Customer insight management in pharmaceutical sales
Mwoorks
ROLE
Co-founder | Product Strategist | UX/UI Designer
YEAR
2012
Project Story
Mwoorks was originally built in 2010 in a small co-working space when one of the co-founders, a medical representative, began noticing how inefficient and fragmented his daily workflow had become. He constantly switched between outdated CRM systems, Excel sheets, and paper notes to prepare for and record doctor visits. Frustrated by how much time this wasted, he decided to start his own venture, learning product management and product design along the way. Later, he partnered with a technical co-founder who shared his vision of building something better.
Together they set out to reimagine the CRM experience from the ground up. Instead of creating another data-heavy reporting tool, they envisioned something that felt intuitive and human. A true field assistant that could help medical reps manage their visits, remember details, and capture insights effortlessly.
This case study reflects a modern rethink of that original 2010 project, adapted to current technology and market conditions. Mwoorks remains a lightweight, touch-first CRM designed specifically for iPad, helping medical representatives plan their doctor visits, take contextual notes, and transform each visit into actionable insights.
Platform: iPad-only application (iOS)
Challenge
The journey to build Mwoorks had its challenges. First, planning visits was difficult because data was scattered across multiple systems, which led to inefficiencies, wasted time, and confusion for the sales teams. We needed to consolidate all this data into a single, user-friendly platform.
Second, collecting feedback from the field and conveying it to headquarters was slow and inconsistent, which often resulted in missed opportunities for improving strategies and adapting to doctor needs. We needed a way to ensure feedback could be shared in real-time, creating a faster and more effective communication loop.
Finally, gathering and accessing updated information about doctors was cumbersome, making it difficult for representatives to have informed and productive conversations during visits. We needed a solution that would centralize all doctor information in an easy-to-access, continuously updated format to help reps make the most of every interaction. These challenges required us to build a centralized, streamlined solution that addressed all these pain points.
Planning
Manage visit schedules and tracking is difficult
Feedback flow
Difficult to gather feedback and forward to HQ.
Recall
Too many doctors, hard to recall details
How we made MVP?
To address these challenges, we moved quickly to validate our assumptions and adapt based on real-world feedback.
Understand the Sales Reps':
We started by shadowing our users "the sales representatives" in their daily routines. We observed them during visits, saw firsthand how they struggled with outdated tools, and heard about the obstacles they faced.
We spent time with reps in their cars, watched them flip through printed materials, and took note of their frustration with managing information scattered across different sources. By immersing ourselves in their environment, we were able to define the core problems in real, tangible terms.
Quick Solutions and Lean Building
Armed with a deep understanding of the problems, we gathered the team to brainstorm ideas. We didn't just throw ideas on a whiteboard—we prioritized them based on feasibility and immediate impact. We asked questions like: How can we make a tool that's both powerful and simple enough to be used during a busy day of sales calls? The answer was to build lean.
We started with the essentials: a centralized, offline-accessible database for doctor information and a quick way for reps to provide feedback after each visit. We focused on what mattered most to the reps, ensuring every feature solved a direct pain point they had described.
Build, Test, and Refine
Instead of aiming for perfection, we focused on getting a workable version into users' hands as quickly as possible. Our MVP included the essential features: visit planning through a calendar interface, an offline-accessible doctor database, multimedia presentations, and a feedback module.
We launched the MVP to a group of early adopters within the sales teams, and their feedback started pouring in. We learned that some reps preferred route planning options, while others needed more intuitive ways to access the latest product updates. By listening closely, we made adjustments, pivoting when necessary, to ensure the solution addressed real, day-to-day needs.
Listen, Iterate, Improve
With the initial feedback from our users, we went back to the drawing board—over and over again. We refined the interface to make it more intuitive, making sure that a rep could access the information they needed within just a few taps.
We added features that made presentations easier to navigate, allowing reps to be more dynamic in their interactions. The improvements were continuous, and every iteration brought us closer to a product that felt tailor-made for the users. Real-world feedback became our most important metric, ensuring we built something that worked seamlessly in practice.
What we learned?
To address these challenges, we moved quickly to validate our assumptions and adapt based on real-world feedback.
Enhanced Efficiency
Sales reps reported a 40% reduction in time spent on visit planning, mainly due to the centralized calendar and contact management features. They found it much easier to coordinate their schedules, which saved valuable time.
However, in the early versions, we underestimated the importance of route optimization. Reps were still frustrated with inefficient travel plans. Adding route planning tools later was a necessary adjustment.
Improved Presentation Engagement
The multimedia presentation feature brought doctor engagement up by 25%. Reps loved the visual aids, and doctors responded well, leading to more questions and follow-ups.
But our first attempt at creating these presentations was clunky—users found it difficult to customize the content. We listened and simplified the process, making it easy for reps to adjust presentations on the go, which made a real difference.
Real-Time Data & Feedback
The centralized database worked as intended, ensuring that reps always had the most up-to-date doctor information, leading to more productive conversations. The feedback module, while ultimately successful, initially faced resistance. Reps weren’t using it as much as we expected. The mistake was in how we asked for feedback—it was too time-consuming. Once we streamlined the process to require just a few taps, engagement improved significantly, and reps began using it consistently.
Conclusion - Why we failed
Mwoorks didn't succeed in the end. We managed to capture users' attention, and they believed in what we were building, but we couldn't keep going due to team challenges. We moved quickly, listened to feedback, and built features that made sense; visit planning was easier, presentations were more engaging.
We launched an MVP on the App Store, and even got featured in Singapore and the UK. It was 2012, and our success on the App Store highly depended on the emptiness of the market for B2B CRM apps on iPads. We peaked at 61st place on the App Store (pretty good for our first startup) but we were learning as we went.
Our biggest challenge was building the right team. We were just two co-founders: a product manager/designer and a mobile developer. We needed more hands, a backend developer, a web developer, but we couldn't make it happen. We lacked the integrations needed for doctor, hospital, and medicine data. Despite our passion and hard work, those gaps held us back from reaching our full potential.
Let's build together! 🙌🏻
If this story resonates with you and also you're an entrepreneur with a vision for building impactful apps, I'd be happy to share my experience and help bring your ideas to life. Drawing from my own journey, I understand the ups and downs.
I'd love to hear from you. I'm always interested in connecting with others who are passionate about solving real-world problems.
Feel free to reach out!