User Needs Competitive Assessment

IBM SCIS - GTM SUPPORT FOR '22 General availability release

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.

This research effort served as an anchor for 1+ years worth of work for the development of IBM's new supply chain product. As I settled into my new role, I took users & AI usecases I helped developed as part of the core working team and placed them in market & competitor context, securing personal & industry recognition.
Two competitors were selected by me for review. Public materials (seminars, documentation, YouTube,  & more) were scraped and structured against internal capabilities for team sensemaking.
o9 Solutions' recent advancements in digital twin simulation, supply chain data modelling, and optimization analytics were identified as an emerging risk. To emphasize this with stakeholders, similar usecase demos were scraped from o9's digital presence and broken down for comparison.
Painpoints were identified from previous user journey discovery research and placed in market context. Targeted guidance was provided to sellers on potential customer traits that could benefit from strong SCIS capabilities.
A series of H2H comparisons was prepared for both competitors. Strengths & potential weaknesses were highlighted, with suggestions for feature enhancements or modified positioning for improved competitiveness.
While a compressed comparison was prepared for playback across multiple timezones, voluntary deep dive sessions were offered to product management. 9 PMs enrolled, with hands-on review of raw Mural annotations. Resulting discussions led to creation of sales battlecards, design enhancements, and more.
"HOW EFFECTIVE DOES SCIS' PROPOSED VALUE PROPOSITION ALIGN WITH CUSTOMER NEEDS & PAINPOINTS?"
"...and by extension, how does that proposition compare to industry competitors / market developments?"
INITIAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS
"DELIVER HIGH-QUALITY DESIGN, CONTENT, & UX FOR OUR GROWTH OFFERINGS TO ENSURE...REVENUE & SUBSCRIPTION GROWTH TARGETS."
"improve the quality & maturity of our ai offerings, driving yty increase in client adoption."
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IBM AI APPLICATIONS - 2021 OKRS

[Role]

researcher // designer

[research team]

solo

[proj. time]

3~ weeks

[PRODUCT]

ibm supply chain intelligence suite

[PUBLISHED]

q4 2021

[WORK REQ. BY]

DIR. OF PRODUCT MGMT

[audience]

scis global pm team
scis design team
scis na & emea technical sales team
ibm design research org

[RECOGNITION]

2022 AI EXCELLENCE AWARD
2021 PRODUCT TRAILBLAZER AWARD

[METHODS]

PUBLIC COMPETITOR SCRAPING
COMPETITOR UX ANALYSIS
ANALYST + SECONDARY LITERATURE
EXTERNAL SME RECRUITMENT
MODERATED INTERVIEWS

[DELIVERABLES]

keynote & global playback
hands-on annotated mural
pm education deep dive
design + product enhancements
sales battlecards
marketing enablement
SCIS 2023 PERSONAS

GOT QUESTIONS? LET'S CHAT!

STUDY overview:

As SCIS exited post-visioning & MVP efforts and approached General Availability release, the Director of PM requested rapid research evaluating SCIS' proposed value proposition from the perspective of end-users. The intended outcome of this research is to provide strategic recommendations for our PM & Marketing teams on product messaging, highlight specific workflows/experiences that play to IBM Sterling's strengths, and any pitfalls to avoid; all relative to our MESCBN/SCP competitors.

Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business NetworksGartner Glossary: Supply Chain Planning SuiteBusiness Intelligence Group: 2022 AI Excellence Award WinnerMedium: Two of IBM's Trailblazing Designs Recognized...

approach:

  • Recommended two competitors to PM for in-depth analysis based on previous competitor studies + sales feedback collected from IBM GBS
  • Searched & selected relevant analyst literature for buyer trend analysis and feature benchmarking
  • Competitor material collected by digital presence scraping; product sites, dev documentation, YouTube demos, support forms, AI-image upscaling & more
  • Competitor UIs aggregated across sources into SCIS-comparable structure for annotation & analysis, using previous designer experience to theorize UX intent
  • Leveraged recently conducted moderated interviews with supply chain experts, curating user quotations along with SCIS/competitor screens to emphasize recommendations
  • Insights across multiple domains/sources synthesized into key takeaways playback; updates on buyer behavior, competitor advancements, H2H value prop comparisons, product enhancements & positioning recommendations provided
"Post-COVID it's a little different than what it was before...I've got some overnight processes that catch any changes in our inventory and bringing it into our visualizations...this takes an hour or two in the morning.
it's manual, just to verify and push out no anomalies."
inventory analyst, us healthcare distributor
"One of the main things to do everyday...we have an automatic alert that lets us know when 'Here's what needs to run to hit a ship date', if we need more material to do so then I'll take care of that. I send out probably 10-20 POs a day to different suppliers." 
production planner, eyewear manufacturor

impact & outcomes:

  • Key market takeaways & tactical recommendations plotted against timeline were provided for cross-fxnal stakeholders in design, PM, marketing & sales
  • Optional deep dive sessions with engaged PMs, with hands-on review of annotated competitor Mural
  • In collaboration with GTM PM & sales, research insights informed competitor sales battlecards, marketing positioning, and sales enablement material for SCIS' 2022 release
  • Design enhancement recommendations reviewed, with prioritized feature recommendations slated for additional design & development.
  • Research shelf life has continued into '24, with foundational research appearing in SCIS' original product visioning, industry sub-products, SCIS 2023 Personas launch & more
  • Research approach shared as internal education with multiple IBM research teams, with techniques & tooling shared in hands-on session
  • One of the studies included as part of IBM Design's submission & winning of the 2022 AI Excellence Award
  • Research work & product impact featured in internal IBM showcases, leading to subsequent nomination & winning of the IBM Software Design Product Trailblazer Award
Due diligence was done on the "existence" of marketed competitor features, with nuanced recommendations for stakeholders on existing feature advantages.
Trends driving buyer behavior & competitor responses were explained in interactive presentations, with written & visual examples to de-mystify vague industry terms.
To expand credibility of UXR recommendations, competitor strategies were mapped and placed in context, leveraging both internal & external analysis.
Multiple competitor UIs were placed by me for direct comparison, with on-screen & voiceover paired to emphasize key takeaways & recommendations to stakeholders.
Insights used saw both industry recognition & in collaboration with Marketing, prominent influence in SCIS' sales landing page Feature & Usecases section.