If you have worked in the MedTech business or even in Pharma for a few years, you’ve probably heard some variations of this common mindset:
“The user will benefit greatly from this technology that a good enough product will be okay. There is no need to investigate customer’s need further.”
“The patient would die if they are not using our product, so the user will not consider how the product looks.”
“These stakeholders (nurses, scrub techs, sterile processing technicians, etc.) are not so influential; therefore, their needs will be satisfied by this basic design.”
“In the next generation of our product, we do not need to develop a new design because our current product’s aesthetics and perceived quality are considered okay. Actually, nobody complains about it.”
Does this sound familiar? Let’s see how this common mindset has affected medical devices.
A necessary mindset shift
Times are changing but 95% of European medical device companies are small or medium-sized, and most have a solid technical background. For this reason, a culture where the benefits generated by good design are minimized is still quite common.
Unfortunately, this common mindset can produce not only ugly devices but products that are difficult to use, non-intuitive and have poor user interfaces. Our “customers” deserve better than working medical devices with acceptable design and usability. And as already explained in this post, I consider the term “customers” in the most extensive way.
As an example in the consumer market, many companies, especially, Apple, started to create products that delight users years ago. This approach makes the users extremely satisfied and remarkably loyal and transforms them into promoters of the brand.
Companies like Apple are more profitable than companies that only design products that work because their customers are willing to pay a premium price and are not prone to switch to other brands.
In today’s MedTech market, a good product is insufficient. And if your company still thinks this way, it will lose market share and the opportunity to thrive in the long run.
Why is good design important in MedTech products?
When developing a new medical device, the value created can be clinical, economical and emotional, or psychological.
Creating surgical devices and tools that produce higher customer satisfaction or even customer delight can decrease the overall stress in the OR, reduce downtime, minimize the total surgical time, and increase the likelihood of a successful surgery.
Medical devices developed in this way will produce value in three dimensions: clinical, economic, and psychological.
Similarly, considering the devices directly used by the patient, such as insulin pens, glucometers, wheelchairs, walkers, canes, etc., companies have the opportunity to transform a “difficult” moment into a more peaceful and pleasant experience through a well-developed design and a better customer experience.
For devices used in non-institutional settings, creating emotional or psychological value through a better user experience can win the support of the patient in the device’s choice.
For example, insulin pens have changed the lives of millions of diabetic patients and are now the most widespread way of administering insulin.
They are safe, simple to use, convenient, and less painful than conventional vials and syringes. Pens deliver value thanks to improved adherence and glycemic outcomes, optimized delivery, and reduced errors.
Moreover, insulin pens have significantly improved patients’ quality of life, promoting acceptance among the patients. New valuable features included in the more recent smart pens may further improve patients’ quality of life, opening a new era for these medical devices.
Good design is possible
In other industries developing products less “critical” than MedTech, there are examples of companies that have been able to create very well-designed products and make them a competitive advantage.
For instance, Dyson changed the vacuum cleaner market by combining new technology and a sophisticated design, supporting a substantial premium price and making cleaning a refined experience.
I’ll give you another example:
Harley Davidson in the ’80s was able to differentiate their motorbikes not only on the classical engine power, etc. but also by creating valuable secondary benefits like the rebel image and the iconic status.
The brand and its emblematic design style were applied to a vast range of apparel, and the customers were willing to enthusiastically pay a premium price over similarly equipped competitors’ motorbikes.
A more recent example is the modern electric toothbrushes Oral B developed that combine new movement technologies and a head brush to deliver a “professional clean feeling.” Some other useful features it has include a pressure sensor, interactive display, personalization, and even an interactive app to coach the user.
The daily teeth brushing experience compared to an old manual toothbrush is entirely different and reflects what the user is willing to pay.
In essence, designers and marketers can create products that people love. So it is essential to seize on the opportunity to turn, for example, a repetitive experience into a delightful new adventure.
How to develop MedTech products that delight “customers”?
Understanding the user is a prerequisite to developing products that will delight the user, and consequently, he/she will fall in love with them. To understand the customer’s needs and wants, it is necessary to perform an extensive deep VOC (voice of the customer) study.
Customer interviews, focus groups, customer surveys, ethnography, contextual inquiry, customer complaints, and other methods are useful for collecting customer needs and wants. Combining several methodologies will also be very helpful because most are complementary.
Unfortunately, it’s necessary to spend a lot of time listening and learning from the customers, and the process is rarely straightforward. Besides, listening to the VOC requires some remarkable skills in order to correctly apply the founding principles, ask the right questions and translate the inputs into well-defined user requirements.
A fundamental part of new medical device development is collecting customer needs and wants and translating these into design inputs that the design team can adequately address.
This process often broadens understanding of the stakeholders and their functional and non-functional requirements.
The requirements of a medical device should not only be determined by its ability to perform its function. Instead, a device should be considered functional only if it addresses the complete sets of customers’ needs.
Final words
The new product development in MedTech is a complex process requiring important investments. And successful new products are not only based on science and technology but also on good industrial design.
In closing, companies need to make the voice of the customer (VOC) at the foundation of their new product development process, understanding who needs what, where, when, and why. This fundamental process will help them succeed because they will solve customers’ problems and delight them.
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Thanks for reading.