Cochlear Medical Devices
Qualitative Research Project
Cochlear Medical Devices specialises in hearing devices for the profoundly deaf.
Project Background
Cochlear wanted to understand why their first new software update in 30 years had been rejected by audiologists in Australia, the Americas and Europe, the one place it was being used was in South East Asia, and we wanted to know why.
The work fundamentally changed the way cochlear considers audiologists experience and clinical software skill, audiologist social and clinical experiences and the conditions audiologists see clients in.
This case study focuses on the roll out of a global research program and the advantages of qualitative research and ultimate delivery of a comprehensive research report, strategic direction and key outputs.
This required remote interview training of Cochlear agents in the Americas and remote interviews with European audiologists. Followed by contextual research in the South Pacific region.
However, what I am going to share is focused on the South East Asian part of the project.
Notes:
South East Asian Audiologists refer to themselves as "Mappers". This is because the universities do not offer Audiological courses and they did not feel they had earned the right to call themselves Audiologists, even while they were doing the job of Audiologists.
This is primary a Discovery Showcase to highlight the importance of contextual work, especially as a business moves into other markets. The political and social structures were impacting the Cochlear Medical Device Fitting Practice of the Audiologists and impacting the patients
This is not the full report, just some selected sections to give you feel of the type of work I do and how I approach it.
The Challenge;
Understand why NFS (the new "fitting" software) was not being used despite being easier and faster due to it's objective measurement capability of a patients hearing profile.
Understand why Customer Sound was still the preferred fitting software of choice by audiologists globally.
Identify what changes needed to be made so that the next fitting software, due to be released would be taken up by audiologists globally.
The Role
Lead UX Researcher
Duration 1 year
Responsibilities
- Securing stakeholder buy in (nationally and Internationally)
- Driving end to end Design Thinking Process
- Coordinating international research activities and training regional managers in interview and usability research techniques
- Conducting ethnographic fieldwork, in - depth interviews, usability sessions
- Generate actionable insights and recommendations for better take up.
- Create Personas to understand the regions better and how to cater to their needs.
Tools
Mixed method research strategy
Qualitative research methods
Contextual inquiry
Ethnographic research
User testing
Quant methods
Bi polar emotion response test (BERTs)
Design DNA
Remote usability testing
Thematic coding of insights and quantifying outputs
Delivered
Strategic directions
Communication strategy to ensure future success
Audiologist Training updates guidance
Service and Cochlear Regional Manager on boarding
Audiologist influence circles (and a breakdown of how they shift per region)
Redefining common misconceptions were and how they had come about
Tracking software execution vs audiologist use
Social influence
Key Outputs
Insights report, circulation at Cochlear CTLD
Identification of key opportunity areas
Identification of audiologist pain points
Audiologist personas, mental models and behaviors
Lo Fi sample ideation selection of Stakeholder selected areas.
Identification of key strategic areas that led to the failure of new software
Audiologists relationship map
Southeast Asia and Americas insights library
Bias and cognitive maps
Relationship maps
Approach: Understand the landscape
A note on the serious up-skilling involved...
There was a lot to understand before kicking off the field research:
What devices are there? When do you which and why?
The difference between the fitting softwares and how to use them?
How do the hearing devices work?
Needless to say, I got a crash course including in Cochlear's manufacturing and assembly.
I had numerous meetings with people across departments to understand everything from the batteries and hearing nerves to how the software was made and why it was done so. Speaking to a range of engineers, designers and health experts at Cochlear's headquarters in Ryde, at Macquarie University.
In one of those photos - you can even see me attempting to assemble a Cochlear device...
Define
Synthesis
Field work was transcribed and various Cochlear teams from the learning centre, marketing, legal, interface design, technical development, faults, analysis and scientists were brought in to assist unpacking of the data during the synthesis process. This also served to keep the process transparent, stakeholders engaged and increased cross team collaboration.
A thematic coding program was used to assist with quantifying the data and to remove bias from the findings and section areas off so the most knowledge people (especially regard understanding the high tech or nerve behaviour areas) could unpack misconceptions and insights with me (vital - as I'm not an expert in nerve behaviour!)
Additional quantitative studies were also run to supplement the data.
Unpacking audiologist mindsets internationally to create personas and understand their motivations, ambitions and desires.
Discover and Empathise
Stakeholder interviews to learn the key assumptions Cochlear stakeholders and regional managers had about their audiologists.
Learning sessions to understand the two primary and highly technical cochlear fitting technologies. These include Custom Sound and NFS, the advantages and disadvantages when making unique hearing profiles for clients, and gain familiarity with the device types and why different ones are used.
Identification of key geographical areas of research; Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, America and South America.
**Some key insights**
While the German audiologists confirmed many of Cochlear's assumptions on audiologist behaviour, Indonesia and Vietnam completely bucked the trends. This insight into the conflicting approaches and attitudes meant that Cochlear had to reconsider what "experience" meant, and further adjust their software strategy.
The So What?
Several ideation workshops were facilitated to create new prototypes that addressed the insights that emerged through the research. These were from low fidelity (below) to high fidelity.
Prototype
Several ideation workshops were facilitated to create new prototypes that addressed the insights that emerged through the research. These were from low fidelity (below) to high fidelity.
Deliver
Cochlear was able to understand why NFS was unsuccessful and what they needed to do going forward to ensure they met the needs of their audiologists
Delivery of insights library and research report.
Key findings included:
The software, NFS, was perceived as offensive and patronising by the majority of Western Audiologists and especially by the key influences.
Cochlear had failed to convince the audiologist community of the benefits of NFS.
Western audiologists considered themselves infallibly to have more experience and more knowledge than their eastern counterparts. This belief was also held by the eastern participants. However, examination revealed that eastern audiologists fit significantly more devices per week and year than their western counterparts, and by number of clients alone a Vietnamese audiologist would fit more cochlear devices in a year than most western audiologists would in their careers.
Further, in the west, new cochlear clients tend to be older as people loose their hearing. In Asia, a growing population of children are the ones who are fitted, which changed the marketing approach.