UX design for Deep Tech Innovation

Deep tech startups have been gathering a lot of attention and have seen a significant increase in investment in recent years (an average of approx. 20% yearly increase of global private investment between 2015-2018, according to BCG and Hello Future). Some of the main categories of deep tech are electronics, biotech and artificial intelligence, applied to diverse areas such as health care, transportation, business, finances, retail, consumer products and services and agriculture. While startups all over the globe are innovating mostly in business models, deep tech startups work to turn significant advances in base research into valuable applications for the general public. This brings up specific challenges, especially longer time to market, need for higher amounts of investment, and finally the complexity and risk of a technology with yet-to-be-developed commercial applications. This talk summarizes the main lessons learnt after my first year running UX in a deep tech startup. Our product offers augmented analytics capabilities — data analysis augmented by artificial intelligence and machine learning —, powered by an algorithm created after 10 years of base research. We will discuss how the later challenge — of the complexity and indetermination of the applications of scientific breakthroughs for the general public — affects the main drivers of user experience design, and pushes us to adapt our practice to best support the specifics of deep tech innovation. After a quick introduction about deep tech innovation, we will give practical examples that expose the importance of designing to bridge new technology with user agency. After that, talk about some obstacles found in our daily work that have pushed our design process forward. To illustrate, a few examples from discovery to ideation, to delivery. We will wrap-up with some bite-sized advice for colleagues who would like to venture themselves in deep tech innovation.