In MedTech, How Do You Define a User Need? with Nick Lesniewski-Laas of Sunrise Labs

 

The fundamental question that comes with designing new MedTech devices is this one: What are the user needs and requirements? The questions feels simple enough, but it’s far from simple. With that question comes others: Who is the user? What makes a good requirement? How do you actually test these requirements? For a MedTech designer like Nick Lesniewski-Laas, Director of Electrical Engineering for Sunrise Labs, these questions can often inhibit his ability to deliver on quality products if the communication between all parties isn’t consistent and straight-forward. “I’m in the business of designing medical devices because I want to help people and I want to make sure that the devices I design are best able to do that,” Lesniewski-Laas said. “So, a lot of guidelines around requirements writing are aimed toward that but don’t really hit the mark in my opinion.”

On today’s Healthcare podcast, Lesniewski-Laas digs into this multi-layered question of delivering on user needs and defining needs versus requirements versus actual mandated FDA requirements. “By far the most important things to me are ‘unambiguous’ and ‘testable,’ or ‘verifiable,'” Lesniewski-Laas said. He breaks down the importance of atomicity, the way user needs affect everyone from the manufacturers to the patients, and his process for getting everyone involved on the same page so the potentially life-saving product can make its way efficiently to market.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Healthcare Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @HealthMKSL
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

coverage
Clip 2 – Fighting for Coverage: One Patient’s Story
December 3, 2025

Health insurers love to advertise themselves as guardians of care, but the real story often begins when a patient’s life no longer fits neatly into a spreadsheet. In oncology especially, “coverage” isn’t a bureaucratic checkbox—it’s the fragile bridge between a treatment that finally works and a relapse that can undo years of grit…

Read More
educator advocacy
Just Thinking… About How Rapid Shifts in AI and Policy Are Elevating the Need for Educator Advocacy in Texas Schools
December 3, 2025

Schools today are navigating a whirlwind of change, from new expectations in the job market to the growing influence of AI and the constant push to rethink accountability. That’s why conversations about educator advocacy matter so much right now. Texas, for example, ranks among the lowest ten states in per-pupil funding—even while boasting the seventh-strongest…

Read More
great leaders
Why Great Leaders Hire People Unlike Themselves
December 3, 2025

Leadership today is being reshaped by a simple lesson many leaders learn the hard way: a team full of people who think the same way won’t get you very far. Research shows that teams with deeper diversity—meaning differences in perspectives, values, and cognitive frameworks—consistently outperform more uniform teams in creativity, innovation, and complex decision-making. Today,…

Read More
Automation
Just Thinking… About How Career and Technical Education Can Keep Up With AI and Automation
December 3, 2025

Automation and AI aren’t arriving someday—they’re already reshaping factory floors, logistics hubs, and technical workplaces right now. That shift is putting schools, especially Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, on the spot: the jobs students are training for are evolving faster than most curricula. In its Future of Jobs Report 2025, the World Economic…

Read More