The document discusses how a UX team at AstraZeneca, a large biopharmaceutical company, used Lean UX principles to drive digital transformation. Over the past year, they built internal search and user experience competency centers, developed mobile apps, and ran usability labs. This helped them accelerate the adoption of new technologies, improve existing products, and establish modern design practices across the organization.

1. How Lean UX can power small teams to act
and think differently in large enterprises
Nick Brown
Camp Digital, Manchester, 2016 17 March 2016

2. • We came to Camp Digital last year as visitors:- As an organisation of >60k
people globally, we had no UX team in house !
• Over the last year we’ve been applying practical UX, Design Thinking, Lean
Start-Up and Agile Development principles.
• In 2016, we are looking to accelerate UX across our IT community through
our UX competency centre.
Here’s our story so far…
Our Journey
2

3. 3
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a biopharmaceutical company with R&D at its core. Our business is
providing innovative, effective medicines that make a real difference to patients.
We focus on six important areas of healthcare:-
By 2020 we want to deliver ten new medicines to patients and
improve the lives of 200 million patients around the world.

4. Amazing Challenges & Problems
4
AstraZeneca has some of the most exciting – and difficult – challenges in the world. We are
looking for smart people who want to work hard on some of these problems
Huge
VOLUMES OF DATA
Variety
OF INFORMATION
Fast
STREAMING OF SENSORS
Complexity
OF OUR PROBLEMS
 Next Generation Sequencing
 Whole body imaging
 Tissue Microarrays
 Sales force optimisation
 Clinical trial statistical analytics
 High Throughput Screening
 Toxicogenomics
 Open Innovation Approaches
 PowerPoint/Excel content
 Structured databases
 Predictive Chemistry Modelling
 HR employee retention
 Real-time news sentiment
 experimental data capture
 Wearable sensor information
 Log analytics in Operations
The best way to tackle these challenges is to try lots of small proof-of-concepts to
work out which actually make a real difference to your business.

5. CTO Office
5
Our team was established to create new value by catalysing innovative,
emerging technologies across AstraZeneca
Competency
Centres
Enterprise
Architecture
Technology
Incubation Labs
Multi-disciplinary teams that test
new technologies and accelerate
platforms to build internal
expertise and hands-on experience
of potential game-changing
technologies whilst focusing on
immediate business problems
Established Search, User
Experience and Mobility
competency centres as key
strategic areas for future success.
They will develop and be
embedded into enterprise
capabilities with world-class
technology leadership
Providing enterprise leadership to
understand the pain points of the
business and ensure that proposed
technology changes are unified and
governed to maximise business
value as AZIT develop corporate
platforms, workflows and choices

6. Global Reach
Today we have 3 tech labs.
Presence in these key technology
clusters gives an early view of
emerging technologies,
companies and start-ups.
San Francisco is today’s Innovation Capital of
the World and our tech lab will facilitate links
with innovative research start-ups, venture
capitalists and global technology leaders. This
office provides new opportunities at the
forefront of healthcare digital innovation and
major breakthroughs in enterprise technology.
Cambridge is the most dynamic scientific
business cluster in the world. We are
surrounded by 19 science parks with over
1,500 high-tech companies, world class
academic institutions at the bleeding
edge of scientific research and key
research hospitals like Addenbrookes.
Shanghai is emerging as the top city for
tech innovation internationally and is
predicted to become the global technology
centre within 4 years. Our tech lab is able
to tap into novel scientific research &
development, advanced engineering,
health nanotechnology and robotics.

7. UK Tech Lab
Small team quickly assess new technologies and platforms in real-world settings,
prioritising relevant business problems with applicability in an enterprise potential:-
7
CLOUD DATA WEARABLES PATIENTS DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE MOBILE SECURITY

