Building a Formulary Management Tool
Capital Rx
ROLE
Product Designer
TEAM
Myself, (1) Product Manager, (2) Frontend Engineers, (2) Backend Engineers
SKILLS
User Journey Mapping, UX Research, Prototyping, Wireframing, Information Architecture
Overview
At Capital Rx, I led the design of a new Formulary Management Tool within our healthcare platform, Judi, to support our Formulary Operations specialists. The goal was to replace reliance on a costly third-party tool, RxFlex, and create an integrated, user-friendly solution that streamlined operations and reduced business costs.
My Role
Partnered with product management, engineering, and the Formulary Operations lead.
Researched pharmaceutical processes and competing platforms.
Interviewed specialists to capture pain points and goals.
Designed workflows emphasizing clear navigation and linear processes.
The Challenge
Previously, our Formulary Operations specialists had to:
Build formularies in RxFlex
Export the results
Import them into Judi
This multi-step process was inefficient, error-prone, and financially costly for the business. It also created significant headaches for our Formulary Operations specialists, adding unnecessary steps and increasing their workload.
Our challenge was to build out a tool within Judi that not only matched the functionality of RxFlex but also improved upon it by providing a clearer, more streamlined workflow for specialists.
HMW build a fully-functional tool that allows our Formulary Operations team to perform all of the necessary functions of formulary management?
Key Focus Areas
01 // End-to-End Replacement of RxFlex
The tool needed to fully replace RxFlex functionality. This required careful mapping of existing processes, evaluation of what was (and wasn’t) working in RxFlex, and thoughtful design to ensure Judi’s version was both comprehensive and more user-friendly.
02 // Streamlined Navigation
Formulary management is inherently complex, with thousands of drugs and nuanced rules. I focused on reducing cognitive load by creating navigation that allowed specialists to move through tasks step by step, without backtracking or guesswork.
03 // Formulary Creation
I designed a simple flow for building a formulary inside Judi that enabled analysts to create new formularies more confidently and efficiently
Clear entry point for starting a new formulary
Customization where analysts could define:
Inclusion criteria for drug selection.
Line of business (e.g., commercial, Medicaid, Medicare)
Formulary tiers (preferred, non-preferred, specialty, etc.)
05 // Rule and Attribute Creation
Ability to search, filter, and apply rules across large sets of drugs.
04 // Managing Changes
One of the most challenging problems to solve was how to allow our users to manage changes to drugs within the formulary. As new drugs are added to a formulary, specialists must assign rules (e.g., coverage tiers, exceptions). To ensure quality, these assignments then go through a peer review process.
I designed a workflow that:
Provided specialists with clear visibility into which drugs required action.
Enabled efficient rule assignment through intuitive interfaces.
Incorporated a peer review process that ensured accuracy without slowing down the workflow.
Research and Discovery
Since this was my first time working in the pharmaceutical space, I dedicated significant time to learning:
The role of formularies and how they affect healthcare organizations.
How specialists evaluate, build, and maintain formularies.
Pain points with RxFlex and other platforms in the market.
This research directly informed the workflows I designed and helped me advocate for improvements that went beyond a one-to-one replacement of RxFlex.
User Flows and Journey Mapping
Created user flows to visualize the steps specialists take when building or editing a formulary.
Designed journey maps to highlight pain points in the old RxFlex process and opportunities for improvement.
Used these methods to:
Align with partners on scope and priorities.
Identify where automation and streamlined flows could reduce workload.
Ensure the final tool supported specialists’ needs from start to finish.
User Discussions
Met with our Formulary Operations team on a bi-weekly cadence
Presented user flows, wireframes, hi-fidelity mockups, and prototypes to gain feedback and ask questions
Outcome
The new Formulary Management Tool:
Eliminated the need for RxFlex, reducing business costs.
Provided specialists with a streamlined, integrated workflow directly in Judi.
Improved efficiency through clear navigation and linear processes.
Introduced scalable workflows, like Change Management, that supported quality and peer collaboration.
Reflection
This project stretched my skills as a designer in a highly complex, unfamiliar domain. By deeply engaging with users, collaborating cross-functionally, and focusing on clarity in the face of complexity, I was able to deliver a tool that balanced specialist needs with business goals — and laid the foundation for scalable growth in Judi’s healthcare platform.