Detailed case study
Introduce and integrate UX methodologies
Background
This was a strategic assignment to introduce UX to a predominantly product focussed organisation.
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MSD was trialling an Agile initiative as a completely new way of working within marketing.
3 outside teams (known as the Agile Teams), each incorporating a UX Designer, Data Analyst and Front-End Developer were assigned to the core therapy areas (TA's) within MSD:
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Oncology
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Diabetes
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Immunology
The company lacked any knowledge or experience of UX principles, practices, or methodologies, leaving me with a completely blank strategic canvas to operate from.
Data analyst
Front-end Dev
UX Designer
Each of the 3 TA's had a trio of outside expertise to support their internal teams
The Team
The 3 specialist teams worked on site at MSD's UK head office in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
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Each team was allocated a particular therapy area to work with - joining a cross-section of internal marketing professionals.
I initially started in Oncology, but would also be heavily involved with Immunology during my time at MSD.
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The office was a large open plan layout with different therapy areas occupying their own physical space on the floor. This visible transparency enabled the separate Agile teams to share experiences and solutions.
Strategic Approach
Within each of the 3 teams, the UX Designers had complete autonomy on what they were going to do and how they were going to do it.
In my team, Oncology, I spent the first couple of weeks meeting as many different people as possible, immersing myself in their day-to-day activities and keenly observing their workflows and methods.
This immersive approach was crucial in both establishing trust and rapport with team members, demonstrating a genuine interest in understanding their roles and responsibilities, and formulating on a strategy with which to introduce UX.
My strategic approach:
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Educate
Start by introducing the concept of UX in simple terms, highlighting its importance in creating products or services that meet users' needs effectively. -
Demonstrate Value
Showcase real-world examples of how investing in UX has led to improved customer satisfaction, increased user engagement, and ultimately, higher business returns. -
Training and Workshops
Organize training sessions and workshops to familiarize employees with UX principles, methodologies, and tools. Make it interactive and hands-on to encourage participation and understanding. -
Apply
Begin with pilot projects where UX principles can be applied in a practical setting. This allows the team to gain experience and see the impact first-hand. -
Measure Success
Define key performance indicators to measure the success of UX initiatives, such as downloads, click-thru rates, conversion rates and direct user feedback. Use these metrics to track progress and demonstrate the value of UX to the company. -
Iterate and Improve
Continuously gather feedback and iterate on the UX process based on insights gained. Encourage a culture of experimentation and learning from both successes and failures. -
Embed UX in Company Culture
Foster a company-wide mindset that prioritizes user needs and experiences in all aspects of product development and decision-making.
Educate & Demonstrate Value
I started by running a series of short presentations, explaining what UX was and why we have it.
I showed examples (digital and real world) of what happens when you don’t have UX and when you ignore the user.
Initially, I found myself going from desk to desk, offering coffee and pastries if people would give me 20 minutes of their time.
However, word spread quickly and, with the help of some early-identified champions, people were coming to me to find out more about this UX thing.
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I was affectionally referred to as 'The UX Guy'!
Training & Workshops
Putting the U in UX
One of the first things I discovered was how little the teams actually knew about their users. They knew a lot about their products, but not the people that were actually using them.
In one of my early workshops we explored this, and the initial resounding response was “Doctors, Specialists and Consultants”.
This made sense to the group because these were the people that were ‘buying’ the products.
But then I asked…
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What about the nurses that administer these products?
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What about the patients that receive them?
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What about the family and carers that support the patients?
It was a beautiful moment when I saw the ‘penny drop’ all around the room. Suddenly there were a lot more users out there – each with their own set of needs.
Extract from my training presentation
“Sorry, you can’t speak to them”
Unfortunately, the reason the marketing teams hadn’t considered the wider user group, and no detailed research had been done, was that it was very difficult to talk to Health Care Professionals (HCPs), the Doctors, Specialist and Consultants’, let alone actual patients. Regulations within the industry made this virtually impossible.
Having worked a lot in retail, when you could literally walk up to shoppers and ask them questions, I found this a major challenge.
I hoped one group of people within MSD could provide a solution to this problem – the Key Account Managers (KAMs). It was their role to go out and sell MSD products to Health Care Trusts and to get their drugs on the formulary. They did this by travelling the country and holding face-to-face meetings with senior HCPs. As a result, they built up a good rapport with their contacts and the medical teams under them.
I decided to engage with the KAMs as proxy users and get them to help me understand the needs of the wider HCP group.
The KAMs had never felt involved in the company’s sales strategies or marketing communications and were very excited at the opportunity to contribute. After all, nobody knows their customers as well as them!
Personas & User Journeys
I decided the easiest way to get the KAMs talking about their customers was to introduce the concept of Personas and User Journeys in a cross functional team workshop.
