Strategy for product development JTBD
Deliverables
VR as New Product Category
Virtual reality represents a new product category in surgery. Few use cases have been developed for it, and the field is still trying to assess its best uses. In its needs-finding stage, this therefore requires analogous observations and deeply specialized task analysis.
One of the key questions I was trying to answer was whether all sub-specialties in surgery share the same needs, or whether the VR product should be adapted to each specialty. In order to answer this question, I worked with 14 surgeons across 3 different specialties. A head nurse and resident also participated, allowing for input from adjacent roles.
While traditional market research might probe surgeons for “what they want” in a solution, I took a more indirect approach. There are many well-documented issues with asking clients directly for their wants, in addition to surgeries being very technical and complex in nature.
In order to identify the needs, I used the JTBD framework. I combined it with four interview strategies.
Preparing for Interviews
I preparation for interviews with surgeons, I conducted online ethnography and a literature review. I also spoke to other researchers to understand the challenges I might be facing. You may hear one of these discussions on my podcast, Healthcare Focus: Challenges in Healthcare Design with guests Bob Groeneveld, Tessa Dekkers and Patrizia D’Olivo.
The literature review proved pivotal in the research. It gave me some ideas on the themes that would emerge, but it did not cover everything. Exploratory interviews provided me with a broad list of topics, with many overlapping.
Following this preparation, I launched into virtual inquiry with sub-specialty, under the form of storytelling. This represented the formal interview for this study. Surgeons described to me their most frequently performed operation in detail. I then coded these interviews using the JTBD methodology, to develop survey.
Mixed Methods Research
The JTBD coding is the key moment in the research where the qualitative study pivots towards a quantitative study. It helps test whether the small-scale, qualitative findings can be generalized to a larger population.
Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)
The ouput of the JBTD is a map where all desired outcomes are plotted. Different zones require different strategic actions.
Maturity Model
In addition to the traditional JTBD analysis, I also developed a maturity model for the emerging technology. In its earlier days, the technology can act as a standalone solution. As the market becomes more sophisticated and as infrastructures in hospitals expand, its role could be combined with other technologies, acting as a GPS for nanotechnology, haptics and other technologies to piggy-back on.
This round of interviews was unstructured. I used grounded theory and computer-aided analysis software to examine codes through metrics such as frequency and distributions.
These findings were then combined with literature review to obtain the maturity model.
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