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Understanding how labs and technical teams manage shared equipment in practice

A set of short studies exploring how teams manage shared equipment, find what they need, and deal with real operational constraints.

Part of an ETH MAS thesis on operational workflows and early-stage product learning

View available studies

Why this research

Many technical and research environments rely on shared equipment, distributed tools, and informal coordination. These studies aim to understand how this works in practice, where current approaches create friction, and what would realistically work in real-world environments.

This research is based on early observations from engineering and research environments where shared equipment and coordination create recurring challenges.

Available studies

Equipment visibility study

How do teams keep track of what exists, where it is, and whether it is ready to use?

Open study

Equipment discovery study

How do people identify the right equipment for a task when they do not already know the exact asset?

Coming soon

Asset context study

What information (setup, usage, issues) do people need before they can confidently use equipment?

Coming soon

Asset tracking realism study

What level of asset tracking is actually realistic to maintain in practice, and who would be responsible for it?

Coming soon

What to expect

Research notes

Short reflections and insights from ongoing research on equipment workflows and operational realities. Research notes will be published here as the project progresses.

View research notes

About this project

This research is part of a study focused on early-stage product learning in technical environments. The work is conducted in the context of exploring how shared equipment and operational coordination are managed in practice across labs and engineering teams.

The goal is to understand real workflows and constraints before building further solutions. This project is conducted by Stephan Caruso as part of his MAS thesis at ETH Zurich.

Start with the visibility study

No signup required · responses are anonymous