Ari Font Llitjos, IBM Guided by IBM Design Thinking and Lean UX principles, our product has evolved from an enterprise search solution to being part of the Big Data platform, scaling to the IBM and Big Data market needs. I'll describe the key components of an amazing transformation that IBM is undergoing, with Lean UX and Design Thinking leading the way.

1. Staying on Target with
IBM Design Thinking & Lean UX
Ariadna Font Llitjós, PhD
UX Lead and Development Manager
@quicola #designthinking #leanux @ibmdesign
InfoSphere Data Explorer, Big Data

2. Acquisition
June 2012 (TOB - January 2013)
Vivisimo
Company size 120
Engineering size 30
Cross-functional team size 4
Enterprise search
InfoSphere Data Explorer :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
IBM, Big Data
430,000
40+
10
Big Data exploration &
visualization
2

3. Focused vision and target
vs.
Overstimulating environment
& developing market
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6. IBM Design Thinking
to the rescue
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7. “Designers [...] don't try to search for a solution until they
have determined the real problem, and even then,
instead of solving that problem, they stop to consider a
wide range of potential solutions.
Only then will they finally converge upon their proposal.
This process is called ‘design thinking.’”
— Don Norman
“Rethinking Design Thinking” Core77, 19 March, 2013
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8. “Designers [...] don't try to search for a solution until they
have determined the real problem, and even then,
instead of solving that problem, they stop to consider a
wide range of potential solutions.
Only then will they finally converge upon their proposal.
This process is called ‘design thinking.’”
— Don Norman
“Rethinking Design Thinking” Core77, 19 March, 2013
InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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9. “Designers [...] don't try to search for a solution until they
have determined the real problem, and even then,
instead of solving that problem, they stop to consider a
wide range of potential solutions.
Only then will they finally converge upon their proposal.
This process is called ‘design thinking.’”
— Don Norman
“Rethinking Design Thinking” Core77, 19 March, 2013
InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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10. “Designers [...] don't try to search for a solution until they
have determined the real problem, and even then,
instead of solving that problem, they stop to consider a
wide range of potential solutions.
Only then will they finally converge upon their proposal.
This process is called ‘design thinking.’”
— Don Norman
“Rethinking Design Thinking” Core77, 19 March, 2013
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11. IBM Design Thinking is about
creating great experiences for our users.
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12. This is not a user experience
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13. This is a user experience

14. PRODUCT
UX
SERVER
UI
DATA CENTER
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15. PRODUCT
PRODUCT
UX
UX
SERVER
UI
DATA CENTER
SERVER
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UI
DATA CENTER
15

16. “Good design is good business.”
— Thomas Watson Jr.
Chief Executive Officer, 1973
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17. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
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18. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
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19. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
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20. 3 Release Hills focus and empower teams
Less micro-management and more iteration
A Release Hill captures the Commander’s intent
“a framework for freedom to act”
Example of a Release Hill:
“A business user should be able to
create and start using a process
application in less than 60 seconds”
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21. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
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22. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Playbacks
Relentless focus on user value and experience
throughout the development process
• Story-driven milestones led by users
• Playback Zero: Align on product vision before coding
• Interim Playbacks: Demo stories in executable code
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
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23. Demo features & functionality
vs.
Demo experience as a narrative
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24. Quotes from Playback 1
“I’d love to have you present this to the sales teams the same way,
it tells the entire story...”
— Manuel Corniel, WW Sales Exec
Big Data, Data explorer
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25. Quotes from Playback 1
“To me it’s like nirvana, you’re getting a nonmediated demo (directly from the user).”
— Charlie Hill, CTO Design
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26. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Playbacks
Relentless focus on user value and experience
throughout the development process
• Story-driven milestones led by users
• Playback Zero: Align on product vision before coding
• Interim Playbacks: Demo stories in executable code
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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27. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Playbacks
Relentless focus on user value and experience
throughout the development process
• Story-driven milestones led by users
• Playback Zero: Align on product vision before coding
• Interim Playbacks: Demo stories in executable code
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
Wiki-based Release Documents
Efficient cross-functional collaboration
around peer-reviewed artifacts
Product
Management
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Engineering
Design
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28. personas
IBM Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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29. personas
user stories & interactions
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30. personas
user stories & interactions
sketches
IBM Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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31. personas
user stories & interactions
visual
prototypes
IBM Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
sketches
24

