Software Design Manager

Introduction

As IBM POWER Designers, you are part of a community of innovators, creators, and design thinkers. Our systems power the world's most important industries, and our clients are the architects of the future. Transforming our business to deliver on that future is at the heart of our Design mission.

Your role and responsibilities

Job Description

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• Lead design efforts for a product portfolio; prioritize design assignments for a family of products to align with business strategy and available resources.
• Influence functional strategy on multiple products.
• Envision a portfolio-wide design strategy.
• Determine, establish, and measure goals which influence the business strategy and processes of a product portfolio.
• Lead culture change for a product portfolio.
• Develop advanced knowledge of the technologies, business value and value proposition of a product portfolio.
• Influence at the appropriate levels in the business (management, development, product management).

• Gain a deep understanding of design, product management, and development practices.
• Look for opportunities to standardize tasks and integrate efforts across a product portfolio.
• Foster cross-brand networking and exchange of information, improving access to relevant knowledge.
• Engage 3-in-a-box (Design/OM/Development) leaders and stakeholders on the impact of design by determining where design can be most valuable; coordinating practices and processes; and advocating for design activities to be done right.
• Work with Agile product team leaders to measure progress and review design outcomes (via playbacks).
• Actively participate in multiple product squads by attending playbacks, assisting design teams, coaching design leaders, providing input on the prioritization of product backlogs and driving design consistency and quality.
• Align the design teams on the release and business goals.
• Develop strong negotiation skills and know what to compromise on.
• Bridge and connect teams together that may be working on aligned problems.

• Establish benchmarks for design quality, inspire and motivate teams to purse design excellence.
• Review and critique work for design excellence in craft and execution.
• Develop the leadership skills of designers through servant leadership, coaching and mentoring.
• Respond to design team needs and contribute where necessary.
• Coach and guide the careers of each team member.
• Identify motivational factors for designers on your team.
• Advocate for promotions and other forms of recognition for your design team.
• Be involved in hiring decisions (potentially recruitment as well.
• Contribute to and influence the design culture of IBM POWER.
• Demonstrate leadership on IBM POWER Design community initiatives.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on design and the business domain knowledge you have acquired.
• Lead cross-portfolio efforts, such as specific initiatives, events, workstreams or guilds.
• Foster cross-brand networking and exchange of information, improving the design management practices in IBM POWER.
• Contribute to the strategic application of Design and ensure best practices are implemented.
• Increase your contributions to the design profession inside and outside of IBM.
• Develop Advanced-level skills in the technologies needed for your product/org, such as AI.
• Develops Advanced-level skill in IBM Experience Standards

• Leads portfolio level, strategic research.
• Conduct full-lifecycle research throughout the Universal Experiences framework.
• Explore problem and new opportunities to direct current and potential customer solutions.
• Drive design work through generative research.
• Communicate value of research to executives.

• Orchestrate experiences across products.
• Collaborate with PM and Dev teams to define Experience Roadmap.
• Develop vision prototype outlining business and user needs.
• Define user experience goals, design systems and design principles.
• Review experiences for gaps, details and UX heuristics.

• Influence visual design process and practices across the broader Z design network.
• Drive the translation of user needs and business requirements into visually enticing, easy to use designs.
• Contribute new patterns, components and layouts to the IBM Carbon design system.
• Review design comps for pixel-perfect execution.
• Create visual concept designs for testing & socialization.

• Recognized as a technical leader or expert in their field.
• Has a clear understanding of how IBM POWER products fit in to IBM Infrastructure strategy and vision.
• Leads the strategic application and prioritization of content design across the business.
• Identifies future trends, assesses opportunities, impacts, risks, and anticipates potential issues.
• Understands and helps define organizational resources, needs, and priorities.
• Responsible for the vision for IBM POWER content design and drives initiatives to help transform the business.
• Applies creativity and innovation to generate ideas and solve challenges.