Summary
More than 50 years ago, Thomas Watson Jr., the second President of IBM declared, “Good design is good business”. Today, the global company continues to operate on the belief that human experiences drive business. Doug Powell, Distinguished Designer at IBM, will expose what it means to practice design at the global tech company, exploring the inner workings of the largest UX design operation in the world. He will also elaborate on a new Forrester Research study examining the value of design and the design thinking practice at IBM.
Key Insights
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Design leadership is shifting from earning a seat at the table to proving design’s strategic business value.
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IBM employs a decentralized design model with 1,800 formally trained designers embedded in 25 semi-autonomous businesses.
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Design thinking is taught to everyone at IBM, with over 140,000 employees trained via an online platform since 2016.
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Cross-disciplinary collaboration around design thinking significantly improves team alignment and agility.
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Measuring design impact requires a multi-metric approach including designer-to-developer ratios, seniority balance, attrition, and user sentiment.
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Business leaders at IBM are data-driven, competitive, and have a finely tuned bullshit meter, requiring clear and evidence-based communication.
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A 2018 Forrester study found teams with the right design conditions deliver 2x faster to market and 300% ROI.
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Strong relationships between design leaders and business leaders accelerate executive buy-in and resource investment.
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Diversity is a critical design ops challenge as teams must reflect the diverse users they serve to create effective experiences.
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IBM’s App Connect team turned complex workflows into intuitive apps, winning the iF Design Award and validating IBM's design investments.
Notable Quotes
"We are truly in a golden age for our profession."
"Design thinking is for everybody. It’s collaborative, inclusive, and cross-disciplinary."
"Everything is a prototype."
"Business leaders are super busy, data-driven, competitive, and have a finely tuned bullshit meter."
"When the whole team is trained in design thinking, they are measurably more aligned, more efficient, and more agile."
"The user experience will allow us to win."
"There’s no faking it with this crowd."
"We have over 140,000 IBMers who’ve completed design thinking online training."
"Diversity is beyond just the right thing to do. Our teams must reflect the world we’re designing for."
"Good design is good business."
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