Design at 

Scale
how to create a sustainable culture of
design at IBM
by @AdilsonChicoria
What happens
when 430,000
employees want
to become
design thinkers ?
— Challenge —
1966
2015
IBM Design
1966
— Design Team —
Eliot Noyce
IBM Selectric typewriter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNUEUth7qjc
IBM Selectric typewriter
Changing typefaces
IBM Design
2013
sponsorship
— strategy —
— bootstrap team —
A growing community, connected by our users
IBM Design Studios
Austin
Research Triangle Park
New York
Toronto & Ottawa
Dublin
Hursley
Böblingen
Shanghai
The meeting rooms and
iconic images, including the rebus, designed in
1981 by Paul Rand
IBM Design Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzUrfi-GWeI
— Austin Design Studio Opening —
mindset
IBM Design Thinking
— communication framework —
— communication framework —
— tools —
— +tools —
— workshops —
mindset+tools in action
http://www.ibm.com/design/language.shtml
— design language —
— spreading the culture —
https://twitter.com/hashtag/ibmdesign
What happens
when 430,000
employees want
to become
design thinkers ?
— Challenge —
In 2014, our team engaged over
5,000 IBMers educating them in
new design frameworks and
methodologies, coaching their
teams, facilitating problem solving,
advancing their practice, and
inspiring their leaders.
So what ?
Create a sustainable culture of
design and to bring human-
centered design to our
thousands of product
experiences ?
How to…
The challenge of driving
such a massive cultural
change isn’t
insignificant.
Design 

at scale.
At IBM, we are practicing
design thinking at a global
scale and at a level of
complexity that has never
been seen before.
— Douglas Powell - Program Director
The challenge of driving
such a massive cultural
change isn’t
insignificant.
Design 

at scale.
• With product teams dispersed across the globe
• Collaboration and alignment among key stakeholders in
our organization can be extremely challenging.
• the deep legacy of many of our products and businesses
http://designawards.core77.com/
2015 Core77
Design Awards 

—Winner—
The IBM Design Education +
Activation program exists to
spearhead and catalyze this
change by producing and
delivering active learning
experiences around the world
How do you... ?
What happens when... ?
Who are the... ?
How might we... ?
These are the types of
questions we’ve been trying to
answer in 2014.
How do you
get hundreds
of product
teams to work in
a new way?
— Challenge —
Different Designcamp
versions meet different
audience needs.
Designcamp for Executives
A one-day program that introduces IBM executives to
design thinking
1.Working knowledge of IBM Design Thinking 

2.Understand your role as patrons/leaders/advocates of 

IBM Design Thinking
Designcamp for Product Managers
A two-day program specific to the product management
discipline and held at IBM sites around the world
1.Working knowledge of IBM Design Thinking
2.Active experience with radical collaboration
3.Understand your role as patrons/leaders/advocates of 

IBM Design Thinking
Designcamp for Product Teams
An intensive, five-day program where
interdisciplinary teams infuse their projects with
deep empathy for their users while learning
design thinking in a collaborative, hands-on
environment
In 2014, our 5-day Designcamp 

for Product Teams program used...
Sharpie® pens
voting dots
Post-it® notes
dry erase makers
680
2,700
5,400
130,200
What happens
when 80 new
designers start
their jobs on the
same day?
— Challenge —
Designcamp for
New Hires
Designcamp for
New Hires
Launchpad for designers new to the IBM Design organization.
Who are the
design leaders of
tomorrow and
how can we
engage them?
— Challenge —
Maelstrom
interns
Over the course of the 8–
10 week program, our
interns are armed with
the tools they need to
evangelize and enact IBM
D e s i g n ’ s m i s s i o n o f
cultural change.
Maelstrom interns bring
talent, passion, and
imagination to design
t h a t a u t h e n t i c a l l y
expresses the character of
IBM. 

They’re what we
n e e d i n t h e n e x t
generation of IBMers.”
—Jon Iwata, IBM Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications
How might we
elevate a global
workforce with a
travel budget of
zero?
— Challenge —
1.Introduction to

IBM Design Thinking
2.Introduction to Hills
3.Introduction to Sponsor Users
4.Introduction to Playbacks
5.Introduction to the IBM Design Language
6.Product Management Overview
7…..
Designlines 

Webcast
eipisodes (since nov-14)
Reach IBMers around the world
bringing together :
Designlines Webcast
!
• practitioners and subject
matter experts
!
• to present case studies, share
best practices, and answer
questions.
Topic introduction
and overview
Case studies and interviews
Practical advice and
guidance
Live-stream chat pod with dedicated subject matter experts to answer questions and post
links to resources into the chat pod
Minute 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Speaking guests answer
selected questions from
the live-stream chat pod

Speaking guests
answer selected
questions from the
live-stream chat pod

Designlines Webcast
So, is it
working?
http://ibm.biz/TDC-2015
In 2014, IBM Design was just getting
started and we’re already showing
impressive accomplishments in important
business areas like our new Bluemix
developers platform. 



Bluemix was built from the ground
up using IBM Design Thinking and
has 10 times more users today than
initially projected.
Part of IBM’s $1 billion investment in cloud computing
http://www.ibm.com/design/blog-iconic-bm.shtml
how to create a sustainable culture of design
Design at 

Scale
Design Education + Activation Program
IBM Design
http://designawards.core77.com/Design-Education-Initiatives/34833/IBM-Design-Education-Activation
acjardim@br.ibm.com
— Thank You —
@AdilsonChicoria
adilsonchicoria.com

IBM Design: Design at Scale