Strategy, Team Leadership, Experience Design, Service Design, Product Design, User Research, Product Discovery, Brand Design, Design Sprints, Design System, Data Visualization
Metabolon is the world leader in metabolomics – the detection, measurement and interpretation of small molecules contained in any biological sample – providing a comprehensive view of over 5,400+ metabolites to partners in biopharma, consumer goods, academia, and population health organizations. This emerging field of “biological big data” is as powerful as it is complex, with the ability to develop novel biomarkers in a post-genomic era. I initially joined Metabolon to help transform their external products and internal tools, which then grew into a holistic design-led company-wide evolution of brand, customer experience and product strategy.
We focused on shifting the brand perception from being a highly academic destination purely for data, to a full-fledged enterprise partner that delivered true insight. Through a deep design methodology, we built a holistic brand that exudes promise and life, amplifying the purpose and mission of the technology. The logo directly reflects the newly developed positioning — Enlightening Life. The “Peakmark” evoking both the detection profile of a metabolite peak, and also a rising sun emerging from behind a mountain. The typography is bold and confident, supported by an exuberant color palette. This sense of light and life is embedded throughout the brand expression.
In order to transform into a data-driven, product focused, “‘omics-as-a-service” platform, I led product portfolio development through design-thinking methods and multiple Design Sprints. This had rapid impact in creating the Discovery Panel suite of applications, conceptualization and design of the innovative Heliogram data visualization for panel analysis, a reimagined Global Discovery insights product, and MyMetabolon customer portal.
Like a lot of enterprise software, Metabolon’s internal tools were a tangled mix of out-of-the-box and bespoke services, UIs and patches. To tackle modernizing and transforming our core scientific software, we identified two crucial elements to guide the process – accuracy and scale. I partnered closely with our team of scientists to deeply understand their human factors, as well as with our data science team to understand their technical innovations and bring it all together within the product.
To fully embrace the mission of Enlightening Life, we had to connect with our customers in a holistic way that was consistent with our brand, products, and core technology. I partnered closely with our Marketing and Sales groups to develop a comprehensive customer experience across multiple touchpoints – from booth design, to site visit storyboarding and interior design, to customer acquisition and retention.
Metabolomics technology has extremely broad application – from finding biomarker targets for biopharma development to analyzing core samples from asteroids – but the challenge is how to activate and apply the technology. I created the Innovation Prototyping Group, a cross-functional team of domain experts, to ask bold questions and tackle open-ended ideas through design-thinking workshops and methods. This led key experience design initiatives to become company-wide goals.
