IBM Design making the Elephant Dance… again
My father worked 19 years for IBM. Back then, they were selling printers, PCs, and other hardware. My first full computer was a PS/1 — I remember chatting with a friend in Buenos Aires from my home in New York via IBM’s network (which they later sold to AT&T). I’m really grateful for the big blue.
A lot has changed since my first IBM experience. IBM is no longer just a printing, personal computers and networking business. They are slowly sunsetting some business units, and a new era powered by cloud computing and big data will define their future.
Another change is a personal one: I have become an actor versus a spectator in IBM’s quest.
Design = Change
The New York Times published a piece on the change that Phil Gilbert is leading inside the company.
Through Design Thinking, which he claims is the “scientific method of the 21st century,” Gilbert aims to transform how IBM delivers their user experience. What’s more, he wants to upgrade the way IBMers solve problems across marketing, sales, finance and strategy; and not only in product and service design.
“… across corporate America, there is a rising enthusiasm for design thinking not only to develop products but also to guide strategy and shape decisions of all kinds.”
Gilbert has IBM CEO Ginni Rometty’s support. She is a big promoter of their change through design.
Their story highlights more about the strategic initiative. But what caught my attention was a quote from John E. Kelly, 36-year IBM veteran: “In the past, we changed what we were working on, but we were pretty much working the same way,” he said. “Now, we’re changing how we work too. And the how element is always related to speed.”
Roadblocks when Implementing Design at Scale
One thing that IBM realized as soon as they embraced Design Thinking is that given their global footprint they needed a “Virtual Studios” practice. They needed to take the “places” that they were used to having in the physical world online to enable distributed, 24x7 design collaboration.
It’s not uncommon to see a team in IBM with developers in Rome, product managers in New York and designers in Austin. When you rely on sticky notes and sketches to document your thinking, that’s a problem.
IBM believes in being present: they train their executives and product managers in design thinking by having everybody turn off their devices, talk to people, understand problems and sketch their way to a potential solution.
The training works well — it is deeply human-centered. But again and again, when the workshop ends, participants ask the same question:
“How do I make this part of my workflow? My team is spread all over the world.”
The How… in action
In order to solve the problem of being distributed, IBM Design baked in a part of their design education program that takes Design Thinking online.But how?
Last week, we had our biggest webinar to date with around 750 people live watching IBM Design’s Doug Powell live. This high turnout reflects the demand for the topic.
Doug shared IBM’s goal of having 1,500 designers on staff. To get there, they strategically recruit two thirds young designers from top universities — did you know IBM has one of the biggest millennial workers on staff in the world? — and pair them with one third very senior designers.
IBM also has hubs around the world to complement “satellite” employees — the folks working remotely from home offices or other IBM locations.
The three most interesting tips around how to better collaborate in creative meetings remotely were:
- Micro-timebox. Setting an agenda with clear goals and things to achieve in the smallest amount of time leads to better focus and getting things done in remote sessions. We’ve all been in conference calls where audio is faulty and someone drops. Joe at home might also be dealing with his dog needing a walk. We have to embrace potential issues and focus on getting things done in less time than if we were all together. Setting up a rigid agenda and having someone be the time-keeper turns up productivity.
- Combine structured practices with unstructured ones. Some people need more guidance than others when designing. In order to level the playing field, use some standard templates and activities everyone has used or been trained in before.
- Send activities in advance. One of the lovely things about going digital first is that you can access content before, during and after meetings/workshops. Take advantage of that to start building towards the session and get the less savvy folks some time to get used to digital tools.
I believe that mastering remote collaboration will be one of the core competences of future knowledge workers.
Our role in changing how creative people work
I became a small role actor in the future of IBM by leading the team at MURAL to make remote design work.
Like the other Fortune 1000 companies that plan to continue to thrive in the next 20 years, IBM will need to change the way they work. But their reality as a hugely distributed company won’t change. Even avoiding work-from-home initiatives won’t help, because teams will always be distributed in different offices.
MURAL is here to help people work like design thinkers, no matter where they are.
If you are still there, comment how your company is pushing design thinking initiatives below.
