The project involves series of on-site observations, ethnographic studies and interview with users. The span was two days with two hospital lab sites visited, talking to over 10 users in total. My goal was to immerse myself in the environment of our users to truly capture their interaction with the technology they use daily. I organized these sessions under the guidance of UX Research Lead, ensuring that our team's approach was systematic and comprehensive.

Pre-field workshops with product managers and account managers were important to inform our approach in the research. These were critical for aligning our internal teams with project objectives, facilitating a shared understanding of our goals, and preparing for the synthesis of our observations.

Below are few things we learned about that majorly informed our research questions and approach:

• Product lifecycle
• Competitors and market landscape
• Product development priorities
• Product capabilities and backlog

I, together with the team, had the pleasure and opportunity to speak with 2 lab managers, over 10 lab technicians, to understand their pain points with the software. We also took a step back to not only focus on the application itself, but also understand beyond the application – what is their entire workflow like? Where does the software situate within the complex workflow? What happens outside of the lab? How can we make their work easier with our software?

Throughout this process, we employed ethnographic research techniques, journey mapping, and physical model (from Contextual Design) to structure our observation sand learnings. These tools allowed us to construct a narrative around the user experience , giving an overview to everyone on the product team of the findings and insights, and allowing teammates who were not present in the lab to have a sense of the physical workspace of the lab as a helpful context to their R&D work.

3 journey maps signifying different workflows that happen within the hospital lab space, including steps also beyond the lab setting, were identified, mapped out, annotated with opportunities and pain points found. Then, these opportunities are translated into design recommendations to be presented to product manager.

On a personal level, the project honed my skills in observational research and deepened my appreciation for the complex interplay between user behaviour and software design. I learned the value of silent observation – of watching and listening without intruding. This experience also taught me the importance of attention to detail while conducting field work for a complex work flow that involves various parties to work together to provide a service. Such rigorous attention to detail in the capture and handling of data.