What are you doing now?
I just finished an internship at Roche, in the Innovation Management team, and will soon start working there as an Exploration Lead.
How are you helping?
Every company has to be innovative and keep providing value to the changing needs of its customers. The Innovation Management team is exactly about that; it is dedicated to make sure that Roche keeps innovating and stays relevant.
I participate in projects that explore different areas in healthcare. In multidisciplinary teams, we conduct research to better understand patient journeys, clinical pathways and processes. We refine all the information gathered and identify the pain points our stakeholders struggle with, whether it is in health facilities, patients’ homes, or labs. Ultimately, we aim to gather evidence to pinpoint the best opportunities to deliver medical value and improve the healthcare provided to patients.
Another aspect of my work is to promote a mindset and working culture that allow innovation to flourish in the organization. I develop resources that aim to help Roche employees to better understand how an innovation process might look like. In addition, the resources provide guidance on better collaboration between teams and best practices to leverage, in order to accelerate innovation and reduce its risks.
The intersection between working on projects that focus on healthcare external to the company, while also working on spreading innovation internally, is exciting. I get the opportunity to learn about how healthcare systems work behind the scenes, things that I would have never been aware of as a patient. At the same time, I get to learn about different teams in Roche and shed light on how to innovate better together.
What tools/methods are you using?
The tools I use vary a lot, because each project is different and it is important to identify the appropriate tools and methodologies to achieve its specific goals. Research methods that we often use are semi-structured interviews, prototypes and think-aloud protocols. Design methods that we usually use are journey mapping, stakeholder mapping and personas.
Thanks to the DMI studies, I was familiar with many of these tools and felt confident using them. Moreover, it gave me the freedom to learn about new tools from my colleagues and broaden my “toolbox”.
The most important realization I had while working at Roche was that being human-centered and agile is also beneficial for internal projects. Interviewing stakeholders, validating assumptions, and iterating to get better results is important to do – not only with external users, but with your colleagues too.
