Streamlining Chaotic Worflow with a Biopharma Dashboard

Overview

The client, a leading biopharmaceutical company, struggled with high turnover and training issues among their Strategic Planning & Operations Sr. Managers (SPO), who play a vital role in supporting Therapeutic Area Heads (TAH) overseeing the drug creation process. Initial research highlighted several pain points: fragmented systems, cumbersome workflows, and slow data/data gaps, which greatly reduced employee satisfaction.

To address this, the company engaged PwC to develop a connected, intuitive, and actionable digital solution to provide real-time insights into drug creation processes, aiding target users in their daily responsibilities.

As the sole UI/UX designer, I collaborated with a Creative Director, a Junior Strategist, internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and client executives to craft a dashboard experience that encapsulated the product vision into concrete designs.

Strategic Planning & Operations Sr. Managers (SPO) Persona

Therapeutic Area Head (TAH) Persona

Challenges

Complex Subject Matter

The drug creation process was extremely challenging to grasp without prior industry experience. Moreover, I joined the project near the end of the research phase, giving me just four weeks to catch up and develop the designs.

A draft user journey, affectionately called 'Ball of Spaghetti' by the team

Fortunately, I was able to draw on my prior experience in enterprise software design and the knowledge of internal SMEs to overcome these challenges. Upon analyzing the current workflows and screens, I recognized similarities to other portals I had worked on previously, where the main goal was to highlight issues at a high level and facilitate detailed investigations through drill-downs.

I then collaborated with the SMEs to group the current workflows into several main branching drill-down paths from the dashboard. Working backward from these paths, I identified key data areas to feature on the dashboard and created wireframe examples to visualize how the data could be presented. Lastly, I collaborated with the SMEs to populate the UI with realistic data and validate the visualizations before presenting them to client stakeholders for further refinement.

Collaborating with SMEs to determine main drill-down paths and identify key data areas for the dashboard

Initial dashboard draft incorporating SME feedback, client was delighted with visualizations but suggested a more structured layout to better orient users through the vast amount of data

Final mockup incorporating client feedback on required data and visualizations, with improved structure through grouping tiles into swim lanes for easier comprehension

Outcome

We quickly finalized the dashboard designs through a series of collaborative workshops, even delivering several additional screens to provide a more comprehensive view of the experience. The client was delighted at how swiftly we transformed their vague concepts into polished designs. They were thrilled with the results and confident that our designs would significantly aid in securing further project funding.