IBM Guide
My role: Product Design Lead
As the lead designer for an Agile team in the IBM Design Lab it was my job to develop a product that diagnosed performance across the IBM marketing funnel. The ultimate goal is for any marketer within IBM to access diagnostics on tactics and campaigns, along with recommendations around how to improve their performance.
The product was developed in two week sprint cycles working in collaboration with UX Designers, Front-end Developers, Middleware programmers and back end developers. We also worked extensively with pilot users to gain insights into daily use needs and requirements.
In addition to our daily work in the IBM Design Lab we also ran the project through a collaborative week long workshop at IBM Design HQ in Austin, where we applied IBMs version of "Design Thinking" methodologies to the product. The application is currently being moved into a new mobile based platform, for on the go diagnosis.
A portion of our Playback Zero deck, which was used to create alignment around product goals and objectives with stakeholders.
An original imagining of the workspace, using a tablet based approach that connects data to service recommendations.
The team developed and tested a number of different prototypes and organizational experience models along the way, shifting our focus as we learned more about our users.
We re-imagined the diagnostic workspace as a visualization where benchmarks and calculation can be dynamically added with ease, ultimately leading to a set of recommendations in different content areas that is less tablet focused and more geared to our desktop based user base.
User feedback told us the greatest need was to access diagnosis on the go, in meetings, and away from the desktop. This shift led to a soon to be released mobile design, which allows users to see the standing of their campaigns in comparison with worldwide numbers and easily connect to recommended actions and services. From a creative standpoint we pushed the product even further by establishing a more concrete brand look and feel that would be recognizable for the application and applied it to the user interface and integrated it with the user experience. Lastly, a sleeker product name, Guide, was chosen to help give the product personality and purpose.
Project Highlights
Worked with UX and Front end Developers on a daily basis working towards MVP for each two week sprint cycle
Led collaboration sessions with Agile team members and stakeholders and product owner
Considered how the tool could fit into a users workday and made decisions based on ease of use
Researched data visualization models and development methods in order to hire the right development talent
Worked with team to create new Agile stories and acceptance criteria
Regularly led team on defining project objectives and work approach
Gathered user feedback that led to new mobile focused approach