The Success Story of Intuitive Surgical

Anyone involved in surgical robotic innovation closely monitors Intuitive as they increasingly dominate the medical robotics market. Founded in 1995 by entrepreneur Fred Moll, MD, Intuitive now stands as a beacon in the MedTech field, emphasizing the importance of minimally invasive, easy-to-use, ergonomic, and confidence-inspiring products. It is recognized as the preeminent surgical robotics company globally. (Fred Moll later went on to found Hansen Medical, and then Auris Surgical Robotics, where I had the pleasure to meet and work while designing the Auris Monarch.)

What does this mean for design?

As designers, our argument for good design in MedTech has been simple: As clinicians experience well-designed products in their personal lives, such as the Apple iPhone, Tesla cars, and Sonos smart speakers, they now expect this high level of design and usability from the products they use at work. It seems obvious to designers, but frankly, it is still a hard sell, and most MedTech companies still don’t understand the value that good design delivers. Design is still perceived as an aesthetic layer, or, to put it bluntly, styling. Every mature designer working on medical robotics will attest that styling is the last objective. The real focus for design excellence is "user-centered design." The best designers put people, the clinician, and patients, at the core of the product development process, not styling and not technology.

Why is Intuitive successful?

Clearly, the C-suite made a strategic decision to invest in design, and this has become more evident over the years. The release of the new Da Vinci 5 says it all. Intuitive has heavily invested in an incredible internal design team. A quick review of LinkedIn revealed that they have 46 designers working across industrial design, interaction design, and visual design, with an average of 16.6 years of experience. This is a very experienced mature team. In the Bay Area, a designer of this caliber likely earns between $250,000 to $350,000 annually. Let's say $300,000 for an average. This is $13.8M in salaries alone. Then add on employee benefits, stock options, physical space, software, computers, workshops, models, prototypes, etc. The annual design budget is probably closer to $20M. This amounts to a significant investment in design.

Like computers, medical robotics is a green-field opportunity.

This commitment to design echoes the ethos of Apple, where Steve Jobs recognized the green field opportunity in computing and the fierce race ahead. Jobs prioritized design from the early days of the company when he hired Frog Design to design Apple’s first design language system in 1984 for a purported $3.5M (which is $12M today with inflation). He then went on to build the best in-house design team in the world and now one of the richest companies globally. Intuitive has followed suit. It's as if someone at Intuitive said, “We need to be the Apple of the medical robotics. It's going to be a fiercely competitive fight as more players enter the medical robotics market, and our commitment to user-centered design will be our key differentiator.”

How to achieve design excellence in medical robotics?

In my career, I've had the opportunity to work on three medical robots, and in each case, the CEO's understanding of design and its value has been pivotal. The CEO has to be the evangelist for design to be able to promote design's role in an engineering-dominated culture. CEOs understand the strategic role design plays— crucial in attracting investment, making user-friendly products, and attracting the attention of hospital administrators who make purchasing decisions. Or, if you have an eye towards acquisition, to attract ongoing investment and eventually sell to one of the “strategics” (Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Johnson and Johnson, Abbott, etc.)

Why is design hard to sell?

Despite the success of Intuitive and Auris, when reaching out to emerging robotics companies, we often encounter the misconception that they are "too early" in the process for design, or there is no budget for typical design fees that designers in the Bay Area charge. Many of these companies opt for the cheap route and hire inexperienced designers or designers from abroad as they are cheaper than local design teams. Or they do use design as a superficial layer, where the designers are asked to make an already engineered product “look pretty.”

How to run a design team with a medical robotics company.

To be effective, the design team, whether outsourced or an internal team, needs to work very closely with clinical engineering and hardware to be truly effective. This means being in close proximity, as much as possible. For example, when we work with our clients, we ask for a desk in their engineering lab. As any seasoned designer will attest, effective design requires tight integration with clinical engineering (research) and the hardware team from the outset. Involved early on, design can interpret research findings and translate insights into rapid prototypes for testing and refinement with clinicians. Designers can serve as a bridge between research and engineering, ensuring that engineering aligns with the needs of end-users. This level of collaboration between designers and engineers is essential for success.

To all emerging and startup companies in the MedTech and robotics sectors, it would be wise to take note of what Intuitive is doing. Stay ahead of the pack by investing in experienced designers. You can't afford not to.