8. See Things Differently
Critical to us to have the next generation of talent in our team as they don’t already have
bad practises but also already on the forefront of social, mobile and collaborative tech
8
Eddie Wu
Izzy Derrig
Charlotte Lorains
Stefano Elia
Sandra Giuliani
Josh Mesout
IT Graduate
IT Apprentice
IT Apprentice
IT Graduate
IT Graduate
IT Graduate
PharmDev graduate, predictive science,
computational chemistry, digital health
background - just started rotation in CTO
IT graduate, machine learning, mobile app,
wearable developer, IT software engineering
background - just started rotation in CTO
IT graduate, website designer, business
analysis, video editing background - just left
CTO for a rotation in Operations IT
IT graduate, health economics, tech
enthusiast, software engineer, now
with full time role in China Tech Lab
IT apprentice, user research analyst,
graph design background, now with a
full-time role in our UXCC.
IT apprentice recently had first rotation
in CTO working on crowd-sourcing ideas,
communications and mobile app launch

9. Diversity is the Key to Innovation
To be able to rapidly understand and define business problem, it’s critical for us to have
diversity. This allows us to work on the right things straight away.
9
R&D (>20yr)
Commercial (>10yr)
Operations (>10yr)
Biologics (>10yr)
Data Science
Cloud Infrastructure
Software Engineering
Collaboration
Change Management
Business Analysis
Advanced Text Analytics
User Research
Image Algorithms
Digital Health

10. Build Platform &
Handover a Search
Competency Centre
Recruit & Establish a
User Experience
Competency Centre
Drive tech incubation
& prototype new,
emerging technologies
Develop apps for our
Mobile competency
centre
2015
We really aimed to learn UX as we accessed, accelerated and adopted new technologies.
10

11. R&D Search
11
In 100 days we implemented Sinequa real-time search engine within R&D for
10k users. Covering all scientific information and core internal repositories.
Today, we have over 180
million documents,
searchable sub-second with
key scientific vocabularies
(SciBite) automatically
tagged and findable.
Users can create alerts and
find every document relating
to a drug (and every
synonym automatically)
Business
reference group
User
Requirements
Mock-up, Plan &
Build
Execute
Support &
Maintain

12. Enterprise Search
12
Then developed a new global Enterprise Search in 8 weeks
and launched as part of the new portal, Nucleus. This now
has >60k users with multi-language support.
Search enables us to socialise key
findings from news & documents, but
also chatter, applications, people and
scientific tags – helping to connect
people together.
Already in pre-production, indexation
of all of our cloud repositories (Box,
Sharepoint, Veeva etc)
Learnt from our failings in R&D Search
to be more user centred designed
Product
Owner
User
Stories
Interactive
Prototypes
Developed 4
sprint cycles
Support &
Maintain

13. Polar Feedback
13
No middle ground – people seemed to either love it or really wanted the old
system back (not the speed!)…
13
“Impressive! An AZ
search engine that
brings back documents
that are useful.”
“Wow ,
news on my
mobile!”
“I see how this
can help make us
a $50B company“
"In all my years, I have
never been able to find the
data until now"
“Can we use
this info in
our app?”
“This is a game changer”
“Can we use this
search for our system”
“Where are
top links!”
“Oh it’s there. It’s very dark,
I didn’t really see that”
“I knew what I was doing
on the older one”
“The filters are too complicated”
“There used to be two
buttons here but there
gone. Oh. They’re there!”

14. Usability Lab
14
Watching users use the product in real life was eye-opening. They didn’t use it
like we had assumed. After 5 users, realized it wasn’t the users fault !!!
14
Enterprise Search
“it finally feels that
you are being
listened to”

15. Pace of Change
15
Helped us implement 40 quick fixes within 5 days but major overhaul to the UI.
Led to improvements in search and usability with 3 bespoke search apps.
15
 Recognised this as an opportunity for something where usability was good (>70
system usability scores!) but we could do this across every IT system
Before After

16. 16
Our customers want this
New Expectations
but still getting this
It was clear, even with a fast search engine, modern UI and access to new
information, users levels of expectations are set higher than ever.

