The role of empathy in the design of products and services
Peter Timmer of Blue Latitude Health talks through what it means to design with empathy for the customer, and why it produces better products and services.
When you design a product that truly addresses an unmet need, that product will establish an emotional connection with the user, from which engagement becomes real.
How might you gain the insight that will uncover the hierarchy of unmet customer needs, from which you will choose the one your product will address?
One answer to this question is the development of an empathetic mindset, a mindset that seeks a detailed understanding of the customer and what they feel and think, when doing things at work – things where unmet needs arise. With such a mindset you will start to use empathy in design.
How do you start to develop such an empathetic mindset?
In this article, Customer Experience Consultant Peter Timmer talks through what it means to design with empathy for the customer, and why it produces better products and services for pharma and healthcare.
Build a map of the customers’ environment – to better understand their experience
Empathy requires deep research with real people in their natural environments. It is deep because it will not be market research as a commodity –
"Nurse, what is your greatest frustration during therapy administration in the clinic?" Suitable research will be grounded in getting as close to reality as possible:
Spending a period of time observing life in the clinic
Actively working with healthcare professionals (HCPs) to simulate the things which cannot be observed, maybe for reasons of confidentiality
Talking through scenario-based stories, stories built around models and sketches of the clinic with actors in specific places at particular times.
These are provocative methods, methods that generate data about the movements, thoughts, reasoning and emotions of the customer; methods that generate data – the value of which is unknown when a concept brief is written. Such data will help a design team know the customer better, and enable designers make better informed design decisions.
Building the map is foundational for the identification of opportunity that leads to the creation of products and services that have wider commercial value.
Lori Lush, Head of Fishawack Medical, reveals why she’s driven to tell impactful scientific stories, the benefits of cross-functional collaboration, and the trends she predicts for the next five years. Blue Latitude Health
The recent development of several COVID-19 vaccines has placed medical research firmly in the spotlight, highlighting public confusion and misinformation about clinical trials. Patient advocate, Trishna Bharadia reveals what the life sciences industry can do to rebuild trust. Blue Latitude Health
Generating data for drug launches is a challenging process. In rare diseases, with small patient populations and high unmet need, evidence generation is even more complex. Consultant Sarah Poole and Senior Consultant Craig Moore explore the benefits of using real-world evidence and the common pitfalls life science companies should avoid. Blue Latitude Health
We all know that finding and treating cancer early saves lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, oncology treatments paused while cancer continued to spread. So, what has been the impact of this lost time for patients? Blue Latitude Health
Our creative approach at Fishawack Health is Affective Creativity. Creative crafted to make deep, motivating connections with our target audience. We tap into psychology and combine that with creative craft and expertise and to deliver powerful, engaging work on a conscious as well as a subconscious level. Blue Latitude Health