Trig and the NC TraCS’s FastTraCS program successfully completed the first Design Thinking for UNC Health Providers training program in 2021. We formed teams of medical innovators, organized them around a shared healthcare problem, generated novel solutions, and ended with clear solutions for further development.
The training program is focused on healthcare innovation, medical device/diagnostic technology development and industrial design methodologies. The program is targeted at UNC and UNC Health researchers, healthcare providers and graduate students. FastTraCS, part of the NC TraCS Institute, is focused on providing innovation resources for faculty, providers, staff and students at UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Health.
UNC hospital’s FastTraCS program supports physicians in identifying solvable problems and advancing their inventions to market. FastTraCS Director, Andy Kant, saw an opportunity to encourage more creative, patient-focused exploration in the early concept phase, turning to Trig to lead their first Design Thinking workshop. Faced with busy clinical schedules and minimal product development experience, our design-inspired teams of 2-4 healthcare professionals were introduced the fundamentals of Design Thinking while advancing their projects forward into novel solutions that solve real problems.
With medical device innovation, identifying unmet needs for stakeholders is a rigorous process. It is expensive for medical device companies to gain access to physicians since their time is limited. Rather than approach the unmet needs phase as a market research activity, the workshop teaches healthcare providers to build the change they want to see in their daily work while following a training curriculum.
Using Design Thinking principles, the teams each started with a high-level description of the problem they wanted to solve. Topics included:
Real-world persistent problems don't have easy answers.
Each week all teams would meet for a lesson on a phase of the process, followed by individual team coaching sessions to help apply the content to their team's specific project.
The curriculum provided the structure for teams to take the time to thoroughly discuss and articulate the problems in the format of need statements and insight statements. The teams then organized the wide array of needs on the Levels of Alignment canvas to help prioritize where to focus next, filtering down to 2-3 tightly defined need statements.
Before entering the divergent ideation phase, the teams were introduced to Lateral Thinking. This method introduces provocative new sources of inspiration by looking outside of the current industry. Then, the teams were challenged to take the absurd provocations seriously and apply them to solve the need statements. This method generates an explosion of new ideas, which then need to be synthesized and converged down to a handful of promising concepts.
Those concepts were further refined into testable concept storyboards. This method of prototyping allows for a story to be told which encapsulates the patient, provider, process, facility, and medical device in a handful of illustrated frames. It serves as both a tool for gathering feedback and as a pom-pom by which the founding team can cheerlead the solution to attract new team members, advisors, and investors to further the project vision.
Journeymap current user experience
Clarifying your goals
Develop insight statements capturing patient painpoints
Clarifying your goals
Translate insight statements into needs statements
Align user needs with vision
Connect user needs to high-level vision using levels of alignment framework
Align user needs with vision
Create challenge questions to inspire
Lateral thinking
Generate concepts with larger group through divergent ideation
Diverge then converge
Filter and synthesize concepts with core team through convergent ideation
Diverge then converge
Journeymap new user experience(s)
Refine concepts in context
Refine concepts within new user experience(s)
Refine concepts in context
Finalize concept storyboards for testing
Plan next steps for final concept(s)
Plan next steps for testing and development
Plan next steps for final concept(s)
Share final concepts and next steps with other teams
Share plan with other teams
Clarifying your goals
Journeymap current user experience
Clarifying your goals
Develop insight statements capturing patient painpoints
Align user needs with vision
Translate insight statements into needs statements
Align user needs with vision
Connect user needs to high-level vision using levels of alignment framework
Lateral thinking
Create challenge questions to inspire
Diverge then converge
Generate concepts with larger group through divergent ideation
Diverge then converge
Filter and synthesize concepts with core team through convergent ideation
Refine concepts in context
Journeymap new user experience(s)
Refine concepts in context
Refine concepts within new user experience(s)
Plan next steps for final concept(s)
Finalize concept storyboards for testing
Plan next steps for final concept(s)
Plan next steps for testing and development
Share plan with other teams
Share final concepts and next steps with other teams
Clarifying your goals
Journeymap current user experience
Clarifying your goals
Develop insight statements capturing patient painpoints
Align user needs with vision
Translate insight statements into needs statements
Align user needs with vision
Connect user needs to high-level vision using levels of alignment framework
Lateral thinking
Create challenge questions to inspire
Diverge then converge
Generate concepts with larger group through divergent ideation
Diverge then converge
Filter and synthesize concepts with core team through convergent ideation
Refine concepts in context
Journeymap new user experience(s)
Refine concepts in context
Refine concepts within new user experience(s)
Plan next steps for final concept(s)
Finalize concept storyboards for testing
Plan next steps for final concept(s)
Plan next steps for testing and development
Share plan with other teams
Share final concepts and next steps with other teams
This is awesome! I can confidently speak for everyone else that this has been an eye-opening experience. While you can't measure creativity, I have felt my personal creative confidence grow as a result of this workshop. There was a fun reveal at the end where everyone brings their best version of the idea after a period of stealth mode to say, "Check this out!".
