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Message Laboratory Posters Lilly is in the midst of an organization-wide transformation to become more patient-centered. As part of this effort, the pharmaceutical company wanted to encourage its R&D scientists,who develop molecules and formulate therapies, to consider patient needs earlier in the drug development process. Lilly asked IDEO to design a series of inspirational posters for display in laboratories and hallways. Together, Lilly and IDEO set out to create a series of posters for display in the labs and public areas of the formulation group that would address three needs: Visually Arresting: The team wanted something attention-getting enough to catch the eye of heads-down scientists, compelling enough to remain on display for an extended period of time, and coherent as a system. Provocative: Once a scientist moved in for a closer look, the team wanted the posters to be able to quickly educate them and inspire them, challenging their assumptions about the patients and how they experience the condition and therapy. Informative: Beyond use in the hallways, the team wanted the posters to be useful in brainstorming exercises, with enough substance and explicit challenges to help the researchers connect the empathy to the reality of formulating new therapies. The Lilly team also wanted these posters to challenge their expectations and elevate the standards for images and messages they use to inspire their work. They didn’t want smiling people on a beach marketing messages; they wanted to present the real issues and situations that their patients face. The Lilly team selected 8 target disease-states with molecules currently in development, and worked closely with IDEO to understand internal communication issues and the needs of the audience within the research community at Lilly. The IDEO team explored online patient communities for inspiration, creating a rough system to structure the information—three posters for each disease-state addressing the condition, therapy, and patient population separately. Rather than use marketing messages or scientific language, the posters used the words of real patients and their caregivers as much as possible to help the scientists understand to patient issues in direct terms. Because patient privacy constraints prevented the use of portraits in the posters the team designed the posters to evoke specific challenges or attributes of the conditions as patients experience them. Reaction to the posters from scientists within the PR&D group has been positive, they are currently on display throughout the PR&D facility in Indianapolis, IN. Additional groups within Lilly have adopted the posters to help inspire and influence work in other areas to be more human-centered. IDEO was excited to engage a long-term client in a new aspect of bringing human-centered design to their organization, and to bring value to a strategic part of the product development process. http://www.ideo.com/work/laboratory-posters/