IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe - January/February 2018 - 11
for someone," Hill explains. "Design thinking is distinguished by bringing multiple disciplines together to make sense of a complex problem and to explore solutions together." Like with any new approach, there can be resistance. The pushback to beginning-to-end collaboration stems from adherence to a traditional approach to projects. "The centers of power are frequently optimized around disciplinary silos. Marketing silos. Development silos. Operational silos. Within each silo, it's easier to make decisions based on the metrics and language of that silo," he notes. When departments act autonomously, they can make decisions based on what allows them to meet their individual goals and objectives. "Then you have to go through a painful process of deciding what values and measures you're going to prioritize overall. That frequently comes into conflict with the human outcome you want," he says. "When we think of developing any kind of offering that will be successful in the marketplace, we have to look beyond any of our particular professional domains and look at the domain of the user, which provides a common frame of reference for everyone on a team." Through a User Lens Product innovation sometimes starts with a new technology and searches for a way to use it. The user-centric methodology of design thinking smashes that mold. Organizations must keep the focus of their products and services on the user. The design thinking approach establishes a practice, or habit, of emphasizing throughout the entire design process the people who will directly use the product or service being created. "You need to know who your users are, the problems they face and how to solve them," Hill says. A key to creating a successful design is the ability to observe and reflect on the relevance, appeal and usability of a product, then learn and make incremental improvements. This is the core of the Design Thinking Loop, which is a continuous cycle to: * Observe what's important to users and how design ideas meet their expectations Next Generation Technology Now - BMC's NGT for Db2 Wednesday, January 24 | 1 ET / Noon CT FEATURING: BMC is Leading the Way with Advanced Utilities for DB2 z/OS The unprecedented explosion of data is impacting the mainframe in a huge way. Downtime and maintenance windows are luxuries of the past; today's customer expects 24x7 availability and lightning fast performance. Today's application developers expect agility and speed as well. How can you achieve the performance your customers and business expects? Learn from BMC how Next Generation Technology Utilities can help you do just that. Get ahead of the curve and the competition with Next Generation Technology now. John Barry Principal Product Manager for DB2 Solutions BMC Carolyn Henry Marketing Manager for Db2 Solutions BMC Register Today: webcasts.com/ibmsystemsmag sponsored advertising content ibmsystemsmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 // 11