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product/interactive designer

Project 02Enterprise Web

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MyLab CRM

Turning early customer signals into actionable opportunities.

MyLab is a B2B CRM for biotech business development teams. Its Leads module helps BD teams capture prospects, coordinate follow-ups and decide when interest is strong enough to become a real opportunity.

I led the redesign end to end - workflow, information architecture, interaction patterns and final UI.

Role
Senior product designer
Year
2024
Scope
UX research · Product strategy · Workflow design · Information architecture · UX/UI · Prototyping · Design system
Platform
B2B SaaS · Web CRM
A MyLab CRM lead detail page on a large monitor seen from above, against a pale grey background: the lead's status steps, contact information, an activity timeline of emails, notes and status changes, and the lead score

01The challenge

A lead was more than a row in a table

Potential customers entered MyLab from many sources. Some arrived with detailed research needs and previous conversations. Others contained little more than a name and email address.

Where leads came from

  • Website enquiries
  • Conferences
  • Referrals
  • Campaigns
  • Imported contact lists

However complete the record, BD needed to answer the same questions

  • Who is this customer?
  • Who owns the relationship?
  • What has happened recently?
  • Is this ready to become a contact?

The existing model was good at storing lead information. It was much weaker at helping people work with that information.

  1. 01

    Hard to know what needed attention

    With hundreds of leads in the pipeline, BD had to open individual records to understand whether a follow-up was overdue, ownership was missing or an opportunity was ready to progress.

  2. 02

    Customer context was fragmented

    Contact details, company information, notes, activities, tasks and communication existed separately. Users had to mentally reconstruct the relationship.

  3. 03

    Qualification broke continuity

    Changing a lead to Qualified didn't meaningfully turn it into a Contact. Information had to be found, copied or recreated.

The real problem

Lead management wasn't a data-management problem. It was a workflow for turning incomplete customer signals into qualified opportunities.

02The key reframe

A Lead is a workspace, not a database object

The first model looked simple. But the real workflow was much longer - a Lead needed to support the relationship while it was still taking shape.

The first model
CustomerLeadQualifiedContact4 steps
The real workflow
Capture customerUnderstand their contextCollect missing informationFollow upRecord activityAssess opportunityConvert7 steps

Instead of treating Leads as a database of prospects, I reframed it as a working environment for early-stage business development. Every lead needed three connected layers - together, the foundation of the module.

  • Customer context - who are they?

    • Contact
    • Company
    • Industry
    • Country
    • Source

  • Opportunity context - why might this become business?

    • Research interest
    • Need
    • Status
    • Owner
    • Qualification

  • Activity context - what is happening?

    • Communication
    • Tasks
    • Meetings
    • Notes
    • Follow-ups

03UX strategy

Design around BD decisions

Instead of starting with screens, I mapped the decisions a BD user repeatedly needs to make.

  1. Capture

    Who is this?

  2. Understand

    What are they interested in?

  3. Follow up

    What has happened and what needs to happen next?

  4. Qualify

    Is this a real opportunity?

  5. Convert

    Should this become a Contact?

Goals

Turn Leads from a database into a working CRM workspace.

  • Make leads easy to scan

    Priority and status should be legible without opening every record.

  • Make context easy to reconstruct

    The detail view should carry both customer information and relationship history.

  • Make qualification continuous

    Converting a lead to a contact should carry the relevant context with it.

North star

A BD user should open a Lead and immediately understand who the customer is, what has happened and what should happen next.

Principles

The decision map produced three UX priorities.

  1. 01

    Make attention visible

    Users shouldn't open every record just to discover where work is required.

  2. 02

    Keep relationship context together

    A Lead should tell a coherent customer story instead of exposing disconnected database entities.

  3. 03

    Preserve context across the lifecycle

    Moving forward should add structure to existing knowledge - not start the workflow again.

