The Situation

Drug discovery is a challenging field. Apart from the science itself, the instruments scientists use to run experiments at scale are complex, demanding, and unforgiving. Berkeley Lights' Beacon was one of the most powerful cell science platforms in the world, and operating it required real expertise.

The software suite that accompanied the Beacon, however, didn't reflect that reality. Features had been added without consideration for how they affected existing workflows. Constructs and terminology were inconsistent, sometimes within the same piece of software, and there was no coherent design voice across the suite. The result was a barrage of complaints from scientists at customer organizations and the field support teams who worked alongside them; Berkeley Lights' software was adding friction to an environment that was already demanding enough without it.

The company was well aware of this problem, but they didn't have an owner for it. I was brought in as the first design hire with a mandate to untangle it.

The Work

In my two years at Berkeley Lights, I built and scaled a design organization from zero, establishing strong foundations across every dimension of the practice: a globally distributed team of four designers, design principles, a multi-year UX roadmap, a research practice, and a design system that became the foundation for every subsequent product decision.

I established a monthly UX steering committee with executive sponsorship from the CTO, CPO, VP of Customer Success, and VP of Program Management, creating the first sustained, cross-functional mechanism for design quality at the leadership level. I also partnered with the VP of Product on roadmap prioritization and resource planning, and forged a relationship with the Sales team to connect UX outcomes to revenue conversations.

The Outcome

We took a staged approach to improving the platform, starting with a unified design system and consistent navigation architecture across all applications. The platform UX overhaul launched in alpha across 8 customer accounts in late 2022. Platform NPS moved from -10 to +35. Support ticket volume dropped 67%. The Tech Support team directly attributed the reduction to UX improvements that made the platform more navigable without removing the depth and power expert scientists needed. Customer feedback described the experience as "a much smoother experience that feels more intuitive and less cumbersome."

I also partnered with executive leadership to design and launch a subscription-based monetization model for analysis modules, expanding design's influence from product experience into business model innovation.

What made this problem genuinely hard wasn't the design. Scientists using this platform were making consequential decisions about cell lines, experiments, and drug candidates. In an environment where every step demands expertise, software that adds friction rather than absorbing it isn't just creating usability annoyances; it's working against the science. The work was about making the system legible enough that scientists could form appropriate confidence in it and get on with the work that actually mattered.

The steering committee, research practice, and design system created cross-functional infrastructure that had shared ownership. The metrics were just the evidence the organization needed to stay on the path of consistently validating design and product decisions with user research and voice of customer. There's a lot to be proud of when it comes to my accomplishments at Berkeley Lights but the most rewarding outcome was that design went from something the organization tolerated to something it actively invested in.