travels – who invented the metal teapot, and why do so many hotels use them? I think I can answer that, because metal teapots are probably very robust, they don’t break, and they are easy to put in an industrial dishwasher so great for the hotel procurement team. I’m sure they also give great quality tea for the recipient, but they are also astonishingly impractical on the breakfast table as they are scoldingly hot, certainly the body often even the handle should you wish to pour the tea before it is lukewarm. Not a good user experience!
Industry is trying to make participating in clinical trials easier for patients, and there are buzzwords like patient-centricity and patient engagement being banded around but it often feels like the patient’s experience comes secondary to more functional requirements. By making it possible to build ‘true to life’ prototypes within 2-3 weeks and then test with end-users in just a couple of days we help overcome the fear of user feedback by ensuring it is provided early in the development process when it is possible to do something about it!