The MyLab CRM leads list on a monitor seen at an angle: Leads List and Groups tabs, lead KPIs for total, no activity, idle, upcoming and overdue leads, search and filters, and a table of biotech leads with IDs, contacts, companies, scores, statuses, next tasks and assigned BD
Fig. 01The leads list - KPIs, filters and a triage-ready table in one working view.

04Core experience

Turn the lead list into a decision surface

A conventional CRM table answers what leads exist. But BD's real question is: where should I work next?

So the listing was redesigned around triage. Instead of exposing every available field, each row carries only what a quick operational decision needs.

Lead / ContactCompanySourceOwnerStatusLast activityNext action
John KimAcme BioConferenceTienQualified2 days agoDiscovery call · Sep 25
Priya RamanHelix LabsWebsiteUnassignedNew6 days agoAssign owner
Marc OliveiraNorthpointReferralTienWaiting12 days agoFollow-up overdue
Sara LundVireo HealthCampaignAnhContactedYesterdaySend requirements

  • Visible without opening the record

    • Unassigned lead
    • Follow-up overdue
    • Waiting for response
    • Recently contacted
    • Qualified opportunity

  • Saved views reduce repeated work

    • My Leads
    • Unassigned
    • Follow-up
    • Qualified
User flow - triaging from the list
Open LeadsPick a saved viewLead listStatus · owner · next actionHas anowner?Assign ownerFollow-upoverdue?Lead detailActivity · tasks · notesLog call or emailSet next follow-upReady toqualify?WaitingCheck last activityNudge, or leave itQualifyConfirm detailsContact createdNoYesYesNoNoYesMy Leads · UnassignedFollow-up · QualifiedFrom the row - no needto open the recordCustomer, notes and historycarry forward
  • Screen
  • Decision
  • Action
  • Yes
  • No
Before
Find recordOpenReadInterpretDecide5 steps
After
ScanIdentifyAct3 steps

Design principle

Optimise the list for deciding where to work next - not for displaying every available field.

The MyLab CRM leads list on an angled monitor with two leads selected, the filter bar called out above it - search, filters, columns, add new group, recalculate scores, Add to Group (2) and Assign (2) - and the two bulk-action dialogs floating beside it: Select group to add, with a group search and groups such as Vietnam 1, Vietnam 2, Vietnam 3 and EU, and Lead Assignment, with an assignee picker and Discard and Confirm buttons
Fig. 02Lead listing - select leads, then assign them or add them to a group without leaving the list.

Turn the detail page into a relationship workspace

Opening a Lead shouldn't reveal another giant form. BD needs to understand a developing relationship, so the detail experience separates two questions. The header resolves identity and status once; the rest of the workspace can then focus on the work itself.

  • Who are they?

    • Contact
    • Company
    • Source
    • Research interest
    • Ownership

  • What has happened?

    • Communication
    • Activity
    • Tasks
    • Meetings
    • Notes
    • Follow-ups

Acme Bio

John Kim · Senior Researcher

Qualified lead
Owner
Tien
Source
Conference
Next follow-up
Sep 25
  • Overview
  • Activity
  • Tasks
  • Notes

Activity - a chronological relationship history

  1. Status changed to Qualified

    Sep 18 · Tien

  2. Meeting scheduled - discovery call

    Sep 16 · Tien

  3. Email sent - intro and capability deck

    Sep 12 · Tien

  4. Note added - interested in assay development

    Sep 11 · Anh

  5. Lead created from conference list

    Sep 09 · Import

  • Who?

    Customer and company.

  • What happened?

    Activity in chronological order.

  • What's next?

    Ownership, tasks and follow-up.

A small information architecture decision

A field like Country could technically belong to several underlying entities. The easiest solution would have been exposing the database structure directly. Instead, fields were organised around the user's mental model - easier to understand, and later reusable across other CRM modules.

  • Contact

    • Name
    • Email
    • Phone
    • Job title

  • Company

    • Company name
    • Industry
    • Country
    • Website

  • Lead

    • Source
    • Status
    • Owner
    • Interest

Design principle

The UI should reflect how users understand the customer, not how the database stores them.

