B2B SaaS to standardize creative processes across Boehringer Ingelheim's global teams

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, with numerous teams and stakeholders involved in the creative processes for their various brands. However, with so many teams spread across the globe, they faced challenges in maintaining consistent and efficient processes. They needed a SaaS tool to standardize the management of campaigns, creative agency briefings, and channel programming across their global teams.

In this project, I led the entire process from UX research to the final design system, ensuring a user-centered and comprehensive approach. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 employees across different regions, gathering valuable insights that shaped the information architecture and wireframes. Following this, I designed the final UI and created a fully clickable prototype that accurately simulated the user experience. To maintain consistency in future projects, I developed a comprehensive design system, laying the groundwork for scalable and uniform design implementations.

As mentioned, each team was working in its own way, adapting tools to fit their specific needs, leading to inconsistent and inefficient processes. To address this issue, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 employees from various regions, including the USA, Mexico, Germany, and Argentina. The participants included project owners, production partners, account leads, and creative agencies. From these interviews, I compiled a document highlighting the key insights and recommendations, which were reviewed with the client for the next phases.

After the research phase, we held a workshop with the client to validate and prioritize the insights as potential features for the product. We categorized these features based on their estimated cost and impact. I then proceeded to develop the information architecture and wireframes, structuring the ideas and features we selected. Throughout this process, we conducted weekly follow-ups to iterate and refine the proposed layouts and flows.

UI

The employees interviewed were accustomed to using other platforms for creating campaigns and briefings, so it was crucial to make this new tool not only functional but also visually appealing and engaging. I defined the UI and visual style based on leading SaaS trends and Boehringer's brand guidelines. For this design, we used the visual style of the current tools to ensure a smooth transition for users. Additionally, I created a clickable prototype to simulate the real experience of the tool, allowing stakeholders to fully envision its functionality.

Thrilled with the result, the client expressed interest in applying a similar process to other internal SaaS solutions. They also recognized the need for greater consistency in shared links and documentation, which had been a pain point in previous projects. To address this, we recommended creating a design system to streamline the design process for new solutions, ensuring consistency across future products.

The client was delighted with the project’s outcome, particularly appreciating the insights gained through user research. For the first time, they had a clear understanding of their collaborators' needs and perspectives. They were also impressed with the final product, seeing it as the foundation for additional internal tools. This enthusiasm led them to request the creation of a design system, which had not been part of the initial project scope. However, reflecting on the process, testing the prototype before handing it off to development would have been beneficial. Although time constraints led to skipping this step, even a small test group of five participants could have provided valuable feedback to further refine the product.