The workshop focussed on 2 main areas:
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Personas – explanation and group exercise
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User journeys – explanation and group exercise
I started explained what personas were, and why/how we use them, before splitting the group into smaller teams and setting them an exercise to create a ‘sketch’ persona representing one of their users. At the end of the exercise, I asked each team to present their ‘user’ to rest of the group.
KAM presenting their HCP persona to the rest of the group
I then went on to introduce the concept of user journeys before asking the teams to sketch out a journey for their persona.
I handed out stethoscopes in the workshops to help the KAMs get into character!
The beginnings of a user journey
Over the next couple of days, I worked up the personas and user journeys before presenting them back to the group, demonstrating how they could be used to drive specific services and content.
Worked up user journey from workshop
Activities and opportunities map
The persona workshop was a great success and word spread quickly around the other franchises of this ‘new way of working’.
As a result I was asked to give a company-wide presentation on the work I was doing.
Giving a company-wide presentation
Following my presentation, things really started to take-off as other business units and therapy areas (outside the initial Agile initiative) wanted to adopt this user centric approach.
Over the coming weeks I found myself teaching other teams to create personas and user journeys. This culminated in a spectacular company ‘persona-off’ which saw the different franchises competing for the award of ‘Best Persona’.
Cardboard personas were popping up all around the company
Applying UX
Emails
The opportunities to apply UX principles within the marketing communications were numerous – confusing emails, overly complicated web pages etc.
However, some areas, particularly existing web pages, could not be changed without going through a very protracted internal process that would involve a multitude of different signatories.
An area I was able to get involved with, and influence, was the creation of new email drivers.
Their current emails were very verbose, text heavy and featured multiple CTA’s.
Using the recently uncovered user insight, I demonstrated how to design targeted emails – simple, succinct with ‘1 message - 1 link’.
The format and design of these new email styles was so successful the click-thru rate increased from 37% to 65%. The highest of any franchise within MSD!
In the emails we created, his use of iconography skilfully separates the data and allows the user to read and absorb all the content.
I’ve learnt so much and had a great time.
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Debbie Berrios-Silva
Therapy Area Specialist, MSD Pharmaceutical
Email driver targeted at consultants
Email driver targeted at nurses
Webpages
Although existing webpages were currently ‘off limits’, I was able to influence the design of new page content – making them clearer and easy to use, with a TOV that matched the user.
The current webpages were extremely long and dull, with endless blocks of text dominating the page, making the content unengaging and difficult to scan. It looked like the content had literally been lifted out of a medical journal and plonked on the screen.
I used icons to punctuate key content areas and paired back excessive, and often repetitive, content where possible.
Some of my suggested icons were a little risqué but all were ultimately approved and found their way into the final design.
The pages he developed are now cleverly tailored to make the user experience positive and the journey seamless - they look so much better, even to my poorly untrained eye!
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Debbie Berrios-Silva
Therapy Area Specialist, MSD Pharmaceutical
Wireframe for new webpage
Dosing calculator
Another particular success story was the creation of a ‘dosing calculator’ that had been frequently dreamt about by the marketing team, but never realised.
Working closing with the Front-end Developer in my team, I turned this dream into a reality within less than a week – much to the surprise and admiration of the marketing team.
This simple piece of functionality, that replaced a cumbersome and confusing spreadsheet, saw click thru rates soar within the first week of going live.
Dosing calculator
Exhibition stand
Another example of the diversity of my work in my time at MSD was my involvement in the redesign a physical exhibition stand.
Taking a holistic view of the exhibition - the layout of the exhibition hall, the direction of foot fall and browsing habits of the delegates, I redesigned the stand for optimal engagement.
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The stand was redesigned and contributed to a very successful exhibition – eliciting positive feedback from both delegates and MSD employees working the stand.
The original exhibition stand design with my comments
Redesigned stand
Offline communications
A large part of MSD’s communications is still offline, and they usually use external agencies to create ads for HCP magazines and publications.
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On the back of the successful digital communications I’d been doing, I was asked to create numerous print materials.
2-sided magazine insert as part of an Immunology campaign in a variety of medical publications...
My sketched inserts were used for internal buy-in and approval before going to design and print
Poster campaign aimed at hospital patients receiving cancer treatment...
Conceptual designs
Outcomes
As a result of my UX initiatives:
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Email click thru rates rocketed
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Request for more information and contact via web pages increased
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Downloads from webpages increased
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Footfall at exhibitions increased
For the first few weeks I’d be constantly asked “so what is UX?”, but within months I was proudly over hearing product teams around the building challenging themselves with the question; “but what’s the benefit of that to the user?”
Within a short space of time, the company had shifted from being ‘product focussed’ to ‘user focussed’.
I’d helped promote a corporate culture that places emphasis on prioritizing user needs and experiences across all facets of product development and decision-making.