Cheat, Borrow, Steal: How to Build and Scale a Successful Design Practice | Seattle Interactive 2019

Colin Budd // @xbudd // 10.18.19
CHEAT
BORROW
STEAL
How to Build and Scale a Successful Design Practice.

HI THERE. I’M COLIN.
Colin M. Budd 
Global Design Strategist  
IBM Garage // Austin, TX
colin.m.budd@ibm.com
@xbudd // www.xbudd.com

©2019 Colin Budd // @xbudd
Startup speed,
Enterprise scale,
Garage clarity.
You can think of us like a consultancy
with a startup DNA that empowers
small and large companies to disrupt
and transform by delivering cloud-
based innovative solutions in minimum
possible time using the award winning
IBM Garage Methodology.
IBM Garage

2016 - Present
American
Airlines
2018 - Present
Duke  
Energy
2013 - Present
IBM
…and dozens of others

Simply put, human-centered
businesses have incredible impact
over performance and output.
Why Do Design Practices Matter?
Deliver outcomes to
market faster by:
2x
Total Economic Impact of
IBM’s Design Thinking
Practice Prepared by
Forrester
See a return on their
design investment of:
300%
Total Economic Impact of IBM’s
Design Thinking Practice
Prepared by Forrester
Increase revenue over
traditional organizations:
32%
Business Value of Design
Prepared by McKinsey
Ultimately outperform 
the S&P 500 by:
219%
Design Value Index
Prepared by Design  
Management Institute

So what have I learned?
EVERYONE
HAS SIMILAR
ISSUES (+/-)

Maybe you want to
START
by bringing human-centered
practices to transform your
organization in a grassroots fashion
 
but don’t know how/where to begin…

by transforming how your
organization utilizes design from
being just about UX/UI to solving
the right problem
but are hitting many walls…
or maybe you are ready for
CHANGE

or maybe you are
NEARLY THERE
with an established design practice
that seems to have all the people and
pieces in place
but it hasn’t extended to leadership…

How do you build a design practice that is
SUCCESSFUL,
SELF-SCALING,
SELF-SUSTAINING &
CULTURE CHANGING!?

THERE
IS
HOPE!

you just have to
CHEAT
BORROW
STEAL

evaluating design maturity // mapping to transformed organizations //
design practice models // adapting proven frameworks, practices, and
methodologies // identifying + building hooks // evaluating + addressing
risks // establishing messaging + purpose // playbooks + education //
design languages // best practices // tools // facilitation // design
thinking workshops // incubation programs // playbacks // enablement
+ activation // identifying + fostering champions // evangelizing
outcomes // building trust + awareness // success metrics // establish
core team // consultancy models // intake process formalization //
talent pipeline // and so much more!
There’s a lot I wanted to talk about…

DON’T START
FROM SCRATCH
WHERE YOU
DON’T HAVE TO!
to keep things simple…

TAKE AND ADAPT  
BEST PRACTICES.
LEVERAGE THE  
PEOPLE YOU NEED.
ORGANICALLY GAIN
TRUST AND BUY-IN.

DON’T
START AT
SQUARE ONE.

TAKE WHAT
WORKS AND
ADAPT IT.

THERE FOR THE TAKING!
…and so many others

TAKE THESE THINGS.
>> Methodologies
>> Toolkits
>> Frameworks
>> Best Practices
>> Facilitation Assets
>> Suggested Tools

DON’T TAKE THESE THINGS.
>> Branding
>> Messaging
>> Design Systems
>> (Most) Design Languages

WAIT. WHY NOT?
image credit: printsome

YOU DON’T
HAVE TO BE
ORIGINAL! 
(JUST THIS ONCE)

ITERATIONS & DERIVATIONS.

BUT YOU
NEED TO MAKE  
IT YOUR OWN.

SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE.
Identify key words that may not share the
connotation or meaning you desire.
What do these terms truly mean to your
organization? Are they already in use?
MVP, Design Thinking, Design, Sprint, etc.

FIT THE STRUCTURE.
How your organization is
organized plays a huge part in
the ability for your design
practice to stick and scale.

IBM’S
ENTERPRISE DESIGN THINKING
HILLS PLAYBACKS SPONSOR
USERS

DUKE ENERGY’S
DESIGN THINKING
GOOGLE DESIGN SPRINT
ENTERPRISE
DESIGN THINKING
+

NOW PUT
IT INTO
PRACTICE.

