Benchling
Founding Designer
How can modern-day technology and design accelerate the pace of research & development to support complex biologics research?
Background
Pharma and biotech are industries solving crucial problems in industries from medicine and energy, to food and agriculture, to materials and textiles. An essential component to success is access to data and information. Not only that, biotech and pharma require a foundation of verified data. Successful innovation is hampered by siloed information, leading to re-research, inconsistent data sets, and partially understood data-- in essence, data can become a liability.
I joined Benchling as the founding designer to help improve those data issues and complex processes through product-thinking and design. As the first product hire, I also had a unique opportunity to weave human-centered design into the company's processes.
Strategic Product Goals
To tackle the complexities of data in biotech, I established three primary objectives:
Streamline Data Input and Configuration: Simplify how users interact with and configure complex datasets.
Structure and Query Data Efficiently: Enable scientists to organize and retrieve data seamlessly.
Centralize, Standardize, and Automate: Build systems to consolidate data across workflows, reducing redundancy and enhancing usability.
Design Leadership Goals
Build Design and Research Culture: Create a collaborative, research-driven environment that integrates design throughout the product development cycle.
Scale the Team: Recruit and manage a marketing designer to extend design excellence across product and brand touchpoints.
The Work
Samples from a series of design philosophy presentations and workshops
Driving Strategy and Building Culture
As the first designer at Benchling, I established a research-first design ethos, conducting workshops and presentations to align the team on human-centered design principles. I implemented research practices into the product development lifecycle, enabling engineers to participate in user studies, take notes, and even lead research sessions. This democratization of research fostered a shared understanding of user needs and aligned the team on strategic priorities.
Given the diversity of user workflows—which varied significantly by company size and focus—research was pivotal. To address this, I prioritized deep collaboration between design, engineering, and product teams, leveraging whiteboarding sessions and iterative prototyping to rapidly test and refine ideas.
Our efforts led to the delivery of first-of-their-kind tools for biotech, combining rapid development cycles with user feedback to ship innovative solutions that addressed real-world challenges. These tools simplified documentation, editing, and workflow management, setting new standards in the industry.
(Pictured) A collection of integral, first-of-a-kind tooling to biotech that I led the design and implementation of, alongside the process it took to do so
Impact and Outcomes
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Critical products updated with new competitive features
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New, first-to-market products built and shipped
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Major features and products built and shipped, contributing to series raises and user satisfaction
Shipping Core Platform Features
Delivered a documentation toolset tailored to biotech workflows, enabling scientists to perform tasks not supported by generic tools.
Built a Bioregistry system that transitioned scientists from paper-based methods to an integrated cloud platform.
Launched a Sample Management system, bridging lab work with digital processes.
Led the development of a Workflow Management system, syncing complex data across samples, documents, and spreadsheets.
Establishing a Strong Design Culture
Built a UX-driven collaboration model, fostering side-by-side development with engineers and product managers.
Expanded the scope of design to include marketing, hiring and managing a marketing designer to unify the brand experience across digital and physical touchpoints.
Impact and Legacy
By the time I left Benchling, the foundational systems and features I helped design had become the core of the company’s biomedical platform, used by biotech scientists worldwide. These products continue to drive innovation in the industry, exemplifying the impact of thoughtful, user-centered design.
Beyond the product, I’m proud of the design culture I built, which emphasized research, collaboration, and excellence. This culture not only elevated the quality of Benchling’s offerings but also set a standard for how design could drive strategic outcomes in a complex and evolving domain.