Next-Generation PCR Concept Generation

Problem

The next generation of PCR machines needed to be more scalable and customisable, built as a platform that could integrate different biology workflows rather than a single fixed instrument, but no concrete concepts existed yet for what that platform should actually look like.

Process

I ran internal research with biologists and bio-engineers alongside external market research to understand what a next-generation platform actually needed to do. Using morphological analysis, I generated a wide range of concepts to meet the different requirements that came out of that research, then scored them against criteria agreed with my peers and developed the top three into a stakeholder presentation.

Outcome

One of the concepts, a multiplex PCR module, was carried forward after I left the company into the first working prototype of the platform. Seeing a concept I generated solo make it into an actual prototype was a good confirmation that the process, not just the final idea, had worked.