What If Project: Redefining Innovation in IBM Cloud

Sam Winslet -

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This project received recognition in three categories by Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards 2022! Read the blog here

Overview

The What If Project emerged as a grassroots initiative within IBM, driven by a dedicated group of designers committed to future-focused design rather than reactive problem-solving. By leveraging IBM's Enterprise Design Thinking framework, we aimed to foster a culture of innovation that empowers all employees to envision and create a better future for our products and services.

Challenge

Design at IBM had historically been reactive, primarily addressing immediate user feedback and pain points. This approach limited our ability to think long-term, restricting designs to a six-month horizon. We faced a critical question: How could we design for the future while being constrained by past issues? The What If Project was our answer, encouraging a paradigm shift from short-term fixes to visionary designs that anticipate the needs of users three years down the line.

Discovery

To kickstart this initiative, we opened the #whatif Slack channel to all IBM employees, including designers, developers, architects, engineers, product managers, and executives. Within the first week, the channel generated over 100 innovative ideas, reflecting a collective desire for change. This initial excitement laid the groundwork for a global design jam, where over 200 designers came together to explore “What if…” scenarios, unconstrained by existing technical or design limitations.

Ideation

The design jam, held in December 2020, was a pivotal moment. Participants collaborated in cross-disciplinary teams to prototype groundbreaking ideas. Following the event, a dedicated workgroup synthesized the themes and concepts generated, ensuring that the insights were actionable and aligned with organizational goals. We presented these themes to IBM leadership, securing executive buy-in and fostering a shared vision for innovation.

Big ideas sythesized from the hundreds of submissions

Implementation

In October 2021, we organized a focused four-week workshop where volunteer designers reimagined the IBM Cloud user experience from the ground up. This collaborative effort led to a comprehensive redesign of the platform, including:

  • User Interaction Enhancements: Streamlined navigation and project creation processes.
  • Collaborative Features: Improved tools for team interactions within the platform.
  • Visual Redesign: A fresh aesthetic that modernizes the user interface and enhances engagement.
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Results

The impact of the What If Project has been profound:

  • Organizational Alignment: Development teams united to build the new designs, and IBM Branding committed to updating its design language in alignment with our efforts.
  • Business Goals: Leadership utilized our designs to target onboarding 140 new enterprise clients, enhancing our competitive positioning.
  • User Adoption: Our new platform has facilitated the acquisition and conversion of 500 enterprise development teams, driving a 100% increase in vendor expansion.

Artifacts

To support ongoing innovation, we created a comprehensive enablement website that includes:

  • Innovation Toolkit: Guidelines for fostering creativity within teams.
  • Idea Submission Platform: A space for all IBMers to propose new ideas.
  • Design Lookbook: A collection of design artifacts and presentations for internal sharing.

Reflection

The What If Project has fundamentally transformed how IBM approaches design and innovation. Participants have expressed renewed enthusiasm for their work, with feedback highlighting the program as a much-needed spark of creativity.

By inspiring over 200 designers and countless others across IBM, the What If Project has redefined our approach to user needs and technological constraints. We are now equipped to think boldly about the future of cloud platforms, striving to elevate the user experience to the level of revolutionary advancements like the iPhone. This initiative not only drives product innovation but also shapes a culture of hope and possibility within IBM, encouraging everyone to challenge the status quo and imagine what could be.

This innovation project received recognition in three categories by Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards 2022.