GIVE TO GET.
All teams need help better aligning +
identifying the right problem to solve.
Offer your assistance to a wide variety of
teams in accomplishing these goals in
return for their time, attention, and trust.

EMBRACE THE WORKSHOP.
No tool in your repertoire is more powerful for
you and the teams you assist than the workshop.
Use to help teams get started or get unstuck.
 
Brings together and helps align  
Business + Development + Design

WORKSHOPS ENABLE.
Utilize this platform for enablement of
individuals across roles, teams, and
business units how to think human-
centered and problem-solve through
Design Thinking techniques.

POWER OF INCUBATION.
No better way to do extend enablement
and truly enforce behavior change than
though incubation-type moments (be it
sessions or full on programs).

INCUBATE. ENABLE. REPEAT.
Workshops are incredible but discrete moments
of applying Design Thinking.
Incubator programs enable you to guide a team
on a journey to the right outcomes utilizing the
best methodologies, tools, and practices of your
Design Practice every step of the way.

EX: DUKE ENERGY’S LIGHTHOUSE
11+ teams across all business units (HR, Nuclear,
etc.) spent 12 weeks following methodology to
define, design, and deploy innovative solutions.
Designer embedded throughout process.

EX: IBM’S HALLMARK PROGRAM
Internal teams who agreed to follow our method
and invest the time/resources to doing it
correctly had a trained designer embedded to
execute and deliver.

BUILD
BRAND
EQUITY.

EVANGELIZE
OUTCOMES.
BIG AND SMALL.

SUCCESS IS YOUR CURRENCY.
To gain the trust of teams and individuals across
your organization, you’ll need to rack up success.
Moreover, you’ll need to track and measure
success in ways that speak to the values of your
business and share them restlessly.

PUT IT IN THEIR TERMS.
Map success to key values of your business:
Time Savings, Revenue, etc.
Work with teams to capture a baseline and
then track, measure, and share how the
needle moved as a direct result of your work.

CREATE & SHARE OUTCOMES.
Following every workshop and project,
create a well-articulated and well-designed
sharable deck that includes the outcomes
achieved, decisions made, and tells the story
of the process to arrive at the outcomes.
Hold playbacks and ensure the deck is self-
contained to maximize on optics.

FOSTER CHAMPIONS.
The more champions of your practice, the
faster and more organically it will spread!
Being able to have individuals across roles
and business units celebrating and sharing
the successes attributed to your practice will
build trust, brand equity, and generate an
organic, insatiable interest in your practice.

EX: AMERICAN AIRLINES
American Airlines had an incredible, well-established
deign team and practice when it looked to IBM for help
to formalize their design thinking workshop practice.
Design lacked the seat at the table it deserved leading
work to not always be centered on user needs.

EX: AMERICAN AIRLINES
After just a handful of formalized workshops across
many business units, design gained a seat at leadership
decisions - including the right work to pursue next.
Design Thinking continues to be one of the most sought
after and demanded practices across teams and
business units.

EX: IBM’S MAGIC PEOPLE
Early on, IBM recognized the incredible impact of
high-ranking champions of Design Thinking and a
Design Practice.
They called these people “Magic People” and
fostered relations with them, responding to their
feedback and creating platforms to better enable
their championship to reach the masses.

YOU JUST 
CHANGED 
CULTURE.

DID YOU CATCH IT?
Culture Change is an inevitable byproduct of your
journey to transform your organization.
It starts with you (and your team), spreads to
individuals enabled on your practices, generates
interest and trust with each new success, and then
becomes an undeniable standard with champions
across all roles, levels, teams, and business units.

TRIED & TRUE
PRACTICES.
LEVERAGING THE
PEOPLE YOU NEED.
ORGANICALLY GAIN
TRUST AND BUY-IN.

In no time, you’ll have a deign practice that is
SUCCESSFUL,
SELF-SCALING,
SELF-SUSTAINING &
CULTURE CHANGING.

QUESTIONS
& ANSWERS.

Colin M. Budd 
Global Design Strategist  
IBM Garage // Austin, TX
colin.m.budd@ibm.com
@xbudd // www.xbudd.comHow to Build and Scale a Successful Design Practice
Enjoyed the talk?
Want to learn more?  
Chat with the IBM Garage!
ibm.com/Garage
CHEAT
BORROW
STEAL

Cheat, Borrow, Steal: How to Build and Scale a Successful Design Practice | Seattle Interactive 2019

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Cheat, Borrow, Steal: How to Build and Scale a Successful Design Practice | Seattle Interactive 2019