Counsyl Genetic Testing Service

2012-current

I'm the Director of Product design at Counsyl, a DNA testing and genetic counseling service. We look at people's DNA, tell them if they're at risk for health conditions – like childhood diseases and cancer – and help them understand what they can do to get ahead of it.

The total package

We design services with many parts, including a physical kit that connects with a digital experience.

Pricing transparency

My recent efforts have been focused on bringing transparency to our billing practices, giving patients simple information about their insurance coverage.

At-home testing

Saliva tests means that this prescription product can be done from the comfort of a patient's home.

Welcome card

Patients getting tested at a clinic receive welcome cards, instructing them on how to access results and counseling online.

Welcome site

The onboarding experience for patients.

Credit for work goes to colleagues and former colleagues, including: Cavan Riley, Matt Maher, Abi Kelly, Kaitlin Sullivan, Sam Colley, Alok Jethanandani, Albert Treat, Juliana Linder, Trish Ang, Scott Duncombe and Alex Cohen. I have led the team to produce much of the work below, and have noted places where I am directly responsible.

Design's role

“The team that makes doctors and patients fall in love with Counsyl.”

While design has many responsibilities, we can distill our organization impact down to the following:

Design understands our users and acts as their advocates within the organization
Design differentiate the company in a crowded market
Design shares processes to facilitate work, connect employees with the company meeting, and create a culture willing to take reasonable risks.

Design Methods

How we approach the design process

Qualitative Research

Phone calls
Physician and patient relationships
Sales team relationships
Field travel

Quantitative Research

Patient and provider surveys
Website analytics
Satisfaction metrics like NPS
Business metrics

Ask Thoughtful Questions

"What problem are you trying to solve?"
"What does success look like?"
"How can we measure that?"

Cost Transparency Service

I co-led development of this project with Technical Product Manager Ellen Zwickl. Juliana Linder and Abi Kelly are responsible for UI and UX. Prescribe Design did a case study on the ROI for this project. The slides below walk you through the details of what we built, why we built it, and how we measured success.

Test Kits

The most iconic part of the testing experience. It has evolved over time to keep pace with our evolving brand and product line.

Current Kit

Redesign led by Cavan Riley and Juliana Linder. Updated with new logo, branding, and iconography to make it easier to differentiate between multiple sample types (4mL blood, 10mL blood, saliva).

Three kit types

The left and right kits are blood kits for clinics. The center kit is saliva, and meant to be given directly to patients.

A single SKU

The directions are integrated directly into the kit, meaning fewer pieces for our team to assemble, and less hassle for clinics.

2009 - Original Kit

Counsyl has invested in good design from the very beginning.

Website

We've worked to refresh the website, making it modern, responsive and approachable. Where possible, I've shown before and after screenshots for the same content.

After

January 2013 - We simplified the messaging on our landing page and moved non-essential information to other pages.

Before

2008 - This is what the landing page looked like before the team updated the site. It was the original site the company had launched with.

Patient Educational Materials

We worked with our support team and looked at analytics to ensure our website answered the most common questions visitors want to answer when they visit Counsyl.com.

After

2013 - Information about the test lived on a single long-form page. We simplified the messaging and made the layout much more visual.

Patient Story

I worked with Chris Raines at Bullhorn Media to capture the story of Jennifer and Joe Baumgartel, who used Counsyl and now have a healthy baby girl.

Before

2008 - The had a large amount of text spread across many pages to explain how the carrier screen test works.

I art directed this video, working with a video production team.

Counseling System

We worked with our clinical team to make a first-of-its kind online genetic counseling service to help patients learn about how to interpret their results.

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Physician Education Materials

We worked with our sales team to make sure that our brochures and website are consistent with what they're telling doctors out in the field.

After

2013 - We simplified the page, focusing on a few main subject areas and adding visual elements to answer the primary questions doctors have when deciding to work with Counsyl.

Before

2008 - The section of Counsyl's website for physicians was very text-dense.

The work shown here is just a small sampling of the public-facing project my team has shipped. It is meant to give you a sense of the projects we've tackled, but is in no way comprehensive.

Press

The Counsyl website contains a full list of recent press coverage. Highlights are listed below.

Fast Company cited the strategic importance of the design work my team does when covering Counsyl in one of its annual design issues.

“THE REVOLUTIONARY LAB COUNSYL IS MAKING GENETIC TESTING AFFORDABLE, FAST, AND FRIENDLY.

Robots are key to Counsyl’s strategy. Just as important, though, and maybe more revolutionary, is its user experience. Innovation, in genetic testing, can be as simple as treating your patients like humans.”

— FastCo | 2014 Annual Design Issue

MIT Tech Review named Counsyl one of the 50 Smartest Companies in 2015.

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