A very important part of the beginning of a project is what we call the Discovery Meeting. This meeting involves both your team and the HUI team and is used to gather information to fill in the “features and functions” of our project requirements document. During this meeting we talk about everything from the cart’s environment of use, to its desired look-and-feel and the preferred type of casters.
Like other project meetings, it’s important to ensure your cross-functional team is involved (read our last post about who this should include). Having a cross-functional team in this meeting not only helps keep everyone informed of the project, but also helps us create a complete features-and-functions document.
The main objective of this meeting is to understand how the device is used and how the cart can benefit the user. It’s often appropriate to involve your customers (end-users) in this meeting as well. Times it would be especially beneficial to do so would be carts that are used during certain medical procedures or ones are highly integrated into the end-user’s routine. In these cases, it’s great for the user to explain how they need and want to use the cart and share their specific needs for functionality.
Topics Covered
In addition to information about usage, we also collect information that enables us to cover as much ground as possible before beginning the project. As such, there are an abundance of questions we ask and topics we cover in a Discovery Meeting, including the following features and functions:
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1. Objectives 2. Technology 3. Environment of Use 4. "Look and Feel" 5. Storage 6. Equipment of use 7. Wheels and Casters 8. Power Supply 9. Cable Management 10. Shipping, Packaging and Freight 11. Configuration 12. Human Factors 13. Height Adjustment 14. Labeling |
15. Size/Footprint 16. Cart Weight and Capacity 17. Handle 18. Graphics 19. Colors 20. Assembly 21. Target Cost 22. Tooling 23. Quantities 24. Prototypes 25. Expected Warranty 26. Service Parts 27. Competitors 28. Testing Required |
Once all the must-have features are identified and recorded, we also take note of any nice-to-have and could-have features and determine if there is any room in the budget to incorporate them.
A Discovery Meeting provides your team and HUI the opportunity to truly understand requirements and nail down the specifics of the project. This meeting also helps our team be as efficient as possible because all the pertinent data is documented before we begin the cart’s design.
Ready to start your medical cart project? Contact Nick Rolf at nrolf@huimfg.com or (920) 286-2217.