The workshop concluded with a Pitch Day where each team presented their converged solutions and illustrated storyboards back to the group. While the teams were aware of each other's progress through the shared learning experience, there was a shared sense of drama and excitement to see how much progress was made to solve seemingly intractable problems.
Our structured Design Thinking workshop helped physicians transform the patient problems stewing in their heads for years into thoughtful, visualized solutions in weeks. Empowering physicians to develop their own creative solutions for their clinic (and beyond) proved to be a rewarding experience for the Trig team as well. We are excited to support another cohort of Medical Innovators with FastTraCS this year.
“Having the opportunity to see how our project would interact with clinical problems - in real time - made the problem solving process so much more tangible.”
- Dr. Colin Orr
"The coaching between sessions was invaluable. Our project wouldn't have come together without that individual coaching from Trig. The pacing of the workshop was perfect for what we need as providers to both stay involved, yet not take too much time away from seeing patients."
- Dr. Nicholas Piazza
“Huge thanks to Ty and Kelly. My colleague Nick and I came into this with a general idea of a clinical problem and some notions of solutions but all of it was kind of nebulous. Ty and Kelly helped us break it down, re-conceptualize, and then rebuild this into a better articulated problem and far more robust solution (with fantastic visuals - thanks Kelly!).”
- Dr Rob Lampman
“I really liked having feedback from the other clinical teams during the workshop. It’s really fun to hear from people who have no idea what we’re working on, just to see what they come up with.”
- Dr. Alison Sweeney
“A huge thank you to Kelly for her fantastic storyboard illustrations which perfectly described how our device concept will be used by the patient and provider. The images were so well done and told the story of our device so clearly… we were really blown away!”
- Nicole Wiley, Design Engineer
“Shout out to Kelly for the incredible drawings. I particularly like the first frame, which has a kind of film-noir vibe that sets the stage for our solution.”
- Dr. Nicholas Piazza
Trig and the NC TraCS’s FastTraCS program successfully completed the first Design Thinking for UNC Health Providers training program in 2021. We formed teams of medical innovators, organized them around a shared healthcare problem, generated novel solutions, and ended with clear solutions for further development.
The training program is focused on healthcare innovation, medical device/diagnostic technology development and industrial design methodologies. The program is targeted at UNC and UNC Health researchers, healthcare providers and graduate students. FastTraCS, part of the NC TraCS Institute, is focused on providing innovation resources for faculty, providers, staff and students at UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Health.
UNC hospital’s FastTraCS program supports physicians in identifying solvable problems and advancing their inventions to market. FastTraCS Director, Andy Kant, saw an opportunity to encourage more creative, patient-focused exploration in the early concept phase, turning to Trig to lead their first Design Thinking workshop. Faced with busy clinical schedules and minimal product development experience, our design-inspired teams of 2-4 healthcare professionals were introduced the fundamentals of Design Thinking while advancing their projects forward into novel solutions that solve real problems.
With medical device innovation, identifying unmet needs for stakeholders is a rigorous process. It is expensive for medical device companies to gain access to physicians since their time is limited. Rather than approach the unmet needs phase as a market research activity, the workshop teaches healthcare providers to build the change they want to see in their daily work while following a training curriculum.
Using Design Thinking principles, the teams each started with a high-level description of the problem they wanted to solve. Topics included:
Real-world persistent problems don't have easy answers.
Each week all teams would meet for a lesson on a phase of the process, followed by individual team coaching sessions to help apply the content to their team's specific project.
The curriculum provided the structure for teams to take the time to thoroughly discuss and articulate the problems in the format of need statements and insight statements. The teams then organized the wide array of needs on the Levels of Alignment canvas to help prioritize where to focus next, filtering down to 2-3 tightly defined need statements.
Before entering the divergent ideation phase, the teams were introduced to Lateral Thinking. This method introduces provocative new sources of inspiration by looking outside of the current industry. Then, the teams were challenged to take the absurd provocations seriously and apply them to solve the need statements. This method generates an explosion of new ideas, which then need to be synthesized and converged down to a handful of promising concepts.
Those concepts were further refined into testable concept storyboards. This method of prototyping allows for a story to be told which encapsulates the patient, provider, process, facility, and medical device in a handful of illustrated frames. It serves as both a tool for gathering feedback and as a pom-pom by which the founding team can cheerlead the solution to attract new team members, advisors, and investors to further the project vision.
This is awesome! I can confidently speak for everyone else that this has been an eye-opening experience. While you can't measure creativity, I have felt my personal creative confidence grow as a result of this workshop. There was a fun reveal at the end where everyone brings their best version of the idea after a period of stealth mode to say, "Check this out!".
The workshop concluded with a Pitch Day where each team presented their converged solutions and illustrated storyboards back to the group. While the teams were aware of each other's progress through the shared learning experience, there was a shared sense of drama and excitement to see how much progress was made to solve seemingly intractable problems.
Our structured Design Thinking workshop helped physicians transform the patient problems stewing in their heads for years into thoughtful, visualized solutions in weeks. Empowering physicians to develop their own creative solutions for their clinic (and beyond) proved to be a rewarding experience for the Trig team as well. We are excited to support another cohort of Medical Innovators with FastTraCS this year.
