Summary
In this talk, the speaker from IBM shares insights on cultivating a lasting design culture within a massive organization of 380,000 employees. Referencing collaborators like Phil, Doug, Charlie, and Susan, the talk stresses that culture is behavior over time, shaped by values, rituals, heroes, symbols, and practices. IBM’s design program grew rapidly, hiring over 750 designers through a rigorous process involving portfolio reviews, phone screens, and intensive in-person interviews led by a team including the speaker. New hires undergo a three-month onboarding to learn IBM design thinking and develop collaboration skills. IBM created flexible, people-centric studio spaces in Austin and elsewhere to promote productive teamwork beyond typical silos. The core IBM design practice revolves around IBM design thinking, emphasizing user outcomes, multidisciplinary teams, and a continuous loop of observe, reflect, and make. Influenced by conversations with David Kelley and Tim Brown, IBM adapted design thinking for scale, introducing tools like Hills, Playbacks, and Sponsor Users to maintain alignment and accessibility. The IBM design language balances unity and creative freedom across thousands of products, supported by embedded accessibility and bespoke design guides. The upcoming IBM design research initiative encourages all employees to participate in research roles. Above all, the speaker cautions that design efforts must drive real outcomes benefiting users. Throughout, the team embraces iterative learning and course-correcting as the design culture evolves.
Key Insights
-
•
Culture is defined as behavior over time, shaped by how people choose to behave and incentivize behavior.
-
•
IBM’s design hiring process is extremely selective, choosing less than 1% of applicants through multi-stage reviews.
-
•
A three-month onboarding program is essential to help new hires integrate and embrace IBM design thinking.
-
•
Design studios at IBM are built to be highly flexible, with furniture on wheels enabling constant reconfiguration.
-
•
IBM design thinking centers around user outcomes, multidisciplinary teams, and a continuous loop of observe, reflect, and make.
-
•
The Hills framework sets clear, outcome-focused goals to align teams and avoid internal conflict.
-
•
Playbacks provide a safe space for critique where hierarchy is set aside to focus on doing right by users.
-
•
Sponsor Users programs connect design teams directly to real clients for co-design and feedback.
-
•
The IBM design language promotes system unity but allows teams creative freedom, fostering cohesive yet diverse products.
-
•
Design research roles invite everyone in the organization to participate, expanding beyond traditional lab-bound models.
Notable Quotes
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast, but culture isn’t something you can just buy or transplant."
"Behavior over time is your culture; it’s how you choose to behave and incentivize others to behave."
"We review over 10,000 candidates and select less than 1% for hiring into the IBM design program."
"If you just throw new hires into cubeville, most of them would probably quit."
"We call everybody a designer on purpose to encourage branching out across disciplines."
"The studio is designed for whole teams to work together, not just the design team alone."
"Design thinking at IBM is not just for designers; it’s how we want all 380,000 people to think about problems."
"Playbacks are safe spaces where an intern can challenge a senior VP without hierarchy getting in the way."
"The IBM design language is about system unity instead of uniformity, so designers aren’t cookie cutters."
"None of this matters without outcomes; we design to make people’s days better, not just to design."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We are truly in a golden age for our profession."
Doug PowellClosing Keynote: Design at Scale
November 8, 2018
"If a group session with middle schoolers goes off the rails, one-on-one sessions can save the research."
Mila Kuznetsova Lucy DentonHow Lessons Learned from Our Youngest Users Can Help Us Evolve our Practices
March 9, 2022
"We created a Wizard of Oz smoke and mirrors prototype—a simple text message thread between a parent and this service—just to get enough buy-in."
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"We never compromise on the business goals, but how we achieve them can be flexible and pragmatic."
Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne RogondinoTheme 1: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"AI is just a better version of the tools you’re already using to refine ideas and express thoughts."
Alnie FigueroaThe Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft
September 10, 2025
"Meaningfulness is linked directly to what your organization cares about in terms of goals and priorities."
Landon BarnesAre My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?
March 10, 2022
"It’s the worst thing when someone feels dumb in front of a customer because the tools don’t support them."
Emily EagleCan't Rewind: Radio and Retail
June 3, 2019
"No two re-platforming journeys are exactly the same, and there isn't one single formula that works every time."
Malini RaoLessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey
June 9, 2021
"I learned to be relentless about prioritization and to hone in on specific details and use cases."
Asia HoePartnering with Product: A Journey from Junior to Senior Design
November 29, 2023
