Service Design Case Study — IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption pilot project
In this blog article, I share the journey of my third service design pilot project with a cross-functional team in IBM Z, the outcome, and the key learnings.
To understand the background of the pilot project, please read the section “Overview of my service design projects” in the blog article: My career transition journey to Service Design.
- What was the business problem?
- About the product
- My role in this pilot project
- Key objectives of the pilot project
- Stages of the pilot project
- Initial scope of the project
- Methodology (research, ideation, future state and roadmap)
- Outcome
- Implementation
- Key learnings from the pilot team
- My key learnings
1. What was the business problem?
The IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption cross-functional team comprising Product Management, Design, and Engineering disciplines was chosen for the third service design pilot project. The design discipline already had excellent cross-functional relationships with the Product Manager and engineering team.
Due to product roadmap priorities, the cross-functional team was focused on improving product experiences. They did not have time to focus on touchpoints that helped their customer personas quickly Discover, Learn, and Try new product features, which impacted quicker onboarding and adoption of new product features.
Why did I do the pilot project?
The pilot project could help other Design and Content teams in IBM Z see how service design can add value to their personas’ learning journeys by improving the experiences of specific digital IBM touchpoints, enabling faster adoption of new product features.
2. About the product
Foundational components
- IBM z/OS is the core operating system that runs on IBM Z mainframes, providing the foundation for all computing activities
- IBM Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem (DFSMS) is the primary means of managing space in IBM z/OS. DFSMS comprises a suite of related data and storage management products and performs the essential data, storage, program, and device management functions of the IBM mainframe system.
In simple terms, z/OS is the main engine powering the IBM mainframe.
Within this z/OS environment, DFSMS is a specialized set of tools and services for managing storage and security.
z/OS Data Set Encryption (a component in DFSMS) is like putting your data into a special safe that only you can open. When data is encrypted, it’s transformed into a scrambled, unreadable format using complex mathematical algorithms. This ensures that even if someone gains access to the data, they won’t understand it without the decryption key.
Product
IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption is a security component in DFSMS that protects sensitive information by scrambling data using complex algorithms to make it unreadable.
- IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption provides a layer of protection for sensitive information stored on the mainframe, such as personal records, financial data, or confidential business documents
- IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption ensures confidentiality and integrity of data stored on IBM mainframe systems, safeguarding against unauthorized access and data breaches
User experience
IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption is designed to be seamless. Encryption occurs transparently in the background, so users can encrypt data without needing to make any changes to their application.
This encryption process provides a vital layer of protection for valuable data sets within the z/OS environment.
What is a Data Set?
Data Set is a logical unit used to organize and store data. It’s akin to a file or a container for information.
- Data sets can hold various data types, including text files, databases, program executables, or any other structured or unstructured data
- Data sets are fundamental components of mainframe computing, serving as the primary means for storing and accessing data in a structured manner
Customer personas
- Experienced security administrator
- Experienced security architect
3. My role in this pilot project
As a service designer, I helped the team:
- set vision for the pilot project
- define strategy
- get buy-in for service design from project stakeholders
- conduct research
- facilitate ideation sessions
- guide the team to set a North Star statement
- help the team with their implementation
4. Key objectives of the pilot project
The pilot project’s outcomes differed from those of a UX project as the initial scope was to improve:
- existing touchpoints in the front stage
- existing internal touchpoint in the back stage
The project aimed to enhance the user experience by recognizing and improving the connections between external and internal touchpoints.
5. Stages of the pilot project
Prep activities I did before starting the pilot project
I created a draft plan outlining the project’s scope and met with the Design Lead to get her support for participating in the pilot project.
The project comprised the following stages:
- Buy-in of service design pilot project
- Research
- Ideation
- Future state & roadmap
- Implementation
How did I get buy-in?
As this pilot team comprised of a cross-functional team, the design lead requested that I present the pilot project’s value proposition to get their buy-in.
I started with a draft and shared multiple revisions with the Design Lead.
To get buy-in, I created a presentation
- Why is this pilot project important?
- Outcomes of the pilot
- Journey of the pilot project (different phases)
- Current as-is touchpoints
Who were the users and stakeholders?
The pilot project users were
- Design Lead
- Product Manager
- Technical Architect
The key stakeholder was the Design Lead.
How did I take the team on their journey?
To take the team members on their service design journey, I took on the following responsibilities:
- Change management agent
- Strategist
- Facilitator
- Coach
- Researcher
Communication with the team — I updated the team members on the upcoming activities through Slack. I also used to collect feedback from the team members individually at the end of each activity through Slack. Communicating through Slack was an excellent choice as it allowed asynchronous communication as the team members worked on other projects.
I created a Slack channel to post updates and questions to the team. The Design Lead was my main focal point; we interacted frequently via Slack and met online before each major milestone (presentation/workshop). The Senior Product Manager and Senior Technical Architect were very responsive to my questions via Slack.
6. Initial scope of the project
The team wanted to improve the Discover, Learn, and Try experiences. The initial scope also included improving an internal touchpoint to improve a front-stage touchpoint.
Improving the internal touchpoint experience may have extended the duration of the project. Therefore, we decided to focus only on improving the front-stage touchpoint experience and the cross-functional collaboration between the different roles of the pilot team.
Before the research phase, the team decided to focus only on the Discover and Learn journeys as they felt that this was the critical journey to help customers quickly move to the Get Started experience for quicker product onboarding.
