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Enhancing IBM Planning Analytics as a UX/UI designer in the Business Analytics design team
Role
UX/UI Designer,
IBM
Timeline
8 months
May 2022 - Dec 2022
Tools
Figma, Invision, Sketch, Mural, Jira, Trello, Keynote, Canva
Overview
I spent the Summer and Fall of 2022, expanding my breadth as a designer working hybrid as a UX/UI Designer at IBM. I was a part of the Business Analytics design team in the Data & AI division. I helped them launch 2 major redesigns for the Planning Analytics software. This experience taught me a lot about working under tight timelines while balancing multiple projects and collaborating with a cross-functional team as a design lead.
My Projects
I particularly worked on the Planning Analytics (PA) software which is a business performance management software powered by TM1 in IBM's Business Analytics application suite. It is designed for collaborative planning, budgeting, forecasting, interactive "what-if" analysis, and analytical & reporting applications. I worked on:
Core Projects
Minor Projects
My core projects focused on enhancing the formatting and configuring experience in the analytical and reporting applications. My work is under NDA so I will not be able to disclose more information regarding my work in a public space. For more details, please reach out to me at shradhaa.design@gmail.com. This case study only shows my main learnings.
*Shoot me an email at shradhaa.design@gmail.com for more details about these projects.*
Responsibilities
During these 8 months, I got to work on multiple cool projects and take up various responsibilities. This helped me develop diverse skill sets.
Gaining context & Collaboration
To have a better understanding of the product and the Carbon design system, I explored existing data, documentation, and research. I set up 1:1s with PMs, developers, and designers from different teams to learn more about the current product experience.
Ideation & Iterative Designing
I collaborated closely with the agile development team and PMs to ideate features and scope them. I designed Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi prototypes using the Carbon design system. I iterated on them based on feedback received in playbacks, design critiques, and usability tests.
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User Research
Conducted user research and competitive analysis to understand the current experience in PA and other similar products. I also spent some time talking to other designers who worked on similar projects or features for different products.
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Design Workshops, Critiques & Competitions
Facilitated Figma workshops as a coach to help other designers migrate designs from Sketch to Figma. I also presented my designs at design critiques and led them for other designers to gather feedback. I participated 2 design competitions with different teams at IBM.
Sprints & Project Timelines
My design team usually did 2-week sprints and projects were categorized based on their size and complexity from Small (2 weeks) to Extra large (16 weeks or more) and spread across these sprints. My core projects were:
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Complexity
# of User Flows
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Projects
Since they were XL and running simultaneously, they were spread across 11 sprints (5.5 months). Even though I can't share the exact details of what I worked on, here is the basic timeline I followed. My favorite part was breaking down these complex projects into smaller sections, creating prototypes, and continuously iterating on them.
Project team & Working together
I worked in a hybrid model and many of my core project team members were remote or working from different parts of Ontario. It was initially difficult to feel connected to my team and I also felt lonely and lost. However, eventually I felt closer to the team due to the frequent playbacks, in-person meetups, and online events.
Statistics
My time at IBM was full of fun and cool achievements. Here are some numbers that represent it.
Major redesigns
Playbacks and design critiques conducted
Features created
Presentations and events facilitated
Iterations gone through
Snacks eaten
Core team members
My team was a small group of designers with one Design Program Director and 3 Design managers. They helped me become a better designer. Each person had their own strengths that I relied on to have the best experience that I could.
Lessons learned
01
Trust thyself
This was one of the hardest lessons. I came in with a lot of imposter syndrome. I felt like everyone around me was so much better than I was that I refrained from speaking up. My team helped me get over this by showing me how valuable they thought my contributions were and pushed me to be more vocal.
02
Getting feedback early and often
Especially when I was building out something completely new, I learned that getting feedback from the right stakeholders would’ve saved a lot of time. Sometimes, it’s just about mocking up something comprehensible just to get feedback on the flow. The simpler the flow the better, especially when designing for MVP.
03
Solutions can be simple for complex issues
I realized after my first few iterations that I was getting too engrossed into how complex the issue was. It took a reminder from a teammate to remember that, especially with complex problems, the simpler the solution, the better. Trying to break down the problem into digestible chunks to deal with is the key sometimes to an overwhelming issue.
04
Keeping everyone in the loop
Working in big tech meant more siloed teams. I had to make an effort to get to know cross functional teams. I also had to learn to be very vocal about the work I was doing to ensure everyone was aware and onboard with the changes I was proposing. Additionally, communicating with everyone allowed me to gather more constructive feedback. This is an area I'd like to keep improving in.
While the summer was a blast, it came with its own challenges and learnings. Here are my main takeaways.