CASE STUDY
Veeva Influence Map
Turning Fragmented Data into Action
Veeva’s sales and medical teams once sifted through static CRM tables and complex reports to find the right physicians and hospital networks. This made it hard to identify the key influencers driving treatment decisions. The Influence Map completely changed this process.
Reduced manual research time
Sales reps can quickly see the key players in a health system and focus outreach on high‑influence doctors instead of combing through spreadsheets
Improved targeting and confidence
Users select metrics such as Influence or Disease Expertise and instantly highlight top HCPs or HCOs on the map.
Enabled cross‑functional insights
Marketing, sales and account teams create their own views of the map—team‑specific snapshots that don’t overwrite each other. This helps each group tailor the map to their goals while still using the same data source.
Expanded adoption
The Influence Map is now used across Veeva modules and by multiple clients, becoming a standard for relationship intelligence and influencing wider adoption of Veeva’s enterprise design system.
Strategy & Design Approach
Stakeholders needed a way to visualise complex healthcare networks—showing how physicians, clinics and hospitals are connected—so they could plan product launches and engagement strategies. The tool had to be intuitive for non‑technical users while respecting data visibility rules
Key Design Decisions
Interactive Map vs. Static Tables
We replaced traditional CRM tables with an interactive, zoomable network graph. Each node represents a health‑care professional (HCP) or health‑care organization (HCO). Users can filter by product (therapy area) and see connections.
Role‑Based Filtering & Metrics
The Tools pane lets users add or remove accounts, draw or edit relationships, and annotate the canvas. They can filter by HCP or HCO type (for example, by role or clinic type), and select metrics like Influence or Product Familiarity to highlight high‑value targets.
Multiple Views & Collaboration
Users create custom views for different teams or regions. Each view stores its own layout and changes; adding or removing accounts or relationships affects only that view. Views can be cloned, reordered or renamed, allowing flexibility without disrupting others.
Data Integration & Privacy
The widget only displays data from your Veeva Network instance; OpenData records are downloaded and added to the network when selected. Data components show external CRM or service‑cloud activity like emails or calls for the selected accounts.
Research & Evidence
Contextual interviews and task analysis with sales reps, key account managers and medical science liaisons revealed that existing CRM lists were too slow and lacked context. Users wanted to see who influenced whom and how product familiarity varied
Prototype testing and usability sessions showed that rating‑based filters helped users identify top influencers quickly. Highlighting High or Very High ratings for Influence surfaced key doctors for pre‑commercial campaigns[
Iterative design with engineering and data governance ensured that SSO authentication, data visibility restrictions and local editing behaviours complied with enterprise security and privacy requirements
Pilots with multiple pharma clients validated that custom views and annotation tools allowed teams to adapt the map for different roles and therapeutic areas, increasing adoption and reducing reliance on static reports.
Leadership & Collaboration
Worked closely with product managers, data stewards and developers to define the Influence Map’s data model and interaction patterns. We balanced flexibility with safeguards so local changes did not corrupt master data
Conducted cross‑functional workshops where sales and marketing teams co‑designed views tailored to their workflows, fostering ownership and reducing change‑management friction.
Mentored junior designers on network‑based visualisation, ensuring consistent design language across Veeva’s platform.
Advocated for accessibility by adding keyboard navigation, readable colour coding, and the option to hide relationship labels for visual clarity
PROCESS EVIDENCE
Outcome & Reflection
The Influence Map evolved from a simple visualisation into a flexible planning tool. By giving users control over accounts, relationships, views and annotations, we transformed a complicated dataset into an intuitive, strategic asset. Teams now:
Spend less time hunting for data and more time planning targeted outreach.
Share maps across functions without stepping on each other’s toes.
Use annotation and screenshot tools to turn maps into presentations and collaboration artefacts
Maintain data integrity thanks to local edits and SSO‑based access control
The Influence Map demonstrates how thoughtful UX design can turn raw data into actionable intelligence. Its success helped secure internal funding for further UX initiatives and established a model for visualising complex relationships across Veeva’s product suite.
