We recently caught up with Anke Kurt, Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry at Roche, who shared insights from her work on the Digital Lab project (D-WoW). She highlighted the challenges of user acceptance when introducing new digital tools and the importance of bridging business and lab needs. Read the full interview below.
Q1. What are you currently working on?
I’m working as a scientist in Medicinal Chemistry at Roche Pharma Research and Early Development with more than 30 years of lab experience.
Since 2020 I have been working in the Digital Lab project (D-WoW - digital ways of working) as a business representative and product owner. I have brought many business requirements into the project and worked on these topics together with the lab community and continue to support our community on digital lab topics.
Q2. What will you be covering in your talk?
I will talk about the challenges on the user side and also with the user community when new digital tools are introduced in the labs. We find ourselves in a landscape with a high number of digital applications far beyond the lab environment. And it is more than natural that not all users are enthusiastic when new tools and workflows are introduced. What measures have we taken to achieve user acceptance – how can we make usage a success?
Q3. What are the biggest challenges you see?
I've often observed how difficult it is to build a bridge to the business: to address the needs of lab employees, to understand their processes, but also to achieve a sufficient level of user participation in the implementation.
We want to make the lives of lab workers easier—”more time for science” has always been our motto. However, there are also areas that are becoming increasingly complex, we have to consider that. And not least, communication to achieve the desired level of acceptance among laboratory staff also remains a challenge.