VMware Design 2020 — Year in Review
No matter where in the world you were in 2020, we all shared some very similar experiences — ones that redefined the way we worked, lived, and supported each other. For VMware Design, this challenging year highlighted our resilience as an organization, our ability to adapt, and how we came together as a community.
Going into 2020, we had clear objectives for our design organization. Following on the previous years, our overarching goal was to become one experience-led VMware, focusing on delivering consumer-simple and enterprise-ready end-to-end experiences for customers, users, and partners. We aimed to drive key end-to-end experiences, grow and foster the team, and improve operational efficiency.
Events of 2020
When COVID-19 hit in early March, we pivoted to remote work overnight. The majority of our team worked in-office, and the sudden shift to working from home tested our organization’s resiliency. Thankfully, our strong foundation in our culture, tools, and community made this switch relatively seamless. Teams quickly took this opportunity to reevaluate the way they worked and streamlined processes. This new, all-remote workforce blurred the barriers across our global team. Our team had the flexibility to iterate on their personal styles of working, and we all became more accommodating to the simple truth of “life happens.”
Shortly after, we saw racial justice movements spark in America and across the globe. The Black Lives Matter movement gained unprecedented momentum, and our organization stood in solidarity and support. Through a VMware Design-driven project, the Black Lives Matter Handbook, we encouraged our team to learn more and take action. To date, we have curated fifteen editions that highlight 80+ resources, ranging from organizations you can support to content you can share with your kids.
Following this, we had teams in Armenia that were going through civil unrest in their part of the world with a one month war. We acknowledged the stress each of these events brought on our team and encouraged everyone to take time for themselves. These events brought our lives back into perspective and centered us on what was truly important.
Accomplishments of the year
Growth
Despite all these challenges, 2020 was a year of growth for VMware Design. Our design organization doubled as we hired designers, researchers, engineers, content writers, and program managers globally, across 18+ regions. We also welcomed new individuals to our team through acquisitions like Pivotal and SaltStack.
Impact
We delivered beyond our expectations for 2020. To name a few, iF International Forum Design recognized our Wavefront team with an iF Design Award for Design Excellence. Clarity, our design system, launched a new website and Clarity Core, a framework-independent design system based on web components. We launched our first developer experience focused website. We held our first Accessibility Hackathon, which brought awareness to how people with disabilities are using our software.
This year, we leveraged the power of end-to-end stories to drive strategy across VMware. We created stories at every layer — from cross-product to specific product features. These stories showcased pain points for our personas and opportunities for more integrated experiences. This year, we introduced personas with disabilities into our end-to-end stories. We also introduced API focused stories from our developer experience work. These end-to-end stories ultimately set the vision, influenced roadmap and feature delivery, and advocated for a unified, user-centric experience across all of our products. As a team, we made the most of our circumstances and used this year to accelerate forward.
Virtual conferences
Two stand-out accomplishments of this year include our two biggest conferences, SHAPE and VMworld, going entirely virtual.
SHAPE, our internal design conference, was held in May 2020, shortly after we started working from home. Without missing a beat, our team quickly redesigned the entire experience, from mainstage sessions to networking events, in just two months. The virtual conference was a resounding success, with over 500 attendees, 50 speakers, and 3 days of content across all timezones.
VMworld, VMware’s customer-facing conference, is an incredible opportunity for the design team to gather research insights from users. By the time VMworld rolled around in October of 2020, we knew we needed to reimagine how we conducted remote Design Studios at scale. The virtual experience had its upsides: VMworld was free, so we could reach more users than ever before. In 2020, we spoke with 1100+ customers, across 400 companies, had 150+ unique sessions, and 100+ new research insights.
Collaboration and Culture
Cultivating collaboration
As designers, our day-to-day work is largely collaborative. We are constantly ideating, whiteboarding, and working with other designers and our cross-functional teams to find the best solutions possible for our users. In 2020, we focused on providing our team with the needed tools and practices to enhance remote collaboration and productivity. We piloted a workshop series that captures the critical moments for team collaboration called “End to End Product Sprints” and identified tools like Miro that could recreate the collaboration experience we’ve come to know and love.
Strengthening our culture
The culture of VMware Design makes us look forward to work every day. We spent the last couple of years creating and building on this culture, especially in the office. In 2020, we learned how to stay connected and strengthen our culture through remote experiences. We expanded our Community of Practice, including Lunch & Learns to share work with the broader team, Experience Squads to reconnect with designers across teams, and Mentor and Advisor programs for career growth and fulfillment. We also took the time to celebrate in 2020, with virtual surprises for work anniversaries, birthdays, and special occasions. We made animated cards in Figma, played all types of games together online, and treasured these moments of connection. Above all, we supported each other through the year and made sure to celebrate all of our wins, no matter how big or small.
Opportunities to grow
In 2020, we also identified areas we can further improve on in our hiring and onboarding processes. Onboarding in an all-remote world was a new space for us, and in 2021, we are looking for new ways to connect our new hires with others across the team and help them onboard. Designers on the team have already taken the initiative to create boot camps for them to hit the ground running.
We are also focusing on our Diversity & Inclusion efforts to build a more diverse and global team. We are working on hiring more women and underrepresented minorities. We are also looking to expand our team across disciplines, building an even more robust organization filled with designers, engineers, content writers, and researchers.
Looking forward
This year, we’re incredibly thankful for this amazing team we have built, and our culture and community that got us through the year we call 2020. Cheers to another year of discovery, creation, and growth in 2021!
We’re hiring!
Interested in helping us define the user experience for next-generation enterprise solutions? We’re hiring talented UX researchers, designers, and more.
