The IBM Front Door

A simplified entry-point for potential IBM Partners

Intro:

We were approached to create a simplified SEO organic entry point for IBM's Partner ecosystem. IBM's existing Partner program digital experience is disjointed and confusing.

  • Currently, IBM’s Partner ecosystem generates over $13 billion annual revenue

  • There is an exponential opportunity to attract potential partners from IBM.com.

  • Traffic is over 1 million visitors a year.

  • SEO research showed open territory in white space to attract potential partners with usage of a certain words.

Grpahic of flow

Discover:

Problem:

Currently, the IBM Partner ecosystem is a disjointed digital experience. Its main messaging and Partner program run through a global channel known as PartnerWorld. We were approached by stakeholders to simplify the experience.

 

My Role:

I worked with two other UX Designers. I was the UX design lead, drove usability testing, visual design, and was the liaison between design and development. In addition, I collaborated and contributed to my associates in every phase of the project.

Confusion:

  • IBM PartnerWorld is a disjointed experience

  • Potential partners encounter cognitive overload when visiting PartnerWorld and abandon the experience.

Solution:

The goal was to simplify the experience and messaging of the IBM