Setting the scene
Mustard delivered the Popcorn process for GE Healthcare. We ran a global online community and observations to understand the needs and frustrations of cellular biologists. We used workshops to identify new opportunities then developed and tested these using qual and quant methods.
The context
Historically, GE Healthcare’s innovation and new products / services were designed more around technological advancement / design capacity rather than customer needs. This programme of online research / consultation was designed to revolutionise how the Cell Technologies business approached NPD and concept testing.
The approach
The research took part in 3 distinct phases. Firstly we consulted with 40 leading cellular biologists from 8 different markets in a 6 week online forum. Tasks included discussions around “their biggest frustration while working at the bench”.
Secondly, we recruited respondents to a phase of face-to-face “in situ” observations – we watched (and filmed) their daily experiments and watched the video footage back with the respondent to discuss their workflows and the key ‘pinch-points’.
The insight gleaned from these qualitative outputs identified nine fundamental needs of cellular biologists. These nine needs were then delivered back to the client at a full-day “futures workshop”, with fourteen visionary senior client representatives. Various enabling techniques and activities resulted in 14 outline new product / service concepts being identified.
Finally, the new concepts and solutions were tested quantitatively with an extended audience.
The results
Using the popcorn process allowed us to identify and prioritise NPD opportunities for GE Healthcare, resulting in a longer-term NPD road-map being developed and three brand new solutions being taken forward to the next stage of product development.
The response
“Mustard were able to distill a large amount of observational research into a succinct set of customer needs which they communicated in a clear yet insightful way”
GE Healthcare, UK
