Theresa Hans, IBM
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I attended a liberal arts school in Rhode Island and studied Graphic Design Communications. When I graduated last May and embarked on my career at IBM, I felt I was ready to hit the ground running. After my first week at the nationally recognized IBM Design Bootcamp, I realized I was back to square one.
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IBM Design Bootcamp brings together teams of visual, research, UX, and front end designers as well as engineers and business stakeholders to work towards one common goal – to deliver amazing user experiences. My three months at design bootcamp taught me how to embrace customer problems by working collaboratively with everyone on our team. I no longer looked at problems from a single point of view, but learned how every team member contributed unique skills critical to the solution.
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With a limited technical background, I joined IBM’s z/TPF (Transaction Processing Facilities) lab at Poughkeepsie IBM. Utilizing IBM Design Thinking, I have worked with the team to break down problems into smaller steps, allowing me to more quickly understand technical concepts. My impact on the engineering team has been equally positive. The lab now takes more time to better understand the entire customer experience, and assess critical pain points, before they even start talking about a new function or solution.
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Today, working closely with the engineers, testers, and the brand team, we have re-established our relationship with a number of customers. The journey is in front of us, but we are taking it one step at a time. In this presentation I will share some of the lessons I learned at IBM Design Bootcamp, and how I have applied them in a large systems development lab to engage all team members in a truly team based design process.