A MyLab CRM lead detail page on a monitor: the header with the lead's status steps and Edit, Assign and Convert to Contact actions, an activity timeline of emails, notes and status changes, and the lead score - with the grouped form pulled out beside it, its Contact Information, Company Information and Tracking & Source sections expanded
Fig. 03Lead detail - identity and status up top, the relationship as a timeline, the record grouped beside it.

Make qualification a real transition

Originally, a lead's status changed to Qualified and a Contact was created separately. The status changed; the workflow didn't. I redesigned qualification as an explicit Lead → Contact conversion.

The Contact then becomes the long-term home for the relationship. Inquiries come later in the workflow - opened from the Contact once there's a concrete research request to scope.

  • Existing context carries forward

    • Customer
    • Company
    • Research interest
    • Activities
    • Notes
    • History

  • The user confirms only what the Contact now requires

    • Contact details
    • Company link
    • Owner
    • Relevant notes
    • Missing information
Before
LeadCreate Contact manuallyFind customer againCopy informationLose relationship continuity5 steps
After
LeadQualifyConfirm informationConvert to ContactContinue working5 steps

Design principle

Moving forward in the business lifecycle should add structure - not discard context.

A MyLab CRM lead detail page on an angled monitor, dimmed behind a Convert Lead to Contact dialog that explains the lead will be converted and an associated contact created, with Discard and Convert buttons
Fig. 04Lead → Contact conversion - one confirmation, and the lead's context carries into the new contact.

05Supporting real operations

CRM work doesn't happen one record at a time

The core Lead model also had to support the operational workflows around it.

  • Import Centre

    BD teams can bring campaign or conference lists into the CRM without polluting the pipeline with malformed data.

    1. Upload
    2. Map fields
    3. Validate
    4. Review errors
    5. Import

  • Groups

    Leads can be organised around real working contexts.

    • Conference leads
    • Partner referrals
    • Q3 outreach
    • Website leads

Edge states

  • No leads
  • No search results
  • Import errors
  • Missing customer information
  • Unassigned leads
  • Overdue follow-ups
  • No activities
  • Permission restrictions

Empty states don't simply report that nothing exists. They help explain what the system expects the user to do next.

The MyLab CRM Import leads screen on a monitor seen from above, at the Map Columns step: source columns such as Email, Support and Sales mapped to CRM fields, with a field picker open on Contact Information - and a Rule for Duplicates panel beside it, choosing between Skip Duplicates and Update existing when a lead's email already exists
Fig. 05Import centre - map each column to a CRM field, and decide up front what happens to duplicates.

06Designing for scale

Solving Leads also established patterns for the wider CRM

The goal wasn't to create a one-off Leads UI. Several structures developed here became reusable product patterns.

  • Listing + filters
  • Saved views
  • Detail header
  • Activity timeline
  • Tasks
  • Notes
  • Ownership
  • Status
  • Create / edit forms
  • Empty states
The information changes. The interaction model remains familiar
  1. Lead
  2. Contact
  3. Inquiry
  4. Project

Design principle

Solve the recurring product structure once, then let modules inherit it.

07Outcome

From lead records to an actionable CRM workflow

Instead of treating Leads as stored customer data, the experience helps BD teams actively move relationships forward.

  1. Capture
  2. Understand
  3. Organise
  4. Follow up
  5. Qualify
  6. Convert

  • Find the right lead

    Searchable and filterable views make priorities easier to identify.

  • Understand the customer

    Contact, company, opportunity and relationship history come together in one working context.

  • Know what happens next

    Ownership, tasks and follow-ups move out of individual memory and into the product.

  • Progress opportunities

    Qualification becomes a continuous conversion from Lead to Contact rather than a restart - ready for an Inquiry when a real request arrives.

08Reflection

The hardest problem wasn't designing the table

Leads looked like a straightforward listing-and-detail feature. The real work was structural - what a Lead owns, and what should survive its conversion to a Contact.

Takeaway

In complex SaaS products, designing the relationships between information and workflows matters more than designing the screens that display them.

More work