Official MEDRAD paper-bound lab notebooks (BLN) Armed with these foci, we began our initial research. Due to the intermittent, unpredictable and lengthy nature of IP processes, it was impossible for us to do traditional work-based interviews with our users. Thus, we decided to perform artifact walkthroughs. We asked our participants to walk us through the documentation they created in the process of coming up, developing and patenting one of their inventions. During the walkthrough we probed what their roles were in the process, who else they worked with, how they communicated with their teammates, what applications they used to create the artifacts, and of course if and how they used their bound lab notebooks.