32. personas
user stories & interactions
field testing
visual
prototypes
IBM Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
sketches
24

33. personas
user stories & interactions
release
blueprint
field testing
visual
prototypes
IBM Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
sketches
24

34. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Playbacks
Relentless focus on user value and experience
throughout the development process
• Story-driven milestones led by users
• Playback Zero: Align on product vision before coding
• Interim Playbacks: Demo stories in executable code
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
Wiki-based Release Documents
Efficient cross-functional collaboration
around peer-reviewed artifacts
Product
Management
InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
Engineering
Design
25

35. IBM Design Thinking: Scaling great design
Key building blocks for consistently great design outcomes
Sponsor Clients/Users
Continuous engagement with people
in target roles and industry domains
Playbacks
Relentless focus on user value and experience
throughout the development process
• Story-driven milestones led by users
• Playback Zero: Align on product vision before coding
• Interim Playbacks: Demo stories in executable code
Release Hills
Focused investment,
empowered teams
Wiki-based Release Documents
Efficient cross-functional collaboration
around peer-reviewed artifacts
IBM Design
Thinking
Metrics
Visibility into
objective
operational data
Organization
data
Skills ratios
1:9
Design team skills data
Release
Blueprint URL
Release Hills
Lead Users
Product
Management
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Engineering
Design
Dependencies
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36. Where were we?
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39. What else changed?
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40. Colocated team
vs.
Distributed team
(2/10 remote devs - still more colocated than most IBM teams)
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41. Non-dedicated design resources
vs.
Dedicated design resources
(2 UX designers, 2 front-end devs / 3 app devs, 3 backend devs)
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42. Access to end users
vs.
Sponsor clients and users
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43. Dev
UX
PM
vs.
Dev UX PM
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44. Lean UX Principles
• Design Thinking
• User-centric design and development
• Cross-functional team
• Maximize learning
• Just-in-time (minimize waste)
• Validate and iterate
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45. Things that remained the same
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46. Agile & Lean practices for over 5 years
• startup culture
• XP practices (continuous integration, peer reviews, unit tests, pair
programming, ...)
• design studios (collaborative design workshops)
• Kanban
• stories
• daily standups
• demos
• retrospectives
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47. Design and development flow
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48. 1. Brainstorm and scope as a team
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49. 2. Workflow and creating epics
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50. 3. Breaking epics down to stories that can be designed / implemented
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51. 4. Design, validate, implement, polish design
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52. 5. One day in the Pittsburgh Big Data lab...
Designers and
developers at work
Team daily standup
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53. 6. Designer shares design and gets feedback from Dev
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54. 7. Dev works on implementing the design
ARIADNA FONT | @QUICOLA @IBMDESIGN @LEANUX

55. 8. Dev proudly shows the implementation with the final design to designer
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56. Key aspects
One team with shared core values
Daily high-bandwidth communication
Iterate - don’t let perfection be the enemy of good
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57. What about outcomes?
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58. Before...
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59. Now
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60. Now
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61. Now
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62. InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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63. InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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64. InfoSphere Data Explorer :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation
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67. Responsive design (mobile friendly)
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68. Responsive design (mobile friendly)
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69. InfoSphere Data Explorer 9.0
1st Signature Product released!
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70. Can’t dictate
great outcomes

71. PROCESS

72. PROCESS
Not a new way of acting, a new way of thinking

73. Can prepare for
great outcomes

74. June 2012
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75. We managed to bring IBM along and
leverage IBM’s channels
October 2013
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76. IBM Design Thinking
61

77. IBM Design Thinking
&
Lean UX
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78. Thanks!
@quicola #designthinking #leanux @ibmdesign
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79. References
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80. Engineering and coding practices
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