It’s June 2019. I’m sitting in a conference room in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. At the end of the table are the two executives that have been tapped to lead a new endeavor on behalf of IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat. To my right sits Neil Everette, a senior principal designer and my first hire. We’re about to provide an update on the most recent round of designs while others gather. As the meeting begins, our leadership pushes all their chips in.

2019年6月。我坐在北卡羅來納州研究三角公園的會議室。 排在最后的是兩位高管，他們代表IBM以340億美元收購Red Hat來領導一項新的嘗試。 在我右邊的是尼爾·埃弗雷特(Neil Everette)，他是我的第一任高級設計師。 當其他設計聚集時，我們將提供最新一輪設計的更新。 會議開始時，我們的領導層將所有精力投入其中。

“We’re going to change the way enterprise software is bought and sold. It’s going to be consumer driven, dead simple, and driven by user experience. We’re going to build the App Store for the enterprise, leading to the consumerization of IT.”

“我們將改變買賣企業軟件的方式。 它將由消費者驅動，簡單而又由用戶體驗驅動。 我們將為企業構建App Store，從而實現IT的消費化。”

From the corner of the room someone murmurs, “People inside this company are saying this can’t be done.” There’s nothing like an early vote of confidence before a presentation.

在房間的一角有人在抱怨：“這家公司內部的人說這是行不通的 。” 演講之前，沒有比這更早的信任投票了。

Another colleague remarks, “IBM is really good at building super complicated things. You want to go to the moon? We’re the company that can make that happen. What are we not always great at is making very complicated things simple and usable.” There’s lots of nodding in agreement.

另一位同事說：“ IBM確實擅長構建超級復雜的東西。 你想去月球嗎？ 我們是可以實現這一目標的公司。 我們并不總是擅長于使非常復雜的事情變得簡單和可用。” 有很多點頭同意。

We still haven’t presented yet.

我們還沒有介紹。

云上的背景 (Background on Cloud)

IBM has made a profound commitment to the cloud. On his first official day as CEO, Arvind Krishina reiterated this, saying an ‘essential, ubiquitous hybrid cloud platform’ was critical in making the company ‘the most trusted technology partner of the 21st century.’

IBM對云做出了深刻的承諾。 在擔任首席執行官的首個正式日中，Arvind Krishina重申了這一點，他說，“ 必不可少的，無處不在的混合云平臺 ”對于使公司成為“ 21世紀最值得信賴的技術合作伙伴”至關重要。

For context, the cloud is a set of remotely hosted computing resources used by a client for storage and computing power. Using a mix and match cloud strategy allows companies to leverage different services, locations or providers to solve different business problems. One provider or solution might be optimized for security requirements, another for machine learning or AI. Hybrid cloud is a platform for applications and infrastructure, built on some combination of public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises IT. All of this affords companies control, scalability and portability.

就上下文而言，云是客戶端用于存儲和計算能力的一組遠程托管的計算資源。 使用混合匹配云策略可以使公司利用不同的服務，位置或提供商來解決不同的業務問題。 一個提供程序或解決方案可能針對安全性要求進行了優化，而另一個則針對機器學習或AI進行了優化。 混合云是基于公共云，私有云和本地IT的某種組合而構建的，用于應用程序和基礎架構的平臺。 所有這些為公司提供了控制，可擴展性和可移植性。

In a recent survey, IBM asked enterprises about how they use the cloud today. 92% of enterprises that responded are leveraging hybrid cloud in some capacity, while 58% are using multi-cloud solutions. Only 10% of these companies can holistically and effectively manage or move applications across environments. This lack of flexibility creates major headaches and problems for businesses.

在最近的一項調查中，IBM 向企業詢問了他們今天如何使用云。 做出回應的企業中有92％在一定程度上利用了混合云，而58％的企業正在使用多云解決方案。 這些公司中只有10％可以在整個環境中全面有效地管理或移動應用程序。 缺乏靈活性給企業造成了很多頭疼和問題。

Red Hat OpenShift is a platform technology that enables developers to build once and deploy to any cloud using the same underlying code structure. It is this platform that is the bedrock underlying our marketplace. The Red Hat Marketplace exists so companies can find certified (legit and supported) software for OpenShift that they can try, purchase and deploy, quickly and easily to the cloud of their choice.

