Blib nid stah! How I redefined my design career
Blib nid stah means “do not stand still” in Swiss German. Here’s how I accomplished new purpose, clarity, and direction in my career through reflection and action.
Who I am
I am a user experience designer, storyteller and Enterprise Design Thinking coach. IBM gives me the opportunity to work on experiences that solve some of the world’s largest problems on a daily basis.
For the past four years, I’ve contributed to Big Blue’s transformation from an engineering to a design-driven company where the client experience comes first. As a designer, my purpose is to help humans. To do this, I advocate for the users I serve, create meaningful, personalized experiences, and foster a culture of shared companionship with my colleagues along the way. Here’s my story.
Leaving Switzerland to get experienced
When I made the decision to take the risk and leave my beautiful home country of Switzerland, my goal was clear. In order to grow professionally on a level that enabled me to tackle the problems I was most fascinated with (healthcare, education, family-related experiences), I would have to keep moving and look elsewhere.
In spring 2015, I applied to work at the newly-opened IBM Studios in Boeblingen, and they reached out and hired me. Boeblingen is located in southwest Germany, in close proximity to Stuttgart. Stuttgart is the home of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz — companies that just so happen to be IBM clients. Established in 2014, the studio is an integral part of design at IBM.
IBM Studios Boeblingen as home base
I belonged to the first 6 designers in Boeblingen and had the chance to help create and curate the studio culture. Nowadays, the Boeblingen studio is 35 designers strong. The studio is known for their precise and innovative user experience design. Boeblingen designers work on a range of solutions and technologies from IBM Z to IBM Watson Hybrid Cloud, AI and IoT (Internet of Things).
We have a vibrant culture! Our work and social lives have in many ways morphed together. The convergence of these lives happens quite often; whether we meet up, travel, exchange expertise, work on side projects, eat lunch together, or share beers after work.
Getting stuck in the comfort zone
In Boeblingen, IBM Z was the perfect start into my IBM career. I got the chance to learn a new domain in an exciting environment. As the only UX designer on my team, I was given the unique opportunity to be challenged, and learn every day on the job. The role allowed me to better understand and work with engineers. It gave me the chance to evangelize design within an engineering-focused organization. The outcomes we achieved together as a team were fantastic. We transformed complicated mainframes into simple and human-focused experiences.
After having successfully navigated several roles, I felt I had reached my comfort zone. I recognized that it’s not where I wanted to stay, in avoidance of that “stuck feeling” that professionals can often get. I was appreciative of the opportunities I had been given, but it was time for my next career move. Blib nid stah!
Redefining my career path
Sometimes opportunities can be too good to be true. I made a deal with my old organization to split my time between working in Boeblingen and New York City. After holiday break, everything changed, and the deal slowly vanished. I was disappointed and bitter. I was trapped in my comfort zone. Even worse, I left my home country to grow and now had the feeling that I didn’t know what direction I wanted to grow in. I had to face my inner ego and retreat.
For three weeks I’ve found myself in that weird place; trying to figure out who I was, and who I wanted to become. So, I covered my living room table with paper from top to bottom. I wrote down all the unanswered questions that had been swirling around in my head. I was grappling with questions like: “what are my values?” “why do I get up in the morning?” and “what can I truly be proud of when I reach the end of my career?”
These are extremely difficult questions to have all the answers to. But after this personal retrospective, my path became crystal clear. The mental model of my values and aspirations had been reconstructed. I identified the three main goals to focus on:
- I wanted to work on future experiences leveraging AI mechanics
- I wanted to make a difference in the lives of human beings
- I wanted to work overseas at the IBM Austin office in closer proximity to design leadership and the hub of our design organization at IBM
Mentorship as key
Having these parameters in place allowed me to take full advantage of my mentorship network, which was extensive thanks to the design onboarding program I experienced at the beginning of my IBM career.
In May of 2018, I reached out to design leaders like Doug Powell (Vice President of Design), Joni Saylor (Distinguished Designer) and Alex Swain (Watson Studio Design Lead) who had known me since the very beginning of my time at IBM. They quickly directed me to potential mentors who could answer my questions and get a conversation going. Through this process, I got to know many different designers and businesses within IBM.
Over the course of the year, I tried unsuccessfully to make my next career step happen. Everyone who I spoke to was interested in getting me on their team but seemed to understand the insurmountable work it took to make an international IBM move happen — it was almost impossible. In a nutshell, the discussions were never about skill set, but commitment to believing that my impossible mission was worth tackling.
At this time, I was ready to quit IBM and look for a different opportunity to grow. This would have been extremely disappointing because there is so much opportunity within IBM, and I hadn’t yet experienced working in our flagship studio in Austin, shoulder-to-shoulder with many of our senior design leaders. I gave it one last shot.
Designing my future
In autumn of 2018, I found cheap flights to Austin and traveled around the States with 2 coworkers from the Boeblingen Design Studio. At the end of the trip, I dedicated 2 days to meeting with designers, design leads, VPs, mentors and old friends in the Austin Studio in pursuit of my goals. Along the way, I created a market for myself, and secured justification for why the business would need me on a new product team.
Of course, the question was, “why me?” “Why Matthias?” “Why not sponsor somebody local?” “Why would someone fund my travel or take a chance on me?” All of these questions were fair since IBM employs more than 2,500 formally-trained designers and over 20,000 design and user experience professionals. Through my successes in Z systems, and numerous conversations with mentors, advocates, and leaders, I created a discourse and built eminence for myself, and restlessly pursued my goals. Long story short, I carved my own path through unknown terrain.
I encountered great uncertainty and fought through negotiations and got a visa to come to North America. The leap of faith paid off. I ended up receiving an international assignment to work in the Austin Design Studio for the next two years. I’m grateful for all the people who carried me through the darkness.
There is nothing more satisfying than creating a goal, restlessly pursuing it, and achieving it. I found it invaluable to set aside moments of self-reflection along the course of my career, achieve self-alignment, and set goals.
Lessons learned
Along my journey, I’ve learned several important lessons on the topics of purpose, goal-setting, and motivation. These insights, through self-reflection helped me, and they can help you catalyze a start towards achieving your desired career path. You can start by asking yourself a few reflection questions like why do you get up in the morning? What are you passionate about and what are your core values? Who do you aspire to be and what outcomes do you wish to achieve? Who can help you along the way? Then, set some deadlines to keep yourself accountable and on track. What can you accomplish by next week? Next month? Next year? In the next 3 years?
While writing this, I am sitting in the design studio in Austin, TX, working on Alex Swain’s amazing team. Every day I have the chance to learn from the best, explore new domains, gain more international experience, and work on cutting edge projects. I hope my story will inspire you to carve your own path, and not get stuck in your comfort zone. Take risks, fail a few times. Leverage your mentorship network and get creative. Once you know what you want to do, you will find a way to achieve it and make the impossible possible.
PS: I’d like to thank IBM Design, Allison Biesboer, and David Avila for their epic support when writing this article.
In the wild is a monthly series featuring candid career stories from a designer at IBM. Story snapshots reveal truths about career successes, failures, and lessons learned through designers’ own voice. For more, read the next story in the series, Communicating the power of design on a multidisciplinary team by Rebecca Love.
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The above story is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.
