CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE STRATEGY | DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION | UX & SERVICE DESIGN
WHY
STEMCELL Technologies had earned a world-class reputation in life sciences built on its brand promise of "Scientists Helping Scientists." But its digital experience wasn't living up to that promise — and scaling the business demanded it change.
The buying journey was overwhelmingly manual. Web orders averaged 3.5 touchpoints before reaching SAP, a single email campaign could take up to 3 weeks to deploy, and customers had no visibility into account-specific pricing, inventory, or order status without calling in.
The website was difficult to navigate, self-service capabilities were minimal, and support interactions required manual STEMCELL intervention at nearly every step. Teams operated in silos with no unified customer definition across SAP, Salesforce, or their CMS — leading to duplicate records, batch-and-blast communications, and a support team stretched too thin.
Technology decisions had been made with business-unit objectives in mind, not the customer. STEMCELL needed a clear strategy to shift from transactional to relationship-driven — and the roadmap to get there.
WHAT
Our mission: make STEMCELL easy to find, easy to trust, and easy to use.
Over 10 weeks, Slalom conducted 15+ group interviews & workshops, 20+ executive stakeholder sessions, reviewed 50+ internal documents, and synthesized 300+ customer survey responses across CX strategy, technology, sales, marketing, content, and operations.
We delivered:
• CX Vision & Future-State Customer Journeys for New and Existing customer profiles — defining the "happy path" from discovery to community membership across 8 mapped touchpoints.
• Service Design Blueprint mapping front-stage, backstage, and system-level actions across 6 stages: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Shipping, Customer Support, and Loyalty & Retention.
• 7 Prioritized Initiatives across 3 transformation milestones: Unified Customer Profile (SAP + Salesforce + CDP), Content Creation & Management, Self-Service Customer Data, Marketing Automation, Commerce & Support, Personalization, and AI-powered Enhanced Analytics.
• Transformation Roadmap & Functional Architecture with a ROM investment framework to sequence and fund the digital transformation.
WOW
Slalom's recommendations gave STEMCELL a clear, research-backed direction to shift from a transactional model to a relationship-first digital experience — one that could scale without sacrificing the human connection at the heart of the brand.
Armed with a 3-horizon roadmap and functional architecture, STEMCELL's leadership gained cross-organizational alignment on a shared CX vision for the first time — making a previously complex transformation feel logical and actionable.
The engagement surfaced that technology and process decisions had been made in business-unit silos rather than around the customer. By establishing a unified customer data strategy and self-service foundations, STEMCELL now has the blueprint to reduce manual touchpoints, shorten campaign cycles from weeks to days, and deliver the personalized omni-channel experiences scientists expect.
The work positioned STEMCELL to pursue continuous business value through a customer-led digital strategy — transforming "Scientists Helping Scientists" from a brand ethos into a digitally-enabled reality.
Note: The final readout marked my last day at Slalom, as I departed to pursue a new opportunity. Financial outcomes from this engagement were not tracked post-delivery and are not reflected here.