User Personas Launch

IBM SCIS - 2023

The below study represents my own POV, and does not represent or indicate IBM's current or future product and business direction.

Participant details, key takeaways, revenue/metrics, and other confidential information have been redacted below for public preview.

Personas were released in stages, with  priority business teams being released first. Overlapping technology areas were identified, to map personas to portfolio capabilities.
Each persona package came with easily shareable persona one-pagers that link to subsequent detail pages, improving the digestibility of material.
Given IBM's presence across multiple industries, there was a need to generalize these personas to be applicable for cross-functional stakeholders or sellers in different verticals. While each "generic" persona remained quite detailed, UXR extended engagement opportunities by offering industry-specific support work, with a success story example presented.
Participant one-pagers highlighted top-level detail around persona responsibilities, painpoints, goals, and simplified user maps. Each persona's one-pager includes a real research interview quote, to support getting in the mindset of each persona.
"i would say the most impactful thing i saw from the customer-side when it came to demos was seeing real-life usecases."

"just being able to do that helped me and the buyer team to visualize what it would look like for us to utilize that solution for ourselves."
SR. QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER, FOOD & RETAIL
"BY BALANCING THE NEED FOR UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE PERSONAS WITH THE DESIRE FOR DETAILS, THERE MAY BE ELEMENTS THAT...FEELS MISSING OR INCORRECT FOR A SPECIFIC CLIENT NEED.
"the uxr team can supplement these personas with industry-specific research packages..."
SCIS PERSONAS - GUIDANCE
Each persona package came with easily shareable persona one-pagers that link to subsequent detail pages, improving the digestibility of material.

[Role]

RESEARCHER // DESIGNER

[research team]

SOLO

[proj. time]

4~ weeks

[PRODUCT]

ibm supply chain intelligence suite

[PUBLISHED]

2023

[WORK REQ. BY]

scis product management

[audience]

scis global pm team
scis design team
amer/emea tech. sales teams
ibm sustainability sw uxr org

[METHODS]

CROSS-PROJECT SYNTHESIS
RESEARCH ROADMAP PLANNING
LEGACY RESEARCH REVIEW
ANALYST + SECONDARY LITERATURE
PERSONA VALIDATION SCORING
PERSONA TEMPLATE CREATION

[DELIVERABLES]

MULTI-PERSONA KEYNOTE/PDF
IBM SSW DESIGN PORTAL RELEASE
STAKEHOLDER ENABLEMENT SESSIONS
INTERNAL UXR TRAINING & PRACTICE

GOT QUESTIONS? LET'S CHAT!

WORK overview:

Having solely inherited the SCIS (and predecessor) UX research portfolio abruptly in 2020, much of our dedicated persona development work had been on hiatus.

Provisional "patches" and other research updates had been made to the legacy personas in order to serve SCIS' new product development needs; but as product teams were maturing, it was clear research debt was affecting team productivity.

Throughout the 2020-2023 period, being SCIS' sole primary researcher meant it was key to reduce this debt while minimizing downtime. Strategic investments were made in each research study on the UXR roadmap between '22-'23, with each study intended to contribute to long-term persona validation efforts.

As the broader IBM Sustainability SW UXR team grew, I worked with IBM Design Principal Joan Haggarty to create standardized persona validation activities, scoring, templates & enablement material.

This culminated in the creation & launch of the 2023 SCIS Personas package, the first refresh to our cross-functional working personas since pre-2019. The personas were disseminated across internal playbacks, enablement sessions with product managers & sales field teams; with the validation process & templates shared as SOPs to the UXR team.

Finally, as part of my broader role as persona focal & general codeowner of the IBM Sustainability Software Design Portal, I published the personas as digestible cards for SCIS; as well as supporting persona updates elsewhere in the portfolio.

approach & IMPACT:

  • Assessed every research request received throughout 2020-2023 for any opportunities to conduct generative persona discovery research
  • Sales workshop facilitation requests, customer painpoint recovery calls, usability tests & new product development research used as insight collection opportunities
  • Modular discussion guides, standardized discovery question sets, shared synthesis frameworks helped ensure continuity of research collected for disparate needs
  • Legacy research reviewed and re-synthesized via JTBD method; included in-depth onsite interviews with international client & annotated screen recordings
  • Research roadmap aligned with product roadmap; allowed for delivery of short-term product management needs, while contributing to long-term research debt
  • Personas used immediately, with '23-'24 Sustainability Software launches leveraging persona insights in sales usecases & marketing material
  • Role & sub-person specific insights compiled as part of SCIS Personas 2023 launch
  • Persona creation process & validation scoring implemented across IBM Sustainability SW UXR team; subsequently helped review, code & launch 30+ validated personas