紅帽OpenShift是一項平臺技術，使開發人員可以使用相同的基礎代碼結構進行一次構建并部署到任何云。 正是這個平臺是我們市場的基礎。 紅帽市場的存在使公司可以為OpenShift找到經過認證的(合法的和受支持的)軟件，他們可以嘗試將其快速，輕松地購買和部署到自己選擇的云中。

機會的起源 (Origins of an Opportunity)

Rewind to April 2019. I get a call from Robert Uthe, a Distinguished Engineer and design champion at IBM. He tells me that he heard from Arin Bhowmick (Global Vice President and Chief Design Officer at IBM) that I was uniquely suited to lead design on a new, strategic, secret project. Robert says if I accept, I will be tasked with building, scaling and leading a best-in-class design team from the ground up. There’s a catch. I have to say yes right away.

回顧一下2019年4月。我接到IBM杰出工程師兼設計冠軍Robert Uthe的電話。 他告訴我，他從Arin Bhowmick(IBM全球副總裁兼首席設計官)那里聽說，我非常適合領導新的戰略性秘密項目的設計。 羅伯特說，如果我接受，我將承擔起建立，擴展和領導一個一流的設計團隊的任務。 有一個陷阱。 我必須馬上說是。

At the time of his call, I was leading design on IBM Watson Education, a Watson AI enabled edtech ‘startup’ that was incubated by IBM. Although our business unit was going through some significant challenges and changes, I was very happy in my role. Robert is vague, so he directs me to Charlie Hill to fill in more than a few blanks about this could-be opportunity. Among a company of over 350,000 employees, with thousands of designers, Charlie is the only design leader with the mantle of IBM fellow, IBM’s highest honor, distinction and eminence. He is soon to be dedicated to this project.

在他打電話時，我是IBM Watson Education的設計負責人，這是一個由Watson AI支持的edtech“啟動”，由IBM孵化。 盡管我們的業務部門正在經歷一些重大的挑戰和變革，但我對自己的角色感到非常高興。 羅伯特含糊不清，所以他指示我去查理·希爾(Charlie Hill)填補這個機會的空白。 在擁有35萬名員工，擁有數千名設計師的公司中，查理(Charlie)是唯一擁有IBM員工風范的設計領導者，這是 IBM的最高榮譽，杰出和杰出地位。 他很快將致力于這個項目。

Charlie is equally opaque, but he emphasizes design’s unique ability to influence and lead in the vision and execution of this brand new cloud marketplace. He also spoke at length about the consumer focus of the executive team. This helps cement my choice.

查理同樣不透明，但他強調設計獨特的能力來影響和領導這一全新云市場的愿景和執行。 他還詳細談到了行政團隊對消費者的關注。 這有助于鞏固我的選擇。

I’m still unsure of what I am actually signing up for. What I know for certain is I’ll learn more from working with Robert, Charlie, and Arin than I would on practically any other project or team at the company. I was in.

我仍然不確定我實際上要注冊什么。 我可以肯定的是，與在Robert，Charlie和Arin的合作中，我將比在公司的任何其他項目或團隊中學到更多。 我是在。

紅帽市場設計團隊的根源 (Roots of the Red Hat Marketplace Design Team)

After hiring Neil, we subsequently assembled our next five designers, with the goal of bringing in 15–18 by end of year. Our early core was a top heavy crew, with seniority and expertise coming out of their ears. Each of these foundational members had a critical role in helping to shape the early vision and, just as importantly, the culture of design on our team.

