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IBM User Experience Program—The What, Why and How
Summary
How does IBM co-create with our end-users to design products they love? Learn how the IBM Cloud and AI research team created a User Experience Program that formalizes and scales the relationship between our product teams and the end-users. User Experience “Partners,” as we lovingly call them, co-create with our product team to help refine IBM products by providing feedback, ideas, and domain expertise.
Key Insights
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IBM’s User Experience Program involves long-term partnerships (often 1-2 years) with customers for ongoing, strategic feedback rather than one-off sessions.
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Customers in the program are called User Experience Partners and do not receive incentives, unlike traditional research participants.
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Effective recruitment relies heavily on internal stakeholders like sales and account managers to identify and connect with the right customers.
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Diversity and inclusion remain key priorities; IBM has launched initiatives specifically to recruit partners with diverse abilities and backgrounds.
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A slender core team led by Tracy manages over 700 active user partners globally, requiring scalable processes and collaboration from multiple program managers.
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IBM uses a robust, self-service research repository built on Airtable to track participants, research activities, and avoid over-engagement.
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Communication with partners is highly personalized including quarterly playback meetings where customers discuss roadmaps and past feedback impacts directly with product teams.
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Legal and data privacy challenges are complex, especially with multinational customers, requiring evergreen feedback agreements and GDPR-compliant consent forms.
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Measuring program impact ties into IBM’s overall business objectives and benefits from customers advocating for the program internally.
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The User Experience Program acts like an advisory board, helping IBM anticipate future needs beyond immediate usability issues, fueling innovation.
Notable Quotes
"Yesterday was a prototype – we are continually redesigning around our users’ needs."
"Our user experience partners co-create with product teams to help refine IBM products."
"We don’t promise that every piece of feedback will show up in the product, but we keep partners informed about how their input influences development."
"Recruiting diverse partners takes time and effort, and we are actively building programs to include people with diverse abilities."
"It’s like sending around the Rolls Royce with the champagne bottle – a white glove, concierge service for recruiting partners."
"We have a feedback program agreement that once signed, is evergreen and covers everyone in the customer’s company."
"We’re very careful about PII and only the lead researcher and research ops managers have access to sensitive data."
"Customers in the program become our greatest source of learning and help shape the future of our products."
"Getting internal teams on board is often the biggest challenge, but once they see the value, it lights a fire."
"We don’t need to convince executives of the program’s value – our customers do that for us."
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