Use Case | 2015
Merck LATAM’s Digital Transformation
COMPANY
Merck Sharp and Dohme
INDUSTRY
Pharmaceutical
DURATION
18 Months
ROLE PLAYED
UX and Service Design Practitioner
Redefining the Materials for Pharma Representatives through Service Design
Introduction
The Merck Latin America Marcomm team embarked on a digital transformation initiative, aiming to shift from traditional print to digital media. Despite some basic expertise developing apps through vendors, the team faced a significant knowledge gap in adopting platforms with advanced digital capabilities, as envisioned by the corporate global office.
Outcome
After 18 months, Merck Latin America’s Marcomm team achieved a substantial operational shift, saving over 75% on digital publishing costs by internalizing the digital transformation process. This endeavor built the team's digital expertise on top of the existing strategic understanding across diverse locations, enabling them to keep enforcing quality, consistency, and collaboration practices.
Process
The Marcomm team embarked on a digital transformation journey, guided by Service Design methodologies, to tackle the challenges posed by its evolving ecosystem. The project unfolded in several stages, each informed by a deep understanding of user needs and organizational dynamics.
Strategy:
The project commenced with a clear alignment with corporate objectives, focusing solely on transitioning from print to digital media. The Design team assumed leadership, tasked with preparing Latin America’s regional leaders for this paradigm shift. As the sole UX and Service designer on this team, I guided and participated in crucial steps such as documenting current processes, identifying deltas with new processes, and pinpointing variations across countries.
Service Blueprint and Roadmap:
Visualizing the regional structure through service blueprints allowed for the mapping of interactions touchpoint by touchpoint and stakeholder by stakeholder. This provided invaluable insights into areas ready for transformation and informed a detailed roadmap. With the release of a global digital platform, a unified scalable process was finalized, considering crucial aspects such as country budget and product lifecycle, ensuring adaptability to the evolving digital landscape.
Facilitation:
Recognizing digital content creation as critical but expensive, and after considering aspects such as ROI and risk management, the team prioritized in-house production for both new and localized materials. I was in charge of delivering toolkits and conducting workshops to train and coach marcomm teams on creating compelling content, understanding digital media capabilities, storytelling, and storyboarding. This phase aimed to empower teams with the necessary skills, resources, and guardrails to navigate the digital terrain effectively.
Conclusion:
While not initially framed as Service Design, the project inherently followed this methodology. The journey highlighted the importance of embracing a collective sense of vulnerability. Facilitating the unlearning-and-relearning path for team members was particularly rewarding, smoothing the journey towards a blurry destination while instilling confidence in iterative solutions. The Design team successfully managed this transition, ultimately achieving a 75% reduction in digital publishing costs. Although there is no specific data, given the context of the organization and the nature of the work, building the skills within the existing and very experienced team lead to immediate improvements in efficiency and productivity.