“Having the opportunity to see how our project would interact with clinical problems - in real time - made the problem solving process so much more tangible.”
- Dr. Colin Orr
"The coaching between sessions was invaluable. Our project wouldn't have come together without that individual coaching from Trig. The pacing of the workshop was perfect for what we need as providers to both stay involved, yet not take too much time away from seeing patients."
- Dr. Nicholas Piazza
“Huge thanks to Ty and Kelly. My colleague Nick and I came into this with a general idea of a clinical problem and some notions of solutions but all of it was kind of nebulous. Ty and Kelly helped us break it down, re-conceptualize, and then rebuild this into a better articulated problem and far more robust solution (with fantastic visuals - thanks Kelly!).”
- Dr Rob Lampman
“I really liked having feedback from the other clinical teams during the workshop. It’s really fun to hear from people who have no idea what we’re working on, just to see what they come up with.”
- Dr. Alison Sweeney
Trig and the NC TraCS’s FastTraCS program successfully completed the first Design Thinking for UNC Health Providers training program in 2021. We formed teams of medical innovators, organized them around a shared healthcare problem, generated novel solutions, and ended with clear solutions for further development.
The training program is focused on healthcare innovation, medical device/diagnostic technology development and industrial design methodologies. The program is targeted at UNC and UNC Health researchers, healthcare providers and graduate students. FastTraCS, part of the NC TraCS Institute, is focused on providing innovation resources for faculty, providers, staff and students at UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Health.
UNC hospital’s FastTraCS program supports physicians in identifying solvable problems and advancing their inventions to market. FastTraCS Director, Andy Kant, saw an opportunity to encourage more creative, patient-focused exploration in the early concept phase, turning to Trig to lead their first Design Thinking workshop. Faced with busy clinical schedules and minimal product development experience, our design-inspired teams of 2-4 healthcare professionals were introduced the fundamentals of Design Thinking while advancing their projects forward into novel solutions that solve real problems.
With medical device innovation, identifying unmet needs for stakeholders is a rigorous process. It is expensive for medical device companies to gain access to physicians since their time is limited. Rather than approach the unmet needs phase as a market research activity, the workshop teaches healthcare providers to build the change they want to see in their daily work while following a training curriculum.
Using Design Thinking principles, the teams each started with a high-level description of the problem they wanted to solve. Topics included:
Real-world persistent problems don't have easy answers.
Each week all teams would meet for a lesson on a phase of the process, followed by individual team coaching sessions to help apply the content to their team's specific project.
The curriculum provided the structure for teams to take the time to thoroughly discuss and articulate the problems in the format of need statements and insight statements. The teams then organized the wide array of needs on the Levels of Alignment canvas to help prioritize where to focus next, filtering down to 2-3 tightly defined need statements.
Before entering the divergent ideation phase, the teams were introduced to Lateral Thinking. This method introduces provocative new sources of inspiration by looking outside of the current industry. Then, the teams were challenged to take the absurd provocations seriously and apply them to solve the need statements. This method generates an explosion of new ideas, which then need to be synthesized and converged down to a handful of promising concepts.
Those concepts were further refined into testable concept storyboards. This method of prototyping allows for a story to be told which encapsulates the patient, provider, process, facility, and medical device in a handful of illustrated frames. It serves as both a tool for gathering feedback and as a pom-pom by which the founding team can cheerlead the solution to attract new team members, advisors, and investors to further the project vision.
This is awesome! I can confidently speak for everyone else that this has been an eye-opening experience. While you can't measure creativity, I have felt my personal creative confidence grow as a result of this workshop. There was a fun reveal at the end where everyone brings their best version of the idea after a period of stealth mode to say, "Check this out!".
The workshop concluded with a Pitch Day where each team presented their converged solutions and illustrated storyboards back to the group. While the teams were aware of each other's progress through the shared learning experience, there was a shared sense of drama and excitement to see how much progress was made to solve seemingly intractable problems.
Our structured Design Thinking workshop helped physicians transform the patient problems stewing in their heads for years into thoughtful, visualized solutions in weeks. Empowering physicians to develop their own creative solutions for their clinic (and beyond) proved to be a rewarding experience for the Trig team as well. We are excited to support another cohort of Medical Innovators with FastTraCS this year.
“Having the opportunity to see how our project would interact with clinical problems - in real time - made the problem solving process so much more tangible.”
- Dr. Colin Orr
"The coaching between sessions was invaluable. Our project wouldn't have come together without that individual coaching from Trig. The pacing of the workshop was perfect for what we need as providers to both stay involved, yet not take too much time away from seeing patients."
- Dr. Nicholas Piazza
“Huge thanks to Ty and Kelly. My colleague Nick and I came into this with a general idea of a clinical problem and some notions of solutions but all of it was kind of nebulous. Ty and Kelly helped us break it down, re-conceptualize, and then rebuild this into a better articulated problem and far more robust solution (with fantastic visuals - thanks Kelly!).”
- Dr Rob Lampman
“I really liked having feedback from the other clinical teams during the workshop. It’s really fun to hear from people who have no idea what we’re working on, just to see what they come up with.”
- Dr. Alison Sweeney