17. Usability LAB Concept
Between July and December, we ran 12 UX Labs in conjunction with Sigma, bringing AZ
participants into a Usability Lab or going portable into their global locations.
Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Enterprise
Search
Approvals
App
People App
MyHR
AZLearn & iLearn
AZTECS & Concur SmartIT Opal
iBuyPharmDev devices

18. Usability Labs League Table
Concept was to benchmark all of our IT systems to enables us to have consistency across
our enterprise applications (including mobile) so that we can provide an independent view
on whether tools need significant remediation and quantify improvements in new versions.
Poor OK Good Excellent
XXX
45
XXXXX
XXXX
76
xxXX
76
XXXX
73
XXXXX
32
XXXX
42
XXXX
56

19. Technology Incubation Principles
We’re designed to research customer problems, understand key insight, scout relevant
technology and then validate quickly with rapid prototypes and proof-of-concepts
19
We try to
embrace Design
Thinking by
testing concepts
early through
Lean Start-up
methods and
iteratively
developing
further using Agile
Development and
bi-weekly sprints.

20. Design Thinking Principles
Taking a human-centered approach to innovation to really integrate the needs of people,
the possibilities of technology and the requirements for business success
20
Observing the users, walking in their shoes and reframing to really understand the
business challenge from different angles was the most important first step.

21. Mobility: Find People
21
Developed application for internal colleagues working closely with business
users and understanding their different views. Built as iOS app using
AppCelerator for reusing mobile components and platform portability.

22. Agile Development Principles
Today most of our IT is developed using traditional waterfall
approaches. We have used agile methodologies for many years
now and value software over documentation every time.
22
Agile
Methodologies
Sprint cycles really help
us to work closely with
the business customer
and ensure what we
deliver is relevant.

23. Mobility: Approvals App
23
Imagine 1 mobile app that shows all of your employee requests and lets you
approve them easily, compliantly and anywhere in the world.
23
simple mobile app for approving
travel, expense, invoice and
procurement requests on the move
senior executives currently testing
beta version
systems across 2 core platforms
integrated today Designed to
handle any approvals, any system
Others now in planning for 2016
Users provided feedback that led to
rapid redevelopments to the
interface. Simplified the information
shown, however still compliant
2nd MVP out, now scaling up for potential roll-out for key users
1
50
10

24. Guerrilla Testing
24
Amazing response when just asked users what they thought !

25. Practical UX
We were learning as we went along this journey but one thing was very clear, anything that
we did had to be practical and useful to what we were trying to do. Observing what users
actually do proved invaluable to find their shortcuts to existing problems.
25

26. UX Methods
As part of our tech incubation projects, we actually tried our hand at all sorts of UX
methods to get familiar with the approaches and see what worked and what didn’t.
26 KPIs & User Satisfaction
Design Thinking Personas
User Interface Design Usability Benchmarking
Device Testing A/B testingInteractive Prototypes
StoryboardingUser Research

27. UX Toolset
As well as trying lots of techniques, we also tested lots of different software – we didn’t
want to recommend any tool that we hadn’t used ourselves.
27
Balsamiq
basic mock-ups
Axure
Interactive web prototypes
Just In Mind
Interactive wireframes
Tree Jack
Information Mapping
First Click Detection
Chalkmark
Device Recording
InVision
Interactive WireframesMobile Device Sharing
Reflector Morae
Some times we just realised that software was overkill and
taking notes was simply more effective and efficient !

28. Clinical Trial: Journey Map
For a recent project, entire team spent 3 weeks mapping data systems, user interviews,
quantitative surveys and observing what really happened to understand the real issues
28
 Increased engagement and
awareness for the whole team
 Everyone could contribute, no
idea too small
 Different approaches to how we
could solve the same problems

29. Clinical Trial: User Personas
Once we understood what actually happens, we could establish the key insights for each of
the major personas and where new, emerging technologies would have the biggest impact
29

30. Clinical Trial: Storyboard
We always visualise what we are trying to do but storyboards provided a formal way to do
this which could be used with senior leaders to help them feel the emotion of the problem
30

31. Clinical Trial: Interactive Prototypes
And the level of detail that we now do in our interactive prototypes means that our
development costs are considerable lower and users can provide feedback very quickly
31

32. Proact – Launch
32
Developed Proact – mobile app to capture the usability
and tolerability of our drugs in clinical trials through
patient video diaries.
32
• Built using UCD principles with multiple points of
view (patient, doctor, analysts, directors)
• From original prototype to pilot in 90 days
• Enterprise grade, HIPAA compliant, Secure.
• Available on the Google App Store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.astrazenaca.proact

