Challenge

In order to scale and make greater scientific impact, the Broad's direct-to-patient registry platform needed a rebuild and redesign. As sole designer on an engineering team, I shepherded organizational change from a focus on project-specific requirements to user-driven needs.

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Outcome

• Time to build and launch a study decreased from months to days.
• A User Research Repository gave team quick access to actionable insights.
• UI improvements increased user trust and perceived product value.
• New navigation improved findability through alignment with users' mental models.

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User Research

20+ User Interviews

In speaking to study teams and individual contributors, I sought to get answers to questions like:

• Who are all the people involved in running a registry/study?
• How do study teams work together?
• What data do they need to achieve their goals?
• How does this vary across roles, contexts, time?
• Where do their current software solutions fall short?
• What workarounds have been made?

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4 User Types

After affinity mapping and analysis activities, we defined four key users for MVP:

• Clinical Research Coordinator (Primary)
• Operations Manager
• Principal Investigator
• Genomics Platform Associate

From there, I articulated each users' responsibilities, pain points, and motivations in their work roles and while engaged our product. I presented sound bites from my interviews, and encouraged engineers to watch extended clips in Dovetail, a tool for sharing research insights.
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Prototyping & Iteration

Navigation & Mental Models

After learning that users found the previous navigation confusing to the point of avoidance, I conducted user testing sessions and redesigned the navigation to better align with users' understanding of their workflow.

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Example: Edit Participant Data

Previously, study managers had to submit requests to our engineering team to make changes to patient data. I designed a new process to give approved users edit access to fields. Additionally, a required justification would be visually linked in the audit log.

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Lessons Learned

Balancing Business and User Needs

We developed a self-service platform to reduce the prohibitively high costs of building bespoke registries, but despite the promising business model, users were overwhelmed by the unexpected learning curve and additional work required compared to our previous full-service approach.

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Team Building & Psychological Safety

The Juniper team thrived through a culture of experimentation, open communication, and dedicated in-person collaboration, while practices like rotating leadership of agile ceremonies and biweekly "member's choice" days provided valuable opportunities for growth and innovation outside of regular sprint priorities.

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