Design Staffing for Impact
Summary
The IBM CIO portfolio is comprised of thousands of tools and services. Given the organization’s obsession with the IBMer experience and their desire to positively impact IBMer productivity, it is extremely important that they allocate their scarce Design & Research talent to the projects that have the greatest impact on IBMers' work experience. To this end, they have refined their staffing processes and developed a new metric, The Design Staffing Score, that allows them to measure the degree to which their staffing approach aligns with project priority. Patrick will describe their refined approach to staffing, how progress is measured, and the tangible benefits they’ve realized.
Key Insights
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Demand for UX support at IBM's CIO org outpaced capacity, despite team growth.
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Lack of documented prioritization criteria caused stakeholder confusion and dissatisfaction.
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Using two objective variables—number of users and usage frequency—made prioritization more quantifiable and aligned with mission.
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The team developed a design staffing score metric correlating staffing with project priority to measure alignment and success.
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Visible, agreed-upon priorities enabled smooth reallocation of designers to higher impact projects.
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Introducing a tiered support model improved communication and set stakeholder expectations for lower priority projects.
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Leadership, especially CIO Fletcher Prev, strongly prioritizes employee (associate) experience, easing adoption of prioritization.
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Automating staffing data and weekly score tracking made ongoing prioritization upkeep feasible and visible.
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Cross-domain design advisors act as knowledge hubs and liaison points for staffing and portfolio understanding.
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Continuous reassessment of project scope and staffing needs ensures resources adapt to changing priorities.
Notable Quotes
"If you’re like us, you’d love to have 100% of the UX talent every project needs, but your team isn’t large enough."
"We never documented our criteria, leaving stakeholders feeling our decisions were mysterious."
"The two variables that stood out were how many people the project impacts and how often they use it."
"Anything below zero on the design staffing score indicates we’re staffing lower priority projects over higher ones."
"We immediately transitioned designers embedded on lower priority projects to higher priority ones."
"We created a tiers of support model so even low priority projects get some level of guidance, even if just a 45-minute consultation."
"Our CIO, Fletcher Prev, has always made the employee experience his North Star."
"Before transitioning designers, we reviewed and agreed on a prioritized list with all executive leaders."
"We automated everything — now we click a button weekly to produce updated staffing and priority alignment scores."
"When project scope changes, designers or design advisors raise their hand to reassess and adjust staffing accordingly."
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