Smart Pipetting Services

Problem Domain

The client company was the first to market with electronic pipettes and was the market leader for a while. Competitors soon followed, but no clear market leader was found. Because mechanical pipettes are much cheaper than electronic pipettes, usability improvements brought by electronic pipettes do not justify high costs. The competition has brought out some essential connectivity solutions with limited value, but a clear monetization business model has yet to be established.

The client’s customers include pharmaceutical companies. They need more transparent and precise documentation, error avoidance, and cross-site collaboration. Adopting electronic pipettes as a natural part of the workflow still needs to be improved. The drug discovery and development process are lengthy, risky, and costly. Connectivity-based solutions aim to speed up the process and reduce risk and costs.

Pipetting is crucial in many laboratory processes but presents many challenges for end users. Variations in pipetting techniques, such as human error and differences between operators, can lead to inconsistencies in results. Keeping track of notes during pipetting interrupts the workflow and can be time-consuming. Notes written down after the pipetting procedure may not be as complete as they would have been had they been recorded in real-time. Changing pipette settings while working is also time-consuming and error-prone, and adjusting settings for different liquids and environmental conditions can be challenging and often neglected.

Additionally, pipette maintenance and calibration are easy to forget, leading to unreliable results. Pipettes can also go missing after they have been “loaned”, adding to the frustration of the end user. Managers and researchers spend time designing protocols, but some instruction sets are written vaguely, even starting from a kit manufacturer, which can lead to confusion. Finally, running out of consumables mid-work can cause disruptions and delays.

Goals for the Project

Seamless, user-friendly pipetting solutions that help scientists focus on their core tasks. Increase value generation and customer understanding. Shift customers from a transactional relationship towards partnerships. Unfortunately, even though the client was first to market with electronic pipettes, the market is not ready to switch from mechanical pipettes.

End users include individual pipette users, but ultimately the idea is to build an ecosystem that integrates multiple users of different client instruments. For example, the ecosystem should encompass researchers who design experiments and determine pipetting procedures, laboratory technicians operating pipettes, and analysts who use chemical compounds.

Research

We proposed the entire project to have the following phases:

1. Identifying business value and building business hypotheses
2. Identifying customer value and market insight; testing the hypotheses
3. Disruptive business design: refining the customer value
4. Scaling with service design and technical architecture: preparing for growth
5. Creating a market entry plan: preparing for the execution and roll-out.

Scenarios

We approached the subject from six different work streams:

1. Market position
2. Customer groups
3. End-user groups and needs
4. Pipette sales and other products
5. Competitive advantage
6. Technical solution

We conducted three workshops with client business representatives to identify and crystallize features and enablers, use cases, and business hypotheses regarding

• the market & the business
• the solution or the overall service
• the end product or the pipettes.

Observations

We had a chance to observe a walkthrough of a pipetting experiment and procedure. We got insights into the environment, where the pipettes are being used, the different techniques that go into carrying out the workflow, and the major pitfalls in the current workflow. The procedures were demonstrated with mechanical and electronic pipettes to exhibit the advantages of electronic pipettes. We were also introduced to what type of prerequisites take place before the pipetting procedure, e.g., who, how, and what goes into creating pipetting instructions, and what happens after the pipetting procedure, e.g., analysis of the pipetting solution with an analyzer. Perhaps the most interesting fact was the many opportunities for human error during the pipetting operations and how many steps procedures might require.

Research Insights

Solution

We tried to understand the client’s current customer value and establish what a move from transactional relationships toward partnerships would require. We contemplated the benefits of the electronic pipettes and concluded that adding connectivity to electronic pipettes is the single most significant value-adding factor. In addition, building a service solution enabled by pipette connectivity would provide value to end-users and customers and drive the industry forward. This would allow horizontal integration with other client products, such as analyzers and scales used in the pipetting workflow.

Concept

We discovered five different but connected use cases that support the connectivity solution. We focused on the three scenarios, which underlined the customer value and utilized all the data we had accumulated from six work streams.

We created a concept illustration based on the scenarios and use cases, demonstrating the solution’s customer value. The images told how connectivity enables a smooth service between interconnected devices, addressing the previously discovered pain points.

Conclusions

All in all, we provided the client with

• a plan to transform their business model from a transactional model towards a service-based one.
• a business plan for a substantial increase in the sale of electronic pipettes.
• a roadmap for providing service-based offerings.
• a possibility of increasing cross-selling by +25% with service applications.

Electronic pipettes offer better usability and improve operational efficiency (such as automatic event logging, tracking, and control) compared to mechanical pipettes and flexibility that automated lines cannot provide. Moreover, with the integration and utilization of new services, the client can serve its customers and reclaim its market leadership.

Finding new working drugs is a process of eliminating chemical combinations that are inactive or do not work. The faster this elimination process can be done, the faster the researcher can focus on the varieties that work. By creating a service concept that ensures the reliability and traceability of the drug discovery process, we are helping these researchers to advance science by failing faster.

With digital services, the client can innovate and create new types of services more quickly and flexibly to meet the changing needs of the biopharmaceutical and applied research industries. The client team took the idea to the board. After recognizing this service solution’s sizable impact, they created an internal team to proceed with the concept.

Reflection

I have been interested in business design for a long time. This was one of the first times I had a chance to work on an innovation and business design project with a scope that extended from market analysis. Furthermore, the client team was a pleasure to work with and were very similar in their enthusiasm. Since all the work streams started simultaneously, it was challenging to combine the results of all the streams into a straightforward concept.

This was one of my most fascinating projects. The role of a service designer usually provides a higher perspective than that of a UX designer, who is usually more focused on the product. A service designer’s role encompasses the transformation a company organization and its employees have to make for an innovation or service to succeed. On the other hand, a business designer has the tools and the understanding to determine how the value of such a service relates to the larger market and the viability of a business model such a service supports. Therefore, working closely with a business designer was extremely valuable for me to witness.