Launching data and AI products, including Db2 and watsonx.data
New products at IBM rarely hold still. My teams designed a new lakehouse while its strategy turned around, shipped the next version of Db2, and rebuilt a product trial in a week of focused work. The common thread was getting design in early and setting the team up to move fast.
- Role
- Director of Design, Data & AI
- When
- 2023 – 2024
- Portfolio
- Data Management, Business Analytics
Before
- A lakehouse product that changed name, delivery vehicle and direction late in the cycle
- Strained working relationships between design, PM and engineering
- A Planning Analytics trial where most people who started sign-up never finished
After
- watsonx.data and Db2 Warehouse v3 generally available on the same day
- Design leading the architectural workshop and planning with the roadmap
- Trial sign-up completion up from 14.5% to 89.1%
The situation
My teams covered IBM's data management portfolio, including Db2, IBM's largest revenue-generating product, and Business Analytics. In 2023 we were asked to deliver watsonx.data, IBM's new lakehouse, while the business around it was reorganizing. Near the end of the delivery cycle the product took a new name, a new delivery vehicle and a new strategic direction.
At the same time, IBM was betting on product-led growth. Planning Analytics needed a trial experience that let people get from interest to value on their own.
What I did
- Rebuilt the partnership with PM and engineering
I made sure design was part of the strategic imperatives instead of a downstream service, aligned design priorities with the product roadmap, and had design lead the architectural workshop.
- Pointed a rapid design team at the biggest bet
I formed an accelerated product design group from Business Analytics designers and piloted it on the lakehouse, adding capacity exactly where the deadline was tightest.
- Ran a one-week design jam on the trial
The Planning Analytics team led product, engineering and design through a week of focused work to agree on priorities for a new trial experience. Design delivered prototypes straight to development, and the multicloud offering shipped on schedule.
- Set the vision for what came next
For watsonx BI Assistant, the team ran an accelerated sprint to define personas, problems and use cases, produced a vision video of an "intelligent journal" for business data, and built a high-fidelity prototype that we took directly to customers. We also defined the UX vision for bringing governance, risk and compliance workflows into watsonx.governance.
What changed
Planning Analytics became the most successful product-led growth business case in IBM by financial results. watsonx.data followed its launch with version 1.1 in November, and the Db2 Data Management Console shipped a new release in October.