AS
AS
Fixing the IBM Cloud set up's leaky faucet
Fixing setup pain points to make provisioning seamless
Role + Team
Student designer; IBM Advisor + 2 engineers, 3 designers
Timeline
13 weeks, Oct-Dec 2019
Client
IBM Cloud Director (via IBM Studio)
Essential Question
How might we reduce drop off in the IBM Cloud's set up process?
Imagine going grocery shopping....
in a store without ANY signage.
For every thing on your grocery list you're starting at 0 and needing to scour every aisle to find the one thing. Maybe there's probably a store map somewhere - but who knows how to get one and if it's updated??!
That’s exactly how IBM Cloud users felt when trying to provision services.
In 10 weeks, I co-led research and design to introduce four solutions, turning IBM Cloud provisioning into a smoother experience through four key solutions.
Final Solution
Onboarding Questionnaire
Intake survey to tailor IBM support throughout the IBM Cloud.
Integration Map
A visualization of the setup workflow.
Unique Error Codes
Error Codes that allow users visibility into mistakes they made along the way.
Centralized Area for Documentation
A compilation of resources previously siloed across the IBM Cloud.
The Journey: Understanding why provisioning services felt hard.
To ground our research, we created Craig, an average user persona. His journey through provisioning reveals where frustrations piled up and pain points emerged.
The Task
Craig’s manager assigns him a new project: provision two Cloud services for an upcoming live event.
Step 1: Initiating Provisioning
Craig researches on the IBM Cloud Website to learn what he needs to set up each service....
.....and is soon overwhelmed by the number of different tabs he needs to open.
Pain Point #1
Lack of Guidance
"What do I do with this?"
UX Designer, IBM
Step 2: Seeking Help
He begins to provision the services but is forced to pause to look for information at each step.
He encounters an unexpected 30 minute wait time to complete the set-up.
Pain Point #2
Lack of Transparency
"I don’t have much time to set this up and no idea how long it will take...maybe I'll try AWS instead?"
UX Designer, IBM
Step 3: Powering Through
After the wait, Craig begins integrating the two services.
But after clicking “deploy,” he receives a vague error message.
Where's the problem?! He hops between services to troubleshoot.
Pain Point #3
Broken Workflows
"What did I do wrong?"
UX Designer, IBM
Giving Up
After locating the issue, he retries - only to hit another error before finishing.
Frustrated, Craig re-diagnoses the problem. Many users never make it this far.
Pain points summarized:
#1 Lack of Guidance
Use cases for provisioning services are nuanced, requiring tailored solutions. Yet, the platform didn’t provide resources to help users determine the services they need and how to set them up.
There isn’t support that helps you by saying ‘Well if you got X service and Y service, you should probably X service too to make them work better.’ That’s a missed opportunity.
UX and Analytical Researcher, IBM
#2 Lack of Transparency
Users had no insights into where they stood in the process, and didn’t know what to expect in terms of the time and effort required of them. They also didn’t know what resources were available to them.
"You can’t search for something you don’t know exists."
UX Specialist, IBM
#3 Broken Workflows
Pauses during provisioning workflows were common for research on guidance and even competitors.
"I want it to be straightforward to easily connect [services] together. I don’t wanna have to stop and contact support or read outdated docs."
Innovation Project Manager, SXSW
Solution: A look into the refined provisioning journey.
Craig’s manager assigns him a new project: provision two Cloud services for an upcoming live event.
Step 1: Initiating Provisioning
Solution: Onboarding Questionnaire
At the beginning of his workflow, Craig completes an onboarding questionnaire which tailors IBM’s support + guidance for provisioning according to his knowledge and goals.
Solving for:
Pain Point #1
Lack of Guidance
Step 2: Seeking Help
Solution: Integration Map
With tailored IBM resources and directions at his reach, Craig adds his desired services one by one which begin to populate visual a map.
As he connects services, requirements for their provisioning appear on the right. Clicking on each requirement provides instructions on his next steps to satisfy it, without interrupting his session.
An estimated time stamp provides Craig visibility into the effort required per step.
Solving for:
Pain Point #2
Lack of Transparency
Pain Point #3
Broken Workflows
Step 2: Seeking Help
Solution: Unique Error Codes
Craig comes across an error as he provisions!
Well-defined error codes provide him with a quick way to search for documentation on what went wrong. Error codes also visually align to the service being provisioned, showing where in the flow the error occurred.
Solving for:
Pain Point #2
Lack of Transparency
Step 3: Powering Through
Solution: Centralized Area for Documentation
Craig seeks to learnmore about the requirements for his services and how they connect together to best communicate his work.
He accesses the centralized documentation area, a compilation of resources previously siloed across individual services.
