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Roadmap to Success...Does Your Design Need a Second Opinion?
Posted in Surgeon as Entrepreneur | Mar 2011 | Comments (0)
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When and how to get constructive feedback throughout the development process
Many of the most significant medical device innovations come from physician inventors. You are on the front lines, utilizing medical devices on a daily basis. You are acutely aware of the pain and frustrations associated with certain products and procedures, and thus have great perspective on which unmet needs present the greatest opportunities.
This unique insight can lead to breakthrough solutions; however, a surgeon’s intimate knowledge of the product space can also lead to a bias that he understands the problem better than anyone else. This can limit the true potential of the design. In a rush to create a solution, physicians can continue straight through the product development process without seeking any outside input. As a result, the product may do an excellent job of satisfying the basic need, but may fail to thrive in the marketplace because it is missing some of the refinement necessary to appeal to the greater population of users.
One effective way to keep these biases in check is to seek out other sources of input by incorporating User-Centered Design (UCD) practices into the product development process. UCD is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants and limitations of end users of a product are given special attention at each stage of the design process. The major difference from other product design philosophies is that UCD tries to optimize the product around how users can, want or need to use the product, rather than forcing the users to change behavior to accommodate the product. In simple terms, this process promotes putting products in front of real users in order to understand what they like, dislike and find frustrating, so that this feedback can be incorporated into the design process to make products more user friendly.
Understanding the way in which users interact with a product is arguably more important in the medical device industry than in any other field. For medical products, the ability of a device to safely perform its intended function is highly dependent upon the medical professional’s interaction with the device. Input from users will improve the ergonomics, intuitiveness, speed and ease of use of the device, which will in turn positively impact its repeatability, efficacy and surgeon acceptance and may ultimately dictate the success of the product.
Incorporating user feedback is very common among consumer product companies, and a high percentage of their products go through some sort of pre-launch user evaluation. However, independent entrepreneurs often fail to seek external feedback. Medical device design certainly poses some valid challenges in collecting real user feedback: highly specialized user groups, sensitive intellectual property, highly specialized procedures, FDA requirements, etc. With the proper planning and the right partners, however, surgeon inventors can take advantage of this valuable input to make highly significant tweaks to designs prior to launch and can yield a much more desirable product for intended consumers.