Merck

Overview

Think was brought in to fix Merck Connect, a website healthcare providers weren’t using. The real problem sat underneath: providers weren’t failing to find information, they were going elsewhere to get it. Providers work under real time pressure, and the stakes are real. A treatment they can’t get information on fast is a treatment they’re less likely to prescribe, and the patient in front of them gets a less-suited option instead of the right one. The first engagement grew into far more. Over nearly a decade, the work kept surfacing problems Merck hadn’t named yet. A compliance officer taking a ruler to a web page on Merck Connect to ensure fair balance became the reason to scale that design system across Merck’s other HCP and patient-facing sites. Merck Formulary Resources, a self-service portal, took shape for the payors whose decisions influence which medicines patients can access, and a training program launched alongside it to bring account executives up to speed. Rather than bringing Think in project by project, Merck asked the team to work alongside them on an ongoing basis, supporting research, design, and content strategy for whatever surfaced next, whether that meant a single brand’s site or the next iteration of Merck Formulary Resources. The trust that earns is a different kind. It comes from proving the same rigor holds whether the work is one website or the long arc of a partnership. As Merck Formulary Resources grew, compliance meant commercial and medical information couldn’t live in the same portal. Think designed the sign-on screens and experience, then partnered with the dev team to build a single sign-on underneath both, so the split served compliance without anyone feeling it. A later redesign, an idea Think brought to the table, gave the medical affairs side a sharper, more modern feel that leadership approved on sight. Merck Formulary Resources launched to a handful of customers. It grew past 100. Brands that once needed convincing started asking to be added themselves.