Solving for:
Pain Point #3
Lack of Guidance
Craig successfully deploys his app! He was able to do so with support, defined expectations, visibility into his errors, and ultimately with a clear understanding of the work he completed.
Research: How we digged into the provisioning journey.
To understand provisioning from every angle, we ran 90-minute interviews and contextual inquiries with people across IBM. Each role gave us a different perspective on how services were set up and where the process broke down.
4
Designers
+
1
Researcher
+
4
UX
Specialist
+
2
Offering Managers
+
4
Onboarding Specialists
+
3
Developers
+
2
Enterprise Clients
Designers and researchers served as subject matter experts. Offering Managers, Onboarding Specialists, and Enterprise Developers became our primary personas, while Potential Clients helped us capture pain points outside of IBM.
Impact: A foundation for IBM Enterprise redesign.
We didn’t have time to iterate on our designs during our project, but many of our ideas showed up later in IBM Cloud’s award-winning experiences. Seeing them come to life proved the value of the insights and designs we shared.
Award winning IBM Conveyor AI: Visualizing workflows.
IBM Cloud storage error messages page.
Award winning IBM Cloud Satellite: Supporting users with an onboarding experience.
Thank you for reading!
My teammates and mentors the day of my final shareout. This case study has a lot more documentation and process that I would be happy to share live.
Thanks for stopping by!
I'm actively seeking product design roles at companies building thoughtful, research-informed products.
Let's connect?
Thanks for stopping by!
I'm actively seeking product design roles at companies building thoughtful, research-informed products.
Let's connect?
Using enterprise design to diminish dropoff in Cloud set up
Using enterprise design to diminish dropoff in Cloud set up
Identifying top jobs-to-be-done and proposing a new set up experience
Role + Team
Student designer;
IBM Advisor + 2 engineers, 3 designers
Timeline
13 weeks,
Oct-Dec 2019
Client
IBM Cloud Director (via IBM Studio)
Essential Question
How might we reduce drop off in the IBM Cloud's set up process?
Imagine going grocery shopping....
in a store without ANY signage.
For every thing on your grocery list you're starting at 0 and needing to scour every aisle to find the one thing. Maybe there's probably a store map somewhere - but who knows how to get one and if it's updated??!
Imagine going grocery shopping....
in a store without ANY signage.
For every thing on your grocery list you're starting at 0 and needing to scour every aisle to find the one thing. Maybe there's probably a store map somewhere - but who knows how to get one and if it's updated??!
That’s exactly how IBM Cloud users felt when trying to provision services.
That’s exactly how IBM Cloud users felt when trying to provision services.
In 10 weeks, we uncovered the top pain points in the provisioning process and introduced four design concepts for a more supporting workflow.
In 10 weeks, we uncovered the top pain points in the provisioning process and introduced four design concepts for a more supporting workflow.
Final Concepts
Final Concepts
Onboarding Questionnaire
Onboarding Questionnaire
Intake survey to tailor IBM support throughout the IBM Cloud
Intake survey to tailor IBM support throughout the IBM Cloud
Integration Map
A visualization of the setup workflow
Unique Error Codes
Error Codes that allow users visibility into mistakes they made along the way
Centralized Area for Documentation
A compilation of resources previously siloed across the IBM Cloud
The Journey: Understanding why provisioning services felt hard.
To ground our research, we created Craig, an average user persona. His journey through provisioning reveals where frustrations piled up and pain points emerged.
The Task
Craig’s manager assigns him a new project: provision two Cloud services for an upcoming live event.
Craig’s manager assigns him a new project: provision two Cloud services for an upcoming live event.
Step 1: Initiating Provisioning
Craig researches on the IBM Cloud Website to learn what he needs to set up each service....
Craig researches on the IBM Cloud Website to learn what he needs to set up each service....
.....and is soon overwhelmed by the number of different tabs he needs to open.
.....and is soon overwhelmed by the number of different tabs he needs to open.
Pain Point #1
Lack of Guidance
"What do I do with this?"
UX Designer, IBM
Step 2: Seeking Help
He begins to provision the services but is forced to pause to look for information at each step.
He begins to provision the services but is forced to pause to look for information at each step.
He encounters an unexpected 30 minute wait time to complete the set-up.
He encounters an unexpected 30 minute wait time to complete the set-up.
Pain Point #2
Lack of Transparency
"I don’t have much time to set this up and no idea how long it will take...maybe I'll try AWS instead?"
UX Designer, IBM
Step 3: Powering Through
After the wait, Craig begins integrating the two services.
After the wait, Craig begins integrating the two services.
But after clicking “deploy,” he receives a vague error message.
But after clicking “deploy,” he receives a vague error message.
Where's the problem?! He hops between services to troubleshoot.
Where's the problem?! He hops between services to troubleshoot.
Pain Point #3
Broken Workflows
"What did I do wrong?"
