Is your organization leveraging its intranet for the bottom line? Nearly 97% of all pharmacological research experiments fail to make it to human trials. If lessons learned from these failed experiments are not shared effectively, researchers continually recreate failed experiments resulting in great costs to organizations and their customers. Topics covered: * Types of user research * Persona development * Intranet adoption strategies * Knowledge management strategies * Best practices Bruns and his team shadowed research scientists to learn how and why they shared - and didn't share - their knowledge with their peers. He will discuss findings of how researchers used (and did not use) their existing knowledge management systems, personas of the different types of pharmaceutical researchers (The Conductor, The Expert, The Advice Seeker, The Hermit, The Human Robot, and The Collaborator), strategies for enlisting the participation of the various personas within the organization, recommendations for how to create the next generation of the client's knowledge management intranet, lessons learned from this study, and best practices on conducting ethnographic user research to guide the success of your organization's intranet.

1. Using Ethnographic User Research
to Drive KM and Intranet Strategy
Don Bruns – Senior Consultant

2. Profile
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: McLean, VA
Staff: 75+
Culture: Disciplined, innovative, spirit-of-service
Ruling Passion: User-experience is the only sustainable competitive
advantage online
Centers of Excellence: Web Strategy
Usability and User Research
User Experience Design
Social Media
Content Management
Recognition: Awarded ten 2009 Web Awards from the Web Marketing
Association (WMA)
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NavigationArts is a full-service digital consultancy that helps organizations
achieve results via the online channel

3. Why User Research?
• Speed user adoption
• Uncover points of resistance
• Identify true user needs
• Bolsters change management
• Serves as the foundation for User Centered Design efforts
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4. Definition
• Ethnography: Branch of anthropology that describes
human societies by conducting field research
• Ancient Greek: εθνος + γραφειν
– ethnos = people
– graphein = writing
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5. CASE STUDY
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6. About the Client
• International pharmaceutical firm
• SharePoint-based KM portal for scientists
• Decades worth of siloed data
• Struggling to achieve user adoption
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7. The Problem
• 97% of all pharmaceutical experiments fail
• Great at recording success stories
• Bad at capturing failures
• Repeating failed experiments year after year
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Fritz, Zurich
Molecule A +
Assay B +
Target C
= ?
Beth, San Francisco
Molecule A +
Assay B +
Target C
= X

8. The Question
• How can we encourage
scientists to share their
failures?
• How do we make data
from failed experiments
available?
• How can we help ensure
user adoption?
“Success is also
understanding
why something
didn’t work.”
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9. Stakeholders believed…
• Scientists don’t trust management
• Scientists are anti-social
• Scientists don’t want to use information technology
• Scientists compete with each another
• Scientists feared that other scientists would steal their work
Client brought us in to find out how to overcome this…
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10. User Research Plan
Facility Tours
Orienting the research team to the
work environment
Shadow Sessions
Witnessing how teams work and
interactions in the lab
Direct Observation
Observing interactions in informal
settings such as cafeterias, lounges,
and hallways
One-on-one Interviews
Discussing daily activities, needs and
motivations in the office or lab
Entity Tracking
Following a compound for a day
Secondary Research
Studying trends among competitors and
comparable organizations
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11. FINDINGS
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12. Scientists operate in several modes
Conductor Mode
Managing disparate tasks or goals
toward a common goal.
Expert Mode
Acting as a reference for a technique,
process, or body of knowledge.
Advice Seeker Mode
Looking for guidance, advice, and
reassurance.
Hermit Mode
A state that requires intense
concentration without distraction.
Human Robot Mode
Conducting repetitive tasks,
procedures, and activities with the
precision of a machine.
Collaborator Mode
Proactively and openly sharing
expertise and knowledge with
others.
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13. Most tools were geared toward “Hermit Mode”
• Dozens of siloed databases
• Decades of data on paper
• Current information
systems foster isolation
– One person: one bench
– One person: one computer
• Intranet did little to connect
scientists and data sources
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14. Lack of connections frustrated “Advice Seeker Mode”
• Searching for data takes
away from "real science“
• Inconsistent metadata
– Formula: C22H23FN2O5
– Corp ID: 5128196-01
– ATC code: N06AB10
– PubChem: 146570
• Knowing who to ask >
Knowing where to look
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15. Right tools in wrong place frustrated “Collaborator Mode”
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• Management provides
tools that scientists ignored
– Whiteboards in the hallways and
cafeterias are pristine
– Glassware in the lab is covered with
magic marker
– Computers far away from workbenches
and equipment
• Tools were not integrated
into the normal workflow

16. Distrust of intranet and search hurt every Mode
• Takes one bad experience
with portal to disillusion
scientists
• Scientists created their own
information systems:
– Isolated wikis
– Private discussion forums
– Local spreadsheets
– Massive bookmark lists
“I should add
this to the
database, but
my Excel file is
more reliable.”
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17. Lack of context prevented “Expert Mode” online
• Fear of being judged by
incomplete work
• Concern that information
will be used out of context
• No way to indicate how
“finished” a piece of
research is
• Scientists need to feel safe
about sharing
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18. RECOMMENDATIONS
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19. Add context to content for “Experts”
• Let “Experts” tag content
according to readiness
• Prevent “Experts” from
being judged unfairly based
on incomplete work
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20. Create connections for “Advice Seekers”
• Tag all scientific content
according to a core set of
metadata
• Develop a synonym ring for
Compounds
• Adopt automated tagging
solution
• Implement a faster, more
robust search tool
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21. Create connections online to promote “Collaborator Mode”
• Let users share
professional interests,
experiences, and expertise
• Show current research
efforts and past projects
• Show document uploads
and personal contacts
• Apply metadata strategy to
all intranet content
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22. Recommend content and people to “Advice Seekers”
• Similar to Facebook or
LinkedIn recommendations
• Recommend connections
based on metadata
strategy:
– Search patterns
– Personal profiles
– Document uploads
– Current and past activities
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23. Visualize the entire body of knowledge
• Create mind map to show
relationships between:
– People
– Compounds
– Assays
– Targets
– Experiments
– Documents
• Allow users to browse and
search visually
• Can be incorporated with
faceted search
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24. CONCLUSION
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25. Best Practices
1. Any user research is better than none
2. Plan and budget for success
3. Achieve and maintain buy-in from senior leadership
4. Stakeholders are not users
5. Choose the right methods for your needs
6. Capture as much as you can
7. Bring in a neutral observer
8. Avoid analysis paralysis
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26. QUESTIONS?
Don Bruns
dbruns@navigationarts.com
703-584-8966
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