Articles

Market Research: How to ask your customers questions

A big part of market research is asking customers direct questions. Surveys and questionnaires are an excellent tool for finding out what your customers want and need and getting their feedback on your product. Unfortunately, most companies ask their customers [...]

Medical device industry outlook

A survey conducted by Emergo Group indicates that sales growth in 2014 was lower than in 2013. A number of factors may have contributed to this negative change. Firstly, the European economy has been in a slump for several years now. This has affected [...]

Is the medical device industry in crisis?

The medical device industry has been led by the United States for many years. According to Forbes, the sector employs 400,000 Americans directly and provides jobs for almost 2 million more people. The medical device industry is one of the few American [...]

Design thinking is not a replacement for product strategy

Design thinking opens up new avenues for innovation that your company had not thought of before. Instead of overthinking, over-analyzing and focusing on minimizing risks, design thinking allows you to stop deliberating and start acting. On the other hand, [...]

Key factors impacting accelerated innovation

  Innovation and agility are "a must" in business these days. Regardless of the industry you are in, innovation is key to success. Why? Because CHANGE is the only constant. Some of the pitfalls you are probably encountering today are: • Trying to [...]

How to conduct usability testing for medical devices

When testing medical devices (or any new products) for usability, it’s important to test both the device and the manual/instructions that go along with it. Usability testing is meant to pinpoint sources of confusion, information that is missing or out of [...]

Find flaws in your design through user shadowing

How do your customers interact with your product? What problems do they encounter in its use? The best way to find the answers to these questions is by “shadowing” them as they use it. This means following them around, filming, photographing or taking [...]

How design thinking saved Airbnb from failure

When Airbnb was just a small startup, its founders participated in Y Combinator’s program for startups to improve their position and refine their pitch to investors. They sat with design thinker Paul Graham and tried to figure out why bookings were so low [...]

How to get into customers’ heads

The most important factor in the success of a new product or service is how the customers feel about it. Development teams need to have a clear view of what is important to customers in their industry and in general so they can create a product which meshes [...]

Is innovation really important in your company?

Here's a few indications that it is: The "i" word is often heard in meetings and in hallway discussions Innovation is considered as a long term investment strategy Creativity and new ideas Failure is not considered as an "end" but rather as a "start" [...]