Making design quality a shared standard across IBM
IBM's Design & User Experience reviews existed, but each business unit ran its own version. I brought design leaders together to govern one practice, carried it into new parts of the company, and gave thousands of people a reason to learn it.
- Role
- Design & UX Program Director
- When
- 2019 – 2021
- Where
- IBM Design Program Office
Before
- Design and UX programs running in silos, business unit by business unit
- Reviews covering only part of the company
- Little awareness of the review standard outside design teams
- Designers and engineering leaders working around each other
After
- A governance board of design VPs and directors steering one practice
- Reviews running in new lines of business, and offered to IBM clients
- More than 1,000 people credentialed in the first six months
- Three company-wide initiatives from IBM's top technical leaders
The situation
The D&UX review is how IBM measures the experience of its products. When I took over the program, each business unit had its own approach and its own priorities. Design leaders rarely compared notes, and the people who build and support products had no easy way to learn what "good" meant.
What I did
- Formed a governance board
I set up a D&UX Governance Board of design VPs and directors across business units, so decisions about the practice were made together instead of in parallel.
- Scaled reviews into new lines of business
I extended the review practice to business units that had never used it, and partnered with IBM Services on a go-to-market approach to offer D&UX reviews to IBM clients.
- Added serviceability to the standard
Supporting the General Manager of Design's push on customer support and usability, I added a serviceability dimension to reviews and executive reporting, and brought client support experts in as reviewers.
- Built a credential with the people it was for
I co-created a D&UX badge with designers from across business units. It measured awareness of the practice across disciplines and gave senior design leaders a certification path.
- Brought design and engineering leadership together
With IBM's VP of Design, I ran a process for IBM Fellows, Distinguished Engineers and Distinguished Designers to name what blocked great experiences. Small groups found root causes, an online jam surfaced ideas, the most upvoted ideas became themes for a three-day virtual summit, and 40 technical executives spent six weeks in working groups before reading out to executive sponsors.
What changed
The inner source work went on to shape IBM Research's Global Technology Outlook, which led to a componentized AI technology stack and an inner source platform built by IBM's CIO organization.
"Quite simply, without Kelly's outstanding contribution the Technical Leadership Summit would not have happened."