UX Designer, IBM
Giving Up
After locating the issue, he retries - only to hit another error before finishing.
Frustrated, Craig re-diagnoses the problem. Many users never make it this far.
Pain points summarized:
#1 Lack of Guidance
#1 Lack of Guidance
Use cases for provisioning services are nuanced, requiring tailored solutions. Yet, the platform didn’t provide resources to help users determine the services they need and how to set them up.
There isn’t support that helps you by saying ‘Well if you got X service and Y service, you should probably X service too to make them work better.’ That’s a missed opportunity.
UX and Analytical Researcher, IBM
#2 Lack of Transparency
#2 Lack of Transparency
Users had no insights into where they stood in the process, and didn’t know what to expect in terms of the time and effort required of them. They also didn’t know what resources were available to them.
"You can’t search for something you don’t know exists."
UX Specialist, IBM
#3 Broken Workflows
#3 Broken Workflows
Pauses during provisioning workflows were common for research on guidance and even competitors.
"I want it to be straightforward to easily connect [services] together. I don’t wanna have to stop and contact support or read outdated docs."
Innovation Project Manager, SXSW
Solution: A look into the refined provisioning journey.
Craig’s manager assigns him a new project: provision two Cloud services for an upcoming live event.
Craig’s manager assigns him a new project: provision two Cloud services for an upcoming live event.
Step 1: Initiating Provisioning
Solution: Onboarding Questionnaire
At the beginning of his workflow, Craig completes an onboarding questionnaire which tailors IBM’s support + guidance for provisioning according to his knowledge and goals.
At the beginning of his workflow, Craig completes an onboarding questionnaire which tailors IBM’s support + guidance for provisioning according to his knowledge and goals.
Step 2: Seeking Help
Solution: Integration Map
With tailored IBM resources and directions at his reach, Craig adds his desired services one by one which begin to populate visual a map.
As he connects services, requirements for their provisioning appear on the right. Clicking on each requirement provides instructions on his next steps to satisfy it, without interrupting his session.
An estimated time stamp provides Craig visibility into the effort required per step.
Step 2: Seeking Help
Solution: Unique Error Codes
Craig comes across an error as he provisions! Well-defined error codes provide him with a quick way to search for documentation on what went wrong.
Error codes also visually align to the service being provisioned, showing where in the flow the error occurred.
Step 3: Powering Through
Solution: Centralized Area for Documentation
Craig seeks to learnmore about the requirements for his services and how they connect together to best communicate his work.
He accesses the centralized documentation area, a compilation of resources previously siloed across individual services.
Craig successfully deploys his app! He is able to do so with support, defined expectations, error visibility, and ultimately a clear understanding of the work he completed.
Research: How we digged into the provisioning journey.
Research: How we digged into the provisioning journey.
To understand provisioning from every angle, we ran 90-minute interviews and contextual inquiries with people across IBM. Each role gave us a different perspective on how services were set up and where the process broke down.
To understand provisioning from every angle, we ran 90-minute interviews and contextual inquiries with people across IBM. Each role gave us a different perspective on how services were set up and where the process broke down.
4
4
Designers
Designers
+
+
1
1
Researcher
Researcher
+
+
4
4
UX
Specialist
UX
Specialist
+
+
2
2
Offering Managers
Offering Managers
+
+
4
4
Onboarding Specialists
Onboarding Specialists
+
+
3
3
Developers
Developers
+
+
2
2
Enterprise Clients
Enterprise Clients
Designers and researchers served as subject matter experts. Offering Managers, Onboarding Specialists, and Enterprise Developers became our primary personas, while Potential Clients helped us capture pain points outside of IBM.
Designers and researchers served as subject matter experts. Offering Managers, Onboarding Specialists, and Enterprise Developers became our primary personas, while Potential Clients helped us capture pain points outside of IBM.
Impact: A foundation for IBM Enterprise redesign.
We didn’t have time to iterate on our designs during our project, but many of our ideas showed up later in IBM Cloud’s award-winning experiences. Seeing them come to life proved the value of the insights and designs we shared.
Award winning IBM Conveyor AI: Visualizing workflows.
IBM Cloud storage error messages page.
Award winning IBM Cloud Satellite: Supporting users with an onboarding experience.
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading!
My teammates and mentors the day of my final shareout. This case study has a lot more documentation and process that I would be happy to share live.
My teammates and mentors the day of my final shareout. This case study has a lot more documentation and process that I would be happy to share live.
Thanks for stopping by!
I'm actively seeking product design roles at companies building thoughtful, research-informed products.
Thanks for stopping by!
I'm actively seeking product design roles at companies building thoughtful, research-informed products.
Thanks for stopping by!
I'm actively seeking product design roles at companies building thoughtful, research-informed products.