User Needs Matrix Through the research conducted during the project, our team noted repeatedly that the MEDRAD team faced a variety of issues that impacted their documentation practices. We grouped these issues into the following set of primary themes, as seen in the User Needs Matrix.
Story
The key element in successfully capturing intellectual property is to demonstrate that the invention was developed while following a consistent process with clearly defined invention dates and an accurate set of attributed inventors. In legal terms, standard procedures and thorough documentation helps to ’Äútell a strong story’Äù when the need arises to defend a patent.
Motivate
The members of the Innovation’Äôs team demonstrated a great amount of energy and passion towards their research and development work, as well as the opportunity to help people by making advancements in the medical imaging field. When it came to documentation however, both engineers and scientists in the Innovations team viewed it as an administrative, or ’Äúfollow-up’Äù task that was often difficult to find the motivation to perform, especially since it did provide discreet value in the invention process. The research we’Äôve done leads us to believe that a system that facilitates sharing ideas and getting and giving feedback about ideas would provide a significant level of motivation for our target users.
Integrate
Our observations of the Innovations Team and their invention materials revealed the fact that our target users use whatever medium, whether paper-based, analog or digital, necessary to be able to work in the most efficient and non-restrictive way possible.
Educate
The Innovations team is mainly comprised of senior technicians, engineers and research scientists who have a good understanding of the important role that patenting and managing intellectual property plays for the future of the company. Even with this understanding of the basics, though, the MEDRAD team did feel that their knowledge could be better and that a number of the potential problems of keeping poor documentation could be mitigated if the team simply improved this knowledge.