Theranos is at a major turning point. What it does next could be critical to its survival.

The company, which rose to fame with the promise of a new test that uses only a finger-prick's worth of blood, is struggling to restore faith in its leadership and technology.

On Wednesday, it announced a major management shakeup, and, more critically, it has promised to address the biggest cause of skepticism in the scientific community: that it hasn't ever published any studies on the technology.

Theranos' problems came into focus in October, when the The Wall Street Journal reported its tests weren't producing accurate results and the company was trying to cover it up. Theranos dismissed many of the claims in lengthy rebuttals online, but still hasn't answered the question of how the tests work or offered data to support its process.

Staying quiet has done little to help its cause. Since The Journal's report, the company, which once fetched a $9 billion valuation, has lost out on a key deal, had one of its two labs shut down, and wound up under investigation by several government agencies. Its founder, 32-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, faces a two-year ban from the blood-testing business.

Some former employees have said that this caginess pervades the company's culture and even affects how staff are asked to conduct themselves in public. On LinkedIn, for example, many people deliberately do not identify Theranos as their employer, and one person told Business Insider about a list of words that employees were banned from using outside of the office.

The next few months for Theranos will be crucial. Late Wednesday, Theranos said its president and chief operating officer, Sunny Balwani, is retiring as part of a company-wide reorganization. And by August, Theranos had already said, it would release its scientific data in a presentation, at which point the company will have to show whether its technology is as revolutionary as it seems.

Dragan Radovanovic/Business Insider

Banned words

Former employees who spoke with Business Insider, all on the condition of anonymity because of concerns about legal repercussions, described a company where communication is lacking and collaboration is discouraged.

One person who worked at the company for a short time four years ago, said secrecy existed even within different teams at Theranos.

"In my time, teams were not allowed to talk to other teams," the person said.