聘請尼爾(Neil)之后，我們隨后組建了接下來的五名設計師，目標是到年底前將15-18名設計師收入囊中。 我們的早期核心人員是高層管理人員，他們耳中充滿了資歷和專業知識。 這些基礎成員中的每一個在幫助塑造早期愿景以及我們團隊的設計文化方面都起著至關重要的作用。

When I began the search for our first hires, I consulted with my boss, Robert, extensively. One of the founding members that I hired was Justin Gier. Justin came highly recommended from Robert for his unique combination of talents and is the most technical designer I’ve ever managed. Every design team needs complementary players across complementary disciplines. If we are truly going to consumerize IT, our team is going to have to know what we can simplify, what we can break, and what we can bypass entirely. Justin’s systems thinking, UX prowess and technical knowledge of cloud and kubernetes has helped our design team do this with confidence. He also designed a cloud 101 course for our new designers which helped to ramp up our collective domain knowledge and subject matter expertise. I still attend each session and learn new things every time.

當我開始尋找第一批員工時，我與老板羅伯特進行了廣泛的協商。 我聘用的創始成員之一是賈斯汀·吉爾(Justin Gier)。 賈斯汀(Robert)因其獨特的才能而受到羅伯特的強烈推薦，是我管理過的最技術設計師。 每個設計團隊都需要跨互補學科的互補參與者。 如果我們要真正實現IT消費化，那么我們的團隊將必須知道我們可以簡化什么，可以打破什么以及可以完全繞開什么。 賈斯汀的系統思維，UX能力以及云和kubernetes的技術知識幫助我們的設計團隊充滿信心地做到了這一點。 他還為我們的新設計師設計了Cloud 101課程，這有助于提高我們的集體領域知識和主題專業知識。 我仍然參加每次會議，每次都學習新事物。

In order to maintain the velocity and breadth of work that we were tasked with covering, we were lucky enough to partner with the Austin-based product design and consulting firm Argodesign. Argo provided us with early, critical enablement — staff augmentation, diverse design expertise and a fresh, unbiased perspective. Working with IBM as a partner has its challenges. We’re not the easiest company to collaborate with, especially given the rapid growth, change and pressures that we were under. That said, we couldn’t have had a better early partner than Argo.

為了保持我們負責的工作的速度和廣度，我們很幸運地與位于奧斯汀的產品設計和咨詢公司Argodesign合作。 Argo為我們提供了早期的關鍵支持-員工擴充，多樣化的設計專業知識和嶄新而公正的觀點。 與IBM合作伙伴面臨挑戰。 我們并不是最容易與之合作的公司，尤其是考慮到我們的快速增長，變化和壓力。 也就是說，我們沒有比Argo更好的早期合作伙伴。

仲夏領導層檢查站 (Mid-Summer Leadership Checkpoint)

By July, we had an early draft of the high level UX for several important touch points — discovery, purchase and deployment. At this time, we were also working with an outside consulting firm to provide an added market POV.

到7月，我們已經針對幾個重要接觸點(發現，購買和部署)制定了高級UX的早期草案。 目前，我們還與一家外部咨詢公司合作，以提供更多的市場POV。

One of the impediments we faced at this stage in our product journey was decision making. In these early days, we only had one product manager, and we were struggling to make a range of choices and evaluate their trade offs. Our leadership recognized this and during this workshop told us to disassociate from the fear of getting it wrong. “Make a decision and just own it. We will learn and pivot as necessary.”

我們在產品開發過程中現階段面臨的障礙之一就是決策。 在早期，我們只有一名產品經理，我們正努力做出一系列選擇并評估其權衡取舍。 我們的領導層認識到了這一點，在這次研討會上告訴我們，不要擔心會出錯。 “做出決定并擁有決定權。 我們將在必要時學習和發展。”

During this checkpoint, Phil Gilbert (GM of Design at IBM) assessed our early progress. In total transparency, we committed an early, highly visible miscue. Our marketplace experience was too broad, serving far too many customer types. This lack of precision, selectivity and focus came to bite us. It led to diluted use cases and undefined expectations and outcomes. It also forced a reckoning from our collective leadership:

在此檢查點期間，Phil Gilbert(IBM設計總經理)評估了我們的早期進展。 總的來說，我們犯了一個早期的，明顯可見的錯誤。 我們的市場經驗太廣泛了，服務了太多的客戶類型。 缺乏精確性，選擇性和專注性使我們深受其害。 它導致用例稀疏，不確定的期望和結果。 這也迫使我們的集體領導做出了以下估算：

“Every stakeholder in this room needs to drop what they’re doing and spend the next three days narrowing our focus.”

