BiologyWorks: Adapting a diagnostic workflow for laboratory use
Technical product leadership · Customer-deployed workflow
Role: Scientist / Technical Product Lead, 2020–2022.
The laboratory workflow problem
The digital tool began as an internal way to connect cartridges, device runs, and results so the laboratory team could develop and evaluate assays. Laboratory and distributor feedback revealed a constraint: smartphone QR scanning inside biological safety cabinets did not fit the higher-throughput workflow customers requested.
My contribution and the product decision
I translated that evidence into product requirements and priorities for scanning and linking cartridges to devices before a run and routing results into the customer’s laboratory information management system (LIMS). The team expanded the existing tool into a customer workflow capability.
My contribution was product discovery, requirements, and prioritization within the team. The original platform already existed; this work adapted it to external laboratory needs.
From an internal tool to a laboratory workflow capability
1. Existing tool
Cartridge → device run → results.
The internal tool supported assay development and evaluation.
2. Evidence that changed priorities
Smartphone QR scanning inside a biological safety cabinet did not fit the requested laboratory workflow.
Laboratory and distributor input informed the requirements.
3. Expanded capability
Pre-run cartridge/device association → device run → results routed to customer LIMS.
The resulting workflow capability reached customer deployment.
Retrospective reconstruction of the confirmed workflow. My contribution was translating laboratory evidence into product requirements and priorities; the team expanded and delivered the capability.
Workflow result
The workflow capability reached customer deployment during my involvement. A reliable individual-user adoption count is unavailable, so this case does not quantify adoption or throughput improvement.
Diagnostic product context
The broader COVID-19 molecular diagnostic achieved 99.1% overall agreement with laboratory RT-PCR results in an independent clinical study of 330 patients. The development timeline was 14 months from concept through clinical validation. These are diagnostic-product results, separate from the digital workflow’s adoption and throughput.
Broader product leadership
Before the pandemic, entrepreneurs took an interest in diagnostic patents I had generated at Monolythix. At BiologyWorks, I supported business planning, market analysis, user research, and investor communication as the team built a laboratory and developed the diagnostic product.
- Led discovery through 20+ interviews with patients, laboratory technicians, and clinical partners and assessed 10+ molecular-diagnostic platforms to inform product positioning.
- Translated stakeholder needs into product specifications and coordinated a six-person team across engineering, regulatory, and business functions.
- Directed molecular-assay development and planned roadmaps, milestones, and resource allocation through the 14-month concept-to-validation program.
- Supported investor and grant communication for the company’s $11M seed round and separate $100K Gates Foundation award.
- Established laboratory infrastructure and coordinated onsite laboratory work with remote and cross-site business and engineering teams.
Supporting discovery artifacts
These existing artifacts describe the broader diagnostic user experience. They include proposed design ideas and should not be read as evidence that every feature was delivered.
