May 10, 2019/pat
Usually when a device sale become stagnant, companies refocus their efforts in improving the device – make it faster, stronger, superior.
They often ignore what really matters the most: the user experience. By shifting the focus to how the user uses the product, the
I attended a talk by Michael Ventura, the founder and CEO of Sub Rosa, a world-class design and strategy consulting firm on September 26 last year at the Southeast Asia Center. The topic of the talk was “The New Language of Leadership”. This “language” is basically the different types of empathy business leaders can embrace. Long story.
I’ll just write about the 3 case studies of applied empathy he described in his talk. Note that this is my own summarized version, so the language is totally different than the way he talked.
MV was hired to help increase the sales of GE’s mamography machines (used for detection and diagnosis of breast cancers). However, redesigning the machine and getting medical approval for it could take 7 years, so MV has to find a faster route. MV’s research team requested to talk to any patient who had used the machine and were willing to discuss about the experience.
After talking to hundreds of patients, he found that 87% of the patients didn’t want to undergo another scan in the next 12 months due to the memory of pain. 82% said the room was freezing cold and was uncomfortable.
Also, many of them cited that making appointments to undergo scanning was a scary process. It felt as if they were making appointment to go through a life-and-death situation.
By understanding these painpoints, MV suggested modifications in the scanning experience: the patients should be talked to differently, the room setting improved, the gown different, etc.
Then the team brought in the 200 women that were screened 60 days ago to undergo the newly-upgraded mamography process. The pain complaints dropped from 87% to 45%. The effectiveness of the scanning process also increased by 12% since the subjects were more relaxed.
This allowed GE to brand this new mamography process as a new product. They would not be selling just a machine, but a treatment center.
By understanding the user’s pains and gains, it’s possible to improve the product experience without redesigning the product. By making the mamography experience more humane, GE created a new product and significantly increase sale.