“這個會議室中的每個利益相關者都需要放棄他們正在做的事情，并在接下來的三天里花時間縮小我們的關注范圍。”

RTP設計思維研討會 (RTP Design Thinking Workshop)

In response, Charlie and I led a design thinking workshop with our key stakeholders. We relied heavily on IBM Design Thinking and collectively re-identified our users, as-is, pain points, and to-be scenarios. From this work, we came out with a testable set of hypothetical features that were deemed as “differentiators.”

作為回應，查理和我與我們的主要利益相關者一起主持了設計思想研討會。 我們非常依賴IBM Design Thinking，并集體重新標識了我們的用戶，現狀，痛點和將來的場景。 通過這項工作，我們得出了一組可檢驗的假設特征，這些特征被認為是“差異化因素”。

It was these top differentiators that we quickly prototyped, tested with users, assessed feedback and led to the first golden thread — a narrative progression that showcased the core use cases and business differentiators. From this learning, we were able to scale down a field of 8–10 personas to the four that were mission-critical for our MVP.

正是這些主要的差異化因素，我們Swift進行了原型設計，與用戶進行了測試，評估了反饋，并引出了第一個金線 –敘述性進展展示了核心用例和業務差異化因素。 通過這次學習，我們能夠將8-10個角色的比例縮小到對我們的MVP至關重要的四個角色。

品牌— IBM與Red Hat的交集 (Branding — the intersection of IBM and Red Hat)

By November 2019, we had 13 designers, including a recently hired Creative Director. This was one of the hardest roles to fill. CDs are an anomaly across modern product teams at IBM. Finding a seasoned, personable, brand-savvy one to help bridge the critical, and still new, intersection of two formidable brands, was no small task. We could not have been more fortunate to have found Sarah Walter.

到2019年11月，我們已經有13位設計師，其中包括最近聘用的創意總監。 這是最難填補的角色之一。 CD在IBM的現代產品團隊中是異常的。 找到一個經驗豐富，風度翩翩，精通品牌的品牌來幫助銜接兩個強大的品牌之間的關鍵而又新的交匯點，絕非易事。 我們最幸運的是找到了莎拉·沃爾特。

Prior to Sarah joining our team, the visual brand explorations fixated on IBM’s big blue color palette and Red Hat’s bright crimson, with the obvious combination and integration of the two. Sarah was hired around the same time as Wangui McKelvey, VP of Marketing for our new organization. She worked tirelessly with Wangui, Charlie and Corey Keller, our visual design lead, to ensure our brand expression was valuable, articulate and consistent with the voice and tone of our new initiative.

在Sarah加入我們的團隊之前，視覺品牌的探索集中在IBM的大藍色調色板和Red Hat的明亮的深紅色上，兩者之間明顯地結合在一起。 薩拉與我們新組織的營銷副總裁Wangui McKelvey大約同時被聘用。 她與視覺設計主管Wangui，Charlie和Corey Keller孜孜不倦地合作，以確保我們的品牌表達具有價值，表達力并與我們新計劃的聲音和語調保持一致。

我們的技術預覽，即將完成的一年 (Our Technical Preview, a Year in the Making)

Several weeks ago, our team released our technical preview of the Red Hat Marketplace. It was a milestone for our team, IBM and Red Hat. Prior to our new marketplace, if you were a business building apps on the cloud, you would have to go to 6 or 7 stores to build your application. Red Hat Marketplace empowers enterprises to discover, try, buy and deploy through a one-stop shop.

幾周前，我們的團隊發布了紅帽市場的技術預覽。 對于我們的團隊IBM和Red Hat來說，這是一個里程碑。 在我們進入新市場之前，如果您是在云上構建應用程序的企業，則必須去6或7家商店來構建應用程序。 紅帽市場使企業能夠通過一站式商店發現，嘗試，購買和部署。

While our customers and the market will ultimately determine whether or not we’ve delivered on our early promise, it has been rewarding to hear our leadership extolling the virtues of our nascent product.

