Designing decision-ready tools for biotech teams under pressure
When a small biotech team is preparing to engage investors or partners, time is never on their side. They have to distill years of science into a clear story, backed by credible data, and present it in a way that sparks confidence. In that context, design is not about polish or presentation. It is about function: can the right people find the right insights quickly enough to make confident decisions?
This is where I think design earns its keep, not in the final slide deck, but in shaping the usability of the tools that underpin those critical conversations.
The challenge: complexity without clarity
Our client, a pre-clinical oncology company, needed to position their blood cancer asset for real-world success. They had strong science but no clear view of the market opportunity or the evidence requirements investors would expect. Data existed across literature, competitor pipelines, and epidemiology, but it was fragmented. Without a way to bring it together, the story risked being too scattered to persuade anyone.
The pressure was high. Every meeting with a potential partner or funder counted. The team needed something that reduced complexity, aligned their narrative, and gave them confidence under questioning.
Designing the intelligence board
Our consulting and data science colleagues did the heavy lifting on analysis, mapping the treatment landscape and running epidemiological forecasts. My role, as a designer, was to help translate that analysis into a tool the client could actually use in the moments that mattered.
We built an interactive intelligence board, designed around three principles:
- Navigation first: Data is only useful if you can find it under pressure. The board was structured so that an investor-facing CEO could quickly jump to market size figures, while a scientific lead could drill down into mechanism of action comparisons.
- Context over clutter: Every chart or visualization had to answer a “so what” question. Instead of overwhelming the user with raw numbers, we layered insights with strategic annotations to show why they mattered.
- Shareability by design :We knew this tool would be shared internally and externally, so we made sure outputs were clean, consistent, and exportable without extra formatting. That meant the client could take snapshots straight into their funding decks, saving precious time.
The outcome was not just a repository of information. It was a decision-ready toolkit that helped the client rehearse, refine, and deliver their value proposition with confidence.
What changed for the client
With the intelligence board in hand, the biotech team could tell a sharper story:
- They could show market size dynamically, adjusting by geography or patient segment in front of an investor, rather than quoting static figures.
- They could point to competitor pipelines visually, making clear where their asset stood out.
- They could explain unmet need with data that looked as credible as it was accessible.
This design approach turned complexity into clarity, giving the team confidence not only in what they were saying, but in how they were saying it. The immediate impact was stronger investor conversations. The longer-term impact was alignment inside the company, as everyone, from scientists to executives, worked from the same reference point.
Why usability matters more than polish
I sometimes compare this kind of work to designing a cockpit. No one admires the color of the buttons on a plane, they care whether the instruments are clear, responsive, and easy to use under pressure. The same applies here. For biotech teams, usability is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between stumbling through data when questioned and being able to respond decisively.
At VISFO, this is what we focus on: turning complex analysis into tools that work for the people who need them most. For design to matter, it has to reduce friction, improve focus, and build confidence. That is what this project achieved.
Closing thought
Design in consulting is not about the final flourish. It is about embedding usability into the systems that help clients make their toughest decisions. For this biotech team, the intelligence board was more than a dashboard: it was the confidence to step into the room with investors and know they were ready.