Developing the future services roadmap for a world leading genomics data provider
Problem context
Our client is a world leading provider of genomics data with a goal to create a world where everyone can benefit from genomics healthcare. As part of this, the organisation has created a number of services including a secure online research environment that allows users to access and interact with a large database of genomics data.
The challenge for the organisation is that the research environment and other products needs to serve multiple use cases and user types. This ranges from treating clinicians utilising the data to diagnose and manage individual patients, to analysts in big pharma organisations running machine learning algorithms as part of drug discovery programmes.
Insight Dojo were tasked to develop a deep understanding of their user base including their experience of using the research environment. This would inform the product and service roadmap, specifically guiding a migration strategy from the legacy on-premise research environment to a future cloud-based solution.
Our approach
Given the complexity of the category, the varied set of hard-to-reach stakeholders and the need to know the users inside out, we recognised that a robust and in-depth approach would be required. A quantitative study would be hard to conduct amongst such an exclusive group, and would be difficult to tailor to the individual characteristics of the users. We chose to conduct 45 90-minute in-depth interviews with a range of scientists, physicians, analysts and decision makers in academic and commercial organisations. The interviews conducted were via video call. The users were encouraged to demonstrate challenges experienced with the environment ‘live’ as we conducted the interviews. This approach allowed us to get a deep understanding whilst enabling us to spot distinct groups with common needs.
Users were encouraged to share their screens during the interviews to demonstrate the challenges that they experienced with the environment ‘live’.
Insights and impact
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We identified five user segments with distinct use cases, needs, and frustrations. These user segments have provided a common language and means of understanding the user base for the entire organisation.
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We recommended the product and service requirements for each segment
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We prioritised the different segments for migration to cloud based services.
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In addition to the segment specific recommendations, we identified six cross-cutting themes for innovation that help solidify their position as a global leader in genomics
Conducting user research with this community, especially during a lockdown, is as challenging as it gets. The Insight Dojo team really invested themselves in the subject matter, were undaunted by the complexity, and did a remarkable job of understanding enough about the field to demystify, translate, and generate probing insights into our internal and external researchers within a few months of work