Counsyl Genetic Testing Service
2012 - 2016
I spent four years growing the team at Counsyl,* a biotech company providing DNA testing and genetic counseling services. We gave people genetic insights about their risk for health conditions like childhood diseases and cancer, and helped them understand what they could do to get ahead of it.
The work shown here is just a small sampling of the public-facing project we shipped during my tenure leading the Product Design team. It is meant to give you a sense of the projects we tackled, and is in no way comprehensive.
*now Myriad Women’s Health after an acquisition
The testing experience we built
The genetic testing experience has many touchpoints—the box your spit tube comes in, the app you use to document your family history, the website where you meet with a genetic counselor to discuss your results—my team was responsible for it all. We even designed faxes. 😮
Credit for work goes to colleagues and former colleagues, including: Cavan Riley, Matt Maher, Abi Kelly, Allison Kuperman, Kaitlin Sullivan, Sam Colley, Alok Jethanandani, Albert Treat, Juliana Linder, Trish Ang, Scott Duncombe and Alex Cohen. I led the team as Director of Product Design to produce much of the work below, and have noted places where I am directly responsible.
Design's role at Counsyl
“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 advocates for patients and providers within the organization.
Design differentiates 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 at Counsyl
How we approached the design process
Quantitative Research
Patient and provider surveys
Website analytics
Satisfaction metrics like NPS
Business metrics
Ask Questions
“What problem are you trying to solve?”
“What does success look like?”
“How can we measure that?”
Qualitative Research
Phone calls
Physician and patient relationships
Sales team relationships
Field travel
Case Study 1: 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.
Case Study 2: Test Kits
The most iconic part of the testing experience. It evolved over time to keep pace with our evolving brand and product line.
Case Study 3: 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.
Press about Counsyl
A couple of design-related highlights from press about Counsyl
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.”
MIT Tech Review named Counsyl one of the 50 Smartest Companies in 2015.
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