盡管我們的客戶和市場最終將決定我們是否兌現了我們的早期承諾，但聽到我們的領導層贊美我們的新生產品的美德使我感到非常高興。

“I’ve been the head of three businesses and [of all those endeavors] I’m the most proud of the Red Hat Marketplace.”

“我一直是這三項業務的負責人，在所有這些工作中，我為紅帽市場最自豪。”

第一印象 (First Impressions)

We’re always assessing the quality of our work and measuring our outcomes. As part of our pre-launch research, our design research team met with twelve senior IT leaders in enterprise organizations — individuals with insight and influence in their company’s cloud strategies and spend. These leaders served in industries as diverse as aerospace & defense, entertainment, financial services, food and beverage, healthcare provider, internet manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, real estate & utilities.

我們一直在評估工作質量并衡量結果。 作為我們啟動前研究的一部分，我們的設計研究團隊與企業組織中的12位高級IT領導進行了會面，這些領導對公司的云戰略和支出具有洞察力和影響力。 這些領導者曾在航空航天和國防，娛樂，金融服務，食品和飲料，醫療保健提供商，互聯網制造，消費品包裝，房地產和公用事業等行業任職。

All participants volunteered their time in 90-minute, non-blind in-depth interviews (IDIs). Their feedback attested to a range of issues and opportunities and the following quotes are extracted from these sessions:

所有參與者都自愿參加了90分鐘的非盲深入訪談(IDI)。 他們的反饋證明了一系列問題和機遇，并從這些會議中摘錄了以下引文：

Navigation easier; could be used by less technical staff: “The navigation seems better than AWS and Azure. It is simpler. AWS puts emphasis on technical understanding.”

導航更容易； 可以由較少的技術人員使用： “導航似乎比AWS和Azure好。 更簡單。 AWS強調技術理解。”

AWS more crowded; advanced search features are desirable: “AWS marketplace is very cluttered right now… you spend more time sending questions to AWS about where to find things. I would expect as IBM’s marketplace expands that could be a challenge. Think of the App Store. 500 apps doing the same thing.”

AWS更擁擠； 希望有高級搜索功能： “ AWS市場現在很雜亂……您花更多時間向AWS發送有關在哪里找到東西的問題。 我希望隨著IBM市場的擴展，這將是一個挑戰。 想想App Store。 500個應用程序在做同樣的事情。”

Credibility and Usability: “The UI on Red Hat Marketplace is more intuitive than AWS or Google — more thought out.”

可信度和可用性： “ Red Hat Marketplace上的UI比AWS或Google更直觀-更深思熟慮。”

“… IBM looks better — more usable and prettier. AWS is very vanilla. White on white, not very differentiated.”

“……IBM看起來更好-更實用，更漂亮。 AWS非常香草。 白底白字，差別不大。”

Ease of use: “Being able to download right from the marketplace into our developer solution. I know Salesforce does that, but this seems more intuitive.”

易于使用： “能夠直接從市場下載到我們的開發人員解決方案中。 我知道Salesforce會這樣做，但這看起來更直觀。”

成長和早期勝利的機會 (Opportunities for Growth and Early Wins)

On a 15 person, disproportionately senior design team, I’ve struggled with finding equal enough visibility and recognition for all of our leaders. Design on Red Hat Marketplace is a team sport and certain folks have an easier time showcasing their talents given what we build first and how prominent that work is within the product. Finding ways to expose, integrate and leverage our deeply senior, talented team is a challenge that I don’t always win.

在一支由15人組成的不成比例的高級設計團隊中，我一直在努力為我們所有的領導者尋找同樣相等的知名度和認可度。 在Red Hat Marketplace上進行設計是一項團隊運動，鑒于我們首先構建的產品以及該產品在產品中的突出地位，某些人可以更輕松地展示自己的才能。 尋找方法來展示，整合和利用我們經驗豐富的資深團隊是一個挑戰，但我并非總是會贏。

On the other hand, I’m proud of the ways with which we fit the strengths of our designers with the needs of the project. Finding the right designers is a challenge in its own right, but identifying the things they love to do, the things they want to explore, the things that their unique talents and experience afford them and marrying them the critical needs of the business is not trivial. It’s a tricky Venn diagram and one that isn’t always proportionate. Certain spheres occupy more real estate at different times. In the end, it’s my job to ensure our designers are put in the best position to be successful and are given the room to reach their full potential.

