Teaser: Lab user shadowing

This isn't a fully written-up case study, but rather a high-level teaser for you to ask me about, if you're interested, during an interview!

Short project description

During my time at Ginkgo Bioworks, a Biotech company, I did a research project observing scientists from a specific team doing their processes for cell culturing, banking, and thawing, to understand how and when they were using software in these processes, and their software needs in these contexts.

This was a small team of 3 people, so I had the chance to observe and interview all members of this team.

This project required me to follow lab procedures, including PPE. I recorded the sessions (audio & video), and piloted this process for my team using new-to-us equipment:

One user during observations

Results & key insights

This resulted in a list of user needs for their software and a set of process diagrams, which were used by the science team lead and product manager assessing different software tools for the team, as well as two designers who were helping with the project later on.

Some key insights:

• Their current software didn't cover their needs for some scenarios (like passaging from one container into multiple containers, if they were different types of containers)

• Some cells or processes are time-sensitive, so the speed and flexibility of the software are essential. At the time of this project, the software was so rigid and time-consuming that it sometimes resulted in lost cells or inaccuracies in the data, due to the time sensitivity.