Digital whiteboarding and other techniques for remote collaboration and ideation. The document discusses how IBM uses digital whiteboarding tools like Mural to facilitate remote collaboration. It provides examples of adapting design thinking techniques like empathy mapping and idea prioritization to the digital whiteboard format. The document also discusses balancing agile development practices with design thinking's focus on understanding user needs through research.

1. Digital whiteboarding and other techniques
for remote collaboration and ideation
Ethan Perry
Design Manager & Lead
IBM Talent Management
Solutions
May 10, 2018
Kristina Beckley
Design Manager & Lead
IBM Collaboration Solutions

2. Enterprise Design Thinking
A focus on the user
Multi-disciplinary teams
Restless reinvention
2
We have
transformed our
design and
development
practices by
committing to
Enterprise Design
Thinking
& Agile
Agile
Iterative
Incremental
Evolutionary

3. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Productive collaboration & ideation
with our colleagues and customers is central to
Enterprise Design Thinking & Agile
So, we have had a lot of practice…
3

4. © 2018 IBM Corporation
We like to all get together
and collaborate in person…
4

5. © 2018 IBM Corporation
We work for a large global company
and have colleagues and customers
in many countries
F2F isn’t always practical…
5

6. Digital Whiteboarding
6
We have
developed good
techniques for
remote
collaboration and
workshops
On-line Meetings

7. © 2018 IBM Corporation
You can participate in our digital
white-boarding demos
Handouts provide login information for our
UXPA account on
mural.co
7

8. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Design
Thinking
8

9. IBM Design :: Confidential :: © IBM Corporation
“The mission of IBM Design is to create a
sustainable culture of design at IBM.”
—PHIL GILBERT, GM IBM DESIGN

10. “Designers…don’t try to search
for a solution until they have
determined the real problem,
and even then, instead of solving
that problem, they stop to consider
a wide range of potential solutions.
Only then will they finally converge
upon their proposal. This process
is called ‘design thinking.’ ”
— Don Norman
IBM Design :: © IBM Corporation

11. IBM Design :: © IBM Corporation
IBM Enterprise Design Thinking Principles
A focus on user
outcomes
Restless
reinvention
Multidisciplinary
teams

12. Hills Playbacks Sponsor
users
© 2016 IBM Corporation
The Keys

13. IBM Design :: © 2016 IBM Corporation
Aligning the team around user outcomes
Empathy
Map
As-is
Scenario Map
Big Idea
Vignettes
How can our team
quickly collaborate
to identify a range of
possibilities
to meet our user’s
needs?
Idea Prioritization
Which of these ideas are
most important and
feasible within our given
release or planning
period?
Storyboarding
What does an idea
actually feel like as an
experience?
What opportunities are presented
when we understand our
users and their work?

15. D

16. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Getting Started
Digital Whiteboarding
&
Empathy Maps
Live Demo in Mural
*See handout to join the live demo
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17. Drawing is a challenge on digital whiteboard
Text is a better option for remote
Bring in icons for voting on ideas
Live Demo in
Ideation: Big Ideas
17
Adapting “Big Ideas” for Remote Whiteboarding
Many techniques translate easily… some require
changes to work well

18. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Prioritization
Of Ideas
Live Demo in Mural
*See handout to join the live demo
18

19. © 2018 IBM Corporation 19

20. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Agile
20

21. Group Name / DOC ID / Month XX, 2018 / © 2018 IBM Corporation
Design thinking drives a
focus on our users by
translating business
input into a set of user
outcomes.
We explore different
alternatives to enable
our users to achieve
those outcomes.
User research lets us
move from low fidelity
to high fidelity
visualizations of target
experiences with
increased confidence.
Playbacks of the target
experience enable us to
define development
tasks that will realize
the desired outcomes.
Continued research with
sponsor users give us
insight on how to
improve the experience.
We can use these
insights to prioritize
additional updates
which we map to
upcoming iterations.
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22. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Iteration planning to
identify areas of focus
for next 1-2 weeks, with
work items taken off a
backlog.
Scrum meetings for
team communication
Traditional agile approaches have a notion of a
product owner who determines requirements. Design
thinking can enhance this by incorporating a focus on
the user to determine the desired outcomes of the
solution.
Agile development approach
22
Iterative, incremental and evolutionary
– Short feedback loop and adaptation cycle
– Quality focus

23. © 2018 IBM Corporation
Silence on a call is fine
while people are
working on generating
ideas or sharing
information.
Make sure to recognize
when people are
contributing - and don’t
be afraid to call on
people.
If there is a participant who is not bought in to the
style of working, talk with them offline (ideally before
the group session).
Working with Remote Teams
23
Give the team a chance to get to know each other
– Use ice breakers
– Set up time to get people familiar with the remote
collaboration tools
– Make it clear that the expectation is that the focus
is on working together during the session

24. IBM Design :: © 2016 IBM Corporation

25. IBM Design :: © 2016 IBM Corporation

26. IBM Design :: © 2016 IBM Corporation

27. IBM Design :: © 2016 IBM Corporation

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