另一方面，我為我們將設計師的實力與項目需求相結合的方式而感到自豪。 尋找合適的設計師本身就是一個挑戰，但是要確定他們喜歡做的事情，他們想探索的事情，他們獨特的才能和經驗為他們提供的東西以及與他們結婚的關鍵業務需求并非易事。 這是一個棘手的維恩圖，并且并不總是成比例的。 某些領域在不同時間占用更多房地產。 最后，我的工作是確保我們的設計師處于成功的最佳位置，并有充分的機會發揮自己的全部潛力。

以用戶為中心的警惕 (User-Centered Vigilance)

Despite our team’s deep domain expertise in cloud computing and open source technology, experience building and managing past marketplaces, and overall familiarity with our target customers, we are not our users. It’s a mantra we have to sing ourselves to sleep with, or tattoo onto our limbs. We always have to be vigilant that we never resort to complacency around our customers.

盡管我們的團隊在云計算和開源技術方面擁有深厚的領域專業知識，在構建和管理過往市場方面具有豐富的經驗，并且對目標客戶有全面的了解， 但我們并不是用戶 。 這是我們要唱歌睡覺或四肢紋身的口頭禪。 我們始終必須保持警惕，不要對客戶自滿。

One of the many tactics that we employ to mitigate this risk is integrating the customer voice into all facets of our design process. Through the design partner program, we establish deep, symbiotic relationships with companies looking to benefit from our solutions, but more importantly, partner in their creation. They also get the chance to influence our priorities and assist in concept validation, usability testing, contextual inquiry and design workshops.

我們采用的減輕這種風險的許多策略之一就是將客戶的聲音整合到我們設計過程的各個方面。 通過設計合作伙伴計劃，我們與希望從我們的解決方案中受益的公司建立了深厚的共生關系，更重要的是，他們與他們的合作伙伴建立了關系。 他們還有機會影響我們的優先事項，并協助進行概念驗證，可用性測試，上下文查詢和設計研討會。

躁動重塑 (Restless Reinvention)

I host a weekly design critique for our team. In the calendar invite to the meeting, I include a Latin proverb that I borrowed from my colleague at IBM, Adam Cutler. It says, “Nothing is invented and perfected at the same time.” Building digital products is evolutionary. Unlike print or hardware, where there’s cost and finality with what is deemed ready or done, we’re only just starting, and we’re a long way from perfect.

我每周為我們的團隊主持一次設計評論。 在參加會議的日歷邀請中，我包括我從IBM同事Adam Cutler借來的拉丁諺語。 它說，“ 沒有什么是發明 ，并在同一時間 完善 。” 構建數字產品是不斷發展的。 與印刷或硬件不同，在印刷或硬件方面，成本或最終成本被認為是已完成或已完成，我們才剛剛起步，與完美相比還有很長的路要走。

IBM Design Thinking embraces a methodology of constant observation, reflection and making. Everything is a prototype that we can and will learn from. We will continue to measure and monitor our design and product KPIs, evaluate our effectiveness and return to our users to ensure we’re delivering them value. I couldn’t be more excited to keep learning and evolving with our team.

IBM Design Thinking包含不斷觀察，反思和制作的方法。 一切都是我們可以并且將學習的原型。 我們將繼續衡量和監控我們的設計和產品KPI，評估我們的有效性并返回給用戶，以確保我們為他們帶來價值。 繼續與我們的團隊一起學習和發展，我會感到無比興奮。

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如果您有興趣了解有關Red Hat Marketplace的更多信息， 請立即查看 ！

Colin Narver is a Senior Design Manger on IBM Cloud, Data and AI in Austin. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Colin Narver是位于奧斯丁的IBM Cloud，Data和AI的高級設計經理。 以上文章是個人的，不一定代表IBM的立場，戰略或觀點。