Overview
With the advancement of science and technology, it is unbelievable that the patent field still works in a time-consuming way. Even the most critical confidential tasks like corporate mergers and acquisitions(M&A) still rely on many human resources for data collection and data cleansing for further analysis and evaluation.
Therefore, we provide a solution that allows users to upload a patent list to obtain analysis reports with one click. Visualizing the data dashboard will enable users to gain insights quickly and make more accurate business decisions.
Skills
UI/UX Design
User Research
Journey Mapping
Wireframing
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Design Systems
Outcomes
User Flows
Wireframes
High Fidelity Mockups
Interactive Prototypes
Style Guide
My Role
Product Designer
Completed
2019
What is due diligence?
Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is usually expected to take before entering into any agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care.
The theory behind due diligence holds that performing this type of investigation contributes significantly to informed decision-making by enhancing the amount and quality of information available to decision-makers and by ensuring that this information is systematically used to deliberate on the decision at hand and all its costs, benefits, and risks.
- Chapman, C. E. (2006). Conducting Due Diligence. Practicing Law Institute, New York, NY.
Stakeholders & Problems
Acquiree’s Problems
- Review the patent list regularly and find the abandon or sell targets.
- Don’t want acquirer to know much about the portfolio.
- Need more marketing material for gaining better bargain position.
Broker’s Problems
- May ask acquiree to point out the good one.
- Spent their time filtering and reviewing acquiree’s portfolio.
- Need more marketing material for gaining better bargain position.Never want to be bypassed and allowed acurier and acuiree communicate to each other directly.
Acquirer’s Problems
- May get many pitching all the time, spend a lot of time filtering them.
- With limited information, the acquirer can only follow competitors to do their purchasing.
- Spent a lot of time studying for the portfolio but not really efficient or accurate due to the lack of patent domain knowledge.
How to find diamonds
in the rough?
Goals
The primary goal was to design an intuitive experience for users to evaluate the patent portfolio's value without wasting time collecting, cleansing, and analyzing patent data.
There are some necessary conditions to achieve the goal.
- Turn complex data into understandable visualized charts.
- Flexible layouts and components
- The highly recognizable color palette
- Clear information structure
Design Process
01. Discovery
Workshops
Whiteboarding
Workflow & Tools
User Research
02. Analysis
Business Flow
MVP Scoping
03. Concepting
Data visualization
Atomic Design Development
Wireframe
High-Fidelity Interaction
Pilot user interviews
Usability Testing
04. Outcomes
Final High-Fidelity Design
Style & Components Guideline
Usability Feedback
Discovery & Analysis
To kick off discovery, the company held a series of workshops to learn about the current workflow of the traditional due diligence process and who the stakeholders are.
After workshops, I analyzed the workflow of scenarios and whiteboard sketches in high-level concepts and paper prototyping to communicate with the project manager to set the project goals and define the MVP scope.
Concepting
What information should the acquirer know?
- The status of patents in the portfolio.
- What countries are involved in the portfolio?
- Who owns the patents?
- Which patents are diamonds?
- Is the portfolio’s quality good?
- Ｈow much is it worth？
- Are there historical problems?
- Who are the targets that I can against from the portfolio?
Data visualization
Besides the intuitive user interface, understandable and recognizable charting is the most important.
The biggest challenge in this product is how to convert complex data into meaningful charts.
Through interviews with expert users, we can clarify what information users need to know and present it in the right way. The point is how to make charts tell stories.
User Research
When we finished the POC version, we invited expert users to join the user interviews and usability testing to validate the design before launch. The results will be analyzed as a basis for future iterations.
Method used： Usability test、Interview、Cognitive walkthrough、Desirability test variation
Design Solutions
The product structure of Patent Due Diligence is straightforward. After uploading the patent numbers, you can see the analysis results. We designed the coachmarks feature to make the dashboard more easily understood. If you have any confusion, you can open the "About this chart" on every card of the chart.
Upload
There are three ways to upload data; by pasting numbers, importing from Patent Vault, and uploading by party search. Here we take the party search for example.
Coachmarks
Open the "About this chart" button, and the user will see the instruction on how to read the chart.
Dashboard
Due Diligence has seven dimensions of the analysis results.
Users can click the tab to change it, and the tab will be fixed on the top for convenience.
Try the prototype below!