7. Methodology
a. Research
I conducted 1:1 interviews with the Design Lead, Senior Product Manager, and Senior Technical Architect.
To better understand the team’s ecosystem of internal and external stakeholders and their processes, I created an ecosystem and a process map template in Mural. I asked the team to add their data asynchronously. The data focused on identifying the different stakeholders and teams, including how the various cross-functional teams interact. This helped me create the research artifact: as-is service blueprint.
Research insights
- IBM Events emerge as the primary touchpoint for learning new features and IBM Redbooks publication for existing features
- Current learning journey of personas takes additional time and effort as they have to navigate through different IBM touchpoints and again visit them regularly to access the latest content
Research artifacts
Based on the research insights
- Created a primary as-is service blueprint that shows the front stage and back stage of the current Discover and Learn journey
- Created four secondary research artifacts from the primary as-is service blueprint
- Created an educational deck outlining a screen capture of the artifact and a brief blurb about the artifact to help the team understand its value in the research analysis phase
The secondary research artifacts were
- Touchpoint map
- Pain points map
- Analytics map
- Expectations map
A primary as-is service blueprint and different research artifacts helped the pilot team see a holistic view and specific parts of the current experience.
Identification of pain points
Based on the pain points from the research artifacts, I helped the team identify the pain points under strategic and tactical categories.
Strategic — Improves the customer experience in the long run
Tactical — Improves the customer experience in the short run
This categorization helped the team understand the impact of pain points as they prepared for the brainstorming phase.
b. Ideation
A few key ideas generated were:
- Create LinkedIn posts when updates are made to the Content Solutions page
- Repost short learning videos on social media from the Content Solutions page
- Report insights about social media metrics in internal quarterly meetings
Prioritization of ideas
The team prioritized improving the current Discover and Learn journey through digital touchpoints and increasing the outreach through social media
c. Future State
I co-created a future state service blueprint to help the team understand the dependencies between the front and back stages as they co-create the new experience.
North Star statement
The team created the initial draft (below) and then iterated it multiple times to create the final statement with an Objectives and Key Results (OKR).
The persona will be able to deploy the solution in “x” months of completing the customized learning journey available on the Content Solutions page touchpoint.
d. Roadmap
Based on the final North Star statement, the team identified and scoped the activities for the new future experience as follows
- Cupcake (Minimum Viable Experience)
The team is currently collecting feedback from customers on the to-be scenario. A storyboard has been created for the to-be scenario to help the customers understand the steps. The storyboard also helps the team to validate the customer needs and pivot if necessary. - Birthday cake
- Wedding cake
8. Outcome
The team has created a new learning journey of touchpoints to improve the Discover and Learn experiences, leading to faster product onboarding through future-state service blueprinting and road mapping activities.
9. Implementation
The team is developing new features for the latest release and collecting customer feedback on the new Discover and Learn journeys.
After the release of the new features in the future
- Product Manager would promote them via social media
- Technical Lead would co-author a blog with the Product Manager and promote them via social media
- Content Developer would update the existing content solutions touchpoint with the content resources for the Discover and Learn journeys of the two personas
“I think the biggest problem that the pilot has solved was to help us understand the Universal Experiences stages and touchpoints in need of improvement and the actions of the cross-functional team they can take to improve our client’s journey for discover, learn, and try our solutions.”
Design Lead — IBM z/OS DFSMS team“Highlighting the pain point from our client’s view on the lack of modern methods to capture solution-level info and bring to light the ideal methods for engagement in today’s world.”
Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) — IBM z/OS DFSMS team
10. Key learnings from the pilot team
What did the team like about the pilot project?
- Identified numerous opportunities for improvement in the current engagement of the existing touchpoints
- Strong engagement with different service design methods and their outcomes to understand the journey of personas across multiple touchpoints created a compelling narrative for change
- Quickly identified the key touchpoint and persona through the simplicity of the North Star statement and earlier co-creation activities in the as-is and ideation stages
How does the team plan to apply potential learnings for future projects?
- Categorize the unique touchpoints in the Discover, Learn, and Try experiences to help the cross-functional teams prioritize the best touchpoint in each experience for impacting customer experiences positively
- Future planning for new features will strategically incorporate the full set of touchpoints and how they interact, rather than treating them separately, to help the cross-functional team improve the customer experiences
- Product Managers in the same portfolio of products plan to apply the best practices from the pilot project’s future state service blueprint and roadmap activities for their existing products
11. My key learnings from the three pilot projects
- See a systemic view of teams’ collaboration and their relationships to touchpoints
- Identify sub-systems of content creation and delivery for three pilot projects
- Identify patterns in journeys of personas across similar touchpoints for three pilot projects
- Identify dependencies from other teams during the product life cycle
- Learn how artifacts align team members on the expectations of the pilot project
- Co-creation of future state service blueprint and roadmap helps the teams take ownership of the implementation journey
Case studies of the service design pilot projects
I want to thank Samantha Farias, Design Lead, IBM z/OS DFSMS for the buy-in to participate in this service design pilot project.
I wish to thank the following pilot project members for their strong support
- Barbara McDonald, Senior Product Manager, IBM z/OS DFSMS
- Cecilia Carranza Lewis, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM),
IBM z/OS DFSMS
I would also like to thank Alexis Ricci, Product Manager, IBM z/OS Data Set Encryption, for her contributions.
