Summary
More than 50 years ago, Thomas Watson Jr., the second President of IBM declared, “Good design is good business”. Today, the global company continues to operate on the belief that human experiences drive business. Doug Powell, Distinguished Designer at IBM, will expose what it means to practice design at the global tech company, exploring the inner workings of the largest UX design operation in the world. He will also elaborate on a new Forrester Research study examining the value of design and the design thinking practice at IBM.
Key Insights
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Demand for design skills now outpaces supply, with designers entering strategic leadership roles.
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Design is expanding into unlikely, complex legacy organizations like government agencies.
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IBM distinguishes between highly skilled designers and broad design thinking accessible to all employees.
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IBM organizes 1,800 designers in a decentralized structure across 25 semi-autonomous business units.
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Cross-disciplinary collaboration, often with only one formal designer per team, is crucial for success.
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Scaling design thinking training through an online platform enabled over 140,000 IBM employees to learn foundational skills.
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Measuring design impact requires aggregating multiple metrics into a concise, consumable story for business leaders.
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Business leaders are data-driven, competitive, and have a high sensitivity to inauthentic claims, requiring clear evidence to invest in design.
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Maintaining healthy designer-to-developer ratios sparks important dialogue about staffing needs and business impact.
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Diversity is a core design ops issue essential for building authentic experiences that represent a diverse world.
Notable Quotes
"We are truly in a golden age for designers and design."
"Design and design thinking are intentionally two different things in this mission."
"Everything is a prototype."
"User experience will allow us to win."
"There’s no faking it with this crowd."
"When we have teams with the right design thinking knowledge, they’re measurably more aligned, more efficient, and more agile."
"Business leaders make decisions by evidence and data, not just by gut."
"Design is here to stay when governments and 100-year-old companies are investing in it."
"We found that 80% of teams with the right ratios and sponsorship moved to market twice as fast."
"Diversity is beyond just the right thing to do; we must elevate it as a design ops issue."
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