Management Initiatives
Brand: Charles River Labs
Mission: Enhancing quality of life by leveraging technology to accelerate the journey from drug discovery to FDA approval.
UX Recruiting
Role: Director of Product Design & lead
Problem:
How might we create an internal UX team?
Previous state:
- Outsourced all UX and web development.
- 100% remote.
- 1 current designer (left within 3 months of start date) and 2 managers hired.
- Maintain 4 current projects and build the team.
Solution:
When I joined CRL as the second designer, right after my manager, I quickly learned that design and development had been outsourced to consultants—but now everything was coming in-house.
Taking charge of UX recruiting, I used a UX Design Exercise to help candidates showcase their thought processes. After scoring over 100 exercises in a PowerPoint template, I finally created a more dynamic and user-friendly FigJam template to streamline the process (below).
Results:
- I collaborated with an internal recruiter and conducted 300+ interviews.
- We expanded our team from 2 to 10 members within 8 months and added another 8 designers in 2022-23.
UX Heuristic Evaluation (UXHE)
Role: Director of Product Design & lead
Problem:
How might we increase the usability of our products?
Previous state:
- Our designers were setting up and running user tests for every product and new feature, gathering valuable insights directly from customers. +1
- While we collected feedback from stakeholders and designers, we lacked a system to track our products’ design evolution over time.
- Team members outside of UX found it challenging to gather insights for new products, and current product stakeholders without dedicated design support lacked a smooth process for collecting feedback.
Solution:
- A fellow Director of Product Design developed a Voice of Customer (VOC) Playbook, making it easy for others to gather product insights without needing a dedicated designer for each product. Total gamechanger!
- We centralized our UX research and adopted Dovetail to extract insights directly from usability test recordings. Gamechanger #2!
- We established a Customer Advisory Board (CAB) for each product team, bringing together current and new customers to provide ongoing feedback. Gamechanger #3!
- I introduced a UX Heuristic Evaluation spreadsheet to:
- Pinpoint issues, pain points, and safety risks.
- Boost user satisfaction, streamline efficiency, productivity, and strengthen brand reputation.
Results:
By the time I left, the team had completed over 100 tasks across 5 of our 24 products.
Below, you can see some examples of tasks, personas, context, and identified heuristic issues.
In the end, this process (should) give each product an individual score, as well as an overall team score, helping us clearly understand our progress and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Full UXHE template is available for future endeavors.
Initiatives & Cadences
Role: Director of Product Design & lead
Annual Design Showcase (ADS):
Initiated: In December 2022, our design team showcased three major projects launched that year.
Kickoff: Due to the success, our C-suite leadership requested similar presentations to highlight the high standards of design quality established by our team.
Viewership: Reached 1% of employees, approximately 220 viewers.
Second Year: By December 2023, we presented another three projects, increasing viewership to 3%, or roughly 660 employees.
Next Steps: Planned to align the next showcase with the Global Tech Hackathon in late 2024.
Munch 'n Learns:
I created Munch ‘n Learns as a platform to share upcoming projects, techniques, tools, and insights. These sessions attracted a broad, company-wide audience—including teams beyond tech, design, and product—and received highly positive feedback.
- Ep. 1: Figma Prototyping and Advanced Animations
- Ep. 2: Helios Design System and How It Works Across Teams
- Ep. 3: Accessibility, featured a guest speaker from a prominent fruity tech company
- Ep. 4: A11Y and an in-depth training for beginners
- Ep. 5: Agile Framework in Product Development
- Ep. 6: Designer to Developer Handoffs
Design Hackathon
Concept:
In July 2023, I proposed the idea of a design hackathon to our team. Together, we identified 15 challenging problem statements within the business. After a team vote based on interest, we narrowed it down to five key problem statements to tackle.
- 2 1/2 days in Feb. 2024
- 5 business problem statements
- 3 Judges
- 9 Consultants/Mentors
- 3 Dev leads
- 14 designers
- Judging criteria, consultant involvement, guardrails, and expectations
- 1 team winner
Results:
As of September 2024, three of the four solutions were being implemented, and scheduled the fourth for Q1 2025.