myredvest Finance
Before my time at Lowe's, I had the opportunity to work on Project Monocle, which turned out to be a life changing experience. Officially named Cloud Management Console, it's an incredible example of how human-centered design drives immense business value. Since its launch in 2017, the Cloud Management Console generated over $2 billion in revenue for IBM's Power Systems business unit, representing approximately 2% of IBM's Cloud portfolio. To this day, it remains a case study for design excellence in the industry. Hailed as one of the "best stories of design at IBM," this project was featured in InVision's short film, The Loop, highlighting how Design Thinking played a key role in IBM's transformation. You can watch the full video on InVision's website.
Employer
IBM
Role
UX Engineer
Contributions
Product Design & Development
Background
My story at IBM began with an intensive design experience for new hires, culminating in a final incubator project. These projects
Initially a solo project, I identified an opportunity for a fintech platform through extensive user research. With a winning strategy for key stakeholder buy-in, this grew into a significant business initiative for Lowe's.
My Contributions
I joined IBM as a UX Engineer. My focus was initially developing prototypes of the concepts. With my love of technology and complex problems, I was selected for Project Monocle. Due to the technical complexity of the problem space, my role evolved – I became a facilitative leader, assisting my team in User Research, UX Design, and Development of initially the prototype, followed by development of what is now known as the Cloud Management Console.
Context
IBM conducts a series of incubator projects as part of their intensive 12-week Design Thinking program for new hires. These are real opportunities and problem spaces that are selected for exploration by various business units throughout the organization. This is where Project Monocle began, and at the time, there was no real way of knowing
Our team iteratively contributed over 100 unique concepts over the course of 5 weeks.
“I spend 25% of my time during the first half of the year prepping for our audit in July. That may not sound like much, but multiply that by 50 hours a week, at a manager pay rate, with all the weeks required, and that is a lot of time.”
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– IBM Power Systems Customer, Project Monocle Sponsor User
“When is the release date for Monocle? I already have reserved a portion of my budget to purchase it.”
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– IBM Power Systems Customer, Project Monocle Sponsor User
Approach
Initially a solo project, I identified an opportunity for a fintech platform through extensive user research. With a winning strategy for key stakeholder buy-in, this grew into a significant business initiative for Lowe's.
Initially a solo project, I identified an opportunity for a fintech platform through extensive user research. With a winning strategy for key stakeholder buy-in, this grew into a significant business initiative for Lowe's.
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