My first project as the new lead (and only) designer for ZAIDYN Connected Health (ZCH) was redesigning a newly acquired product called Studio Medical Insights.

I eventually learned that the product was actually an amalgamation of 2 different products, each designed by a different design team.

Most of the original designers had left ZS, but I was able to connect with a few to understand some of the use cases and design rationale.

Competitive analysis was also a good source for inspiration and understanding industry trends.

This blurry picture of a direct competitor was stealthily taken by one of our product managers at a trade show.

Welcome to the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical business intelligence, baby.

My research indicated 3 key themes:

1. Functionality was not on par with competitors (Not modern or intuitive)

2. UI lacked consistency, color, and motion (Not modern)

3. Slow loading and performance (Not user friendly)

I then led a prioritization exercise where to determine what improvements could be done in the near vs. long-term.

To accelerate the design process and establish a collaborative environment, I scheduled working sessions with the PMs and developers.

What followed was the start of a fairly typical iterative design process.

Not long after, we were told by leadership to have a demo environment ready for the MAPS (
Medical Affairs Professional Society) Conference.

This would cut our timeline in half.

Original Timeline

Revised Timeline

I had the most success with moderated usability testing.

I would ask stakeholders and product owners to walk me through key tasks and describe to me what they were feeling.

Any time words like “modern” or “intuitive” popped up, I’d ask them to describe what those words meant, and to tie it to what they were seeing.

To say I was frustrated would be an understatement.

But I knew this was a huge opportunity for the product, and I didn’t want to be the weak link on the team.

Unlike your typical client demo, there would be no captive audience at this conference.

Attendees would be walking from booth to booth, so this new UI would have to grab eyes from a distance and keep them glued to the screen.

I also wanted to cover as many competitor gaps as possible, since they would literally be in the same building.

All this while designing as holistically as possible. I made sure the work we were doing for this demo would scale with the long-term product vision.

Before

Before

Before

Before

Screen did not exist previously

In order to accommodate the timeline, the scope of the redesign was reduced, and features were re-prioritized.

I led the team through another prioritization exercise, but this time, tailored to the context and audience of the conference.

The Product

While we normally design following the ZAIDYN Design System, I was given a little more freedom by leadership to deliver something that would wow clients.

And I’m not formally trained in visual design, but I know enough to execute my ideas on my own.

Here are the results:

After

After

After

Epilogue

By all accounts, our product was well received at the conference.

Since the MAPS conference, we were able to launch our product with five clients
(Pfizer, NNCI, Phathom, Replimmune, and Apellis) and generate $550K in revenue.

I am still actively working on the product as its lead designer.

Our official H1 Update

Takeaways

This product redesign felt like a trial by fire.

I was joining a newly assembled team to work on a newly acquired product.

Leadership was not subtle about communicating how much was riding on this product.
I felt the pressure early and often.

I had very little context and data to start the project, but I kept digging until I found something to ground my thinking.

I was able to navigate my way through a huge timeline crunch and deliver a product that is well received by users and revenue generating.

It was a stressful ordeal, but definitely a confidence building moment.

But in order to make meaningful improvements, I needed user research and feedback.

Prior to my onboarding, qualitative research and feedback was gathered from leadership and prospective clients.

The research was not conducted by a UX researcher, so vague phrases such as
“Not intuitive”, “Not modern”, and “Not user friendly” were frequently used.

Designers hear these phrases so often, they’re almost meaningless.

In order to truly understand the feedback and address pain points, I had to dig deeper.