33. Proact: Joint Application Design
33
Sigma introduced us to a JAD process which really proved invaluable – building an
interactive prototype with all of the stakeholders in the room at once ! (if a little crazy)
33
JAD
Doctors Scientist
DevelopersPatients
Analysts

34. Proact - Agile Delivery
34
MVP1 : HCP and Patient Portal
Responsive Web portal to allow
patients and HCP’s the ability to
send video messages
MVP2 : Patient
Android Mobile
application
Mobile application
for patients only
that allows videos
to be sent and
viewed on Android
mobile and tablet
devices
MVP3 : Analyst Portal
Highly secure portal allowing
analysts the ability to transcribe
videos and tag impact on
patient against a medical
taxonomy
By delivering a full stack for each MVP, we’ve been able to test with real users how they use
the platform and ideas for the next product improvements that will make a real difference

35. Non-Digital Products
35
We have already run usability testing to compare new prototypes for 3D printed devices as
well as observational studies of new Smart IT meeting room equipment

36. Learnings across 2015
36
Our journey has changed how we look at problems. In fact, our hardest problem is now
identifying the right business problem not jumping into finding the right solution.
Discover Design Develop Deliver
effort
Discover Design Develop Deliver
effort
From: To:
By spending a little more time up front, we remove the churn at the end of the
process… however it’s not all just more User Research !!!

37. Lean Start-Up Principles
By experimenting with iterative product releases, Lean Start-up concepts can reduce
market risks, sidestep large project funding and expensive product launches AND failures
37
VS
Rather than spending
hours on user research
upfront, we prefer to
identify key assumptions
and just… test them
Build simple experiments,
measure before, measure
after and learn. Once you
have something physical,
critical to gather user
research for key insights

38. In-Video Search !
38
The Azure Media Services cloud platform is able to ingest audio and video files
and automatically generates a >90% accurate transcription (English only)
38
By combining Amazon, Docker and Microsoft Azure, we were able to go from first
prototype to global implementation in 7 weeks in our enterprise search platform.

39. The Next Big Data Engine ?
3939
We are really
excited to hear
about new,
emerging
technologies
that could be
the next big
data platform
with enterprise
applicability
across
AstraZeneca.
In true lean-start-up fashion, last week we built something new. If you are a start-up with an
emerging technology that seems relevant, please pitch IT at http://pitchIT.astrazeneca.com

40. Lean UX Process
Initially we really try to empathise with our business customers and walk in their shoes.
Then rapidly build prototypes to validate the technology and confirm our assumptions.
If successful, explore in partnership through iterative development of proof-of-concepts.
Of course all underpinned by UX !
40
AGILE
METHODS
USER EXPERIENCE COMPETENCY

41. UX Competency Centre
41
UX Analyst
Izzy Derrig
Macclesfield
Senior UX
Researcher
James Hoeksma
Cambridge
Head of UX CC
Rob Graham
Cambridge
Senior UX
Designer
Neil Turner
Cambridge
Senior UX
Researcher
(vacant)
Wilmington, US
Senior UX
Designer
(vacant)
Wilmington, US
Senior UX
Manager
Zoomy Zhang *
Shanghai
Senior UI/ UX
Designer
Amaca Wang **
Shanghai
As well as applying tools and methods to our projects, we have recruited a bespoke
competency centre for accelerating UX by driving standards, best practise and training.

42. Hackathon Concept & Video
4242
With the insight gained from patients, in the two weeks after this work,
we had identified an existing technology in Silicon Valley that is already
doing what the three teams had prototyped in 36 hours…
Sigma AstraZenecaPebbleCode
The following video sums up our new approach and shows how we have used hackathons
to understand what our customers want, within a few days in a friendly competition…

43. Nick Brown nick.brown@astrazeneca.com
Marc Harrigan marc.harrigan@astrazeneca.com
Izzy Derrig isobelle.derrig@astrazeneca.com
Users At The Heart of What You Do
By leveraging practical principles from UX, but also
elements from design thinking, agile development and
lean start-up, we have been able to change the way that
we impact our business in small but powerful steps.
Thank You