Bio-Techne: A UX-Centered Redesign
One-Web Enterprise Transformation
Unifying 30+ brands into a single enterprise experience
As Lead UX Engineer, I helped guide the UX strategy for Bio-Techne's One-Web initiative a multi year effort to consolidate more than 30 acquired brands into a unified digital platform. Working across product, engineering, marketing, and external partners, we created a scalable customer experience that simplified product discovery while preserving the trust customers had in each individual brand.
Project Snapshot
Role
Lead UX Engineer (Project Lead)
Timeline
December 2019 – Present
Platform
Enterprise Drupal E-commerce Platform
Brands Unified
30+
Product Catalog
1M+ catalog
Team
Product • Marketing • Engineering • Content Strategy • External Agency
BUSINESS CONTEXT
A Growing Company, A Fragmented Experience
Bio-Techne's rapid growth through acquisition created a fragmented digital ecosystem where customers navigated dozens of independent websites, inconsistent purchasing workflows, and disconnected product experiences.
The One-Web initiative aimed to transform those separate experiences into a single enterprise platform creating consistency for customers while establishing a scalable foundation for future growth.
Objective
The One-Web initiative was launched to transform Bio-Techne's fragmented digital ecosystem into a unified enterprise platform. As the company expanded through acquisitions, researchers were required to navigate multiple brand specific websites to discover products, compare solutions, and complete purchasing workflows.
The objective was to create a seamless digital experience that unified Bio-Techne's diverse product portfolio while preserving the credibility and trust each acquired brand had established with its customers. Success required balancing user expectations, business priorities, and technical constraints to build a scalable platform capable of supporting the organization's continued growth.
THE CHALLENGE
Balancing Consistency with Brand Identity
Creating One-Web required more than redesigning a website. It meant aligning user needs, business priorities, and technical constraints across dozens of stakeholders and brands.
Core Challenges
- Unify 30+ independent brand experiences
- Preserve the trust and identity of established scientific brands
- Support researchers and enterprise procurement workflows
- Simplify navigation across 500,000+ products
- Build a scalable platform for future acquisitions
MY ROLE
Leading UX Across a Complex Enterprise Initiative
As Lead UX Engineer, I partnered with cross-functional teams to translate business goals into scalable user experiences.
Primary Responsibilities
- UX strategy and experience direction
- Stakeholder alignment
- User research and synthesis
- Design systems
- Product discovery
- Accessibility (WCAG)
- Prototyping and usability testing
- Front-end architecture collaboration
STRATEGY
Defining the Experience
Rather than designing individual pages, the goal was to establish reusable UX patterns capable of supporting every brand within the Bio-Techne ecosystem.
Strategic UX Decisions
Shared Purchasing
Designed collaborative cart workflows allowing researchers to build, save, and share purchasing lists with procurement teams.
Experiment Discovery
Created guided product discovery experiences that helped researchers assemble complete experiment solutions.
Enterprise Product Discovery
Developed scalable navigation, search, and filtering capable of supporting more than 1 million products.
Technical Foundation
Aligning Stakeholders Through Prototyping
High fidelity prototypes became communication tools not just design artifacts.
Each iteration helped validate assumptions, align stakeholders, and reduce implementation risk before development began.
Focus Areas
- Navigation
- Purchasing workflows
- Complex data presentation
- Design system consistency
- User testing
IMPLEMENTATION
Building a Scalable Platform
Close collaboration between UX and engineering ensured the platform could evolve alongside the business.
Technology
- Drupal Enterprise CMS
- Bootstrap Design System
- Bloomreach
- Akamai
- Enterprise integrations
Rather than optimizing for short term delivery, technical decisions focused on maintainability, scalability, and consistency across future development.
DELIVERY
Delivering Incremental Value
Instead of a single large launch, One-Web adopted a phased rollout strategy.
Launching incrementally allowed the team to validate assumptions, gather user feedback, and continuously improve the experience while minimizing implementation risk.
Initial Release Included
- Unified homepage
- Navigation
- Product detail pages
- Datasheets
- Shared shopping cart
BUSINESS IMPACT
Creating Measurable Value
The One-Web initiative established a unified digital ecosystem that improved customer experience while creating a scalable platform for future growth.
Key Outcomes
- Improved conversion performance
- Increased shopping cart engagement
- Better product discovery
- Positive executive and customer feedback
- Scalable enterprise foundation
REFLECTION
Leading Through Complexity
One-Web reinforced that successful UX leadership extends far beyond interface design.
The project's success depended on aligning diverse stakeholders, balancing competing priorities, and building systems capable of evolving alongside the organization.
This experience fundamentally shaped how I approach UX strategy, cross functional collaboration, and enterprise product leadership.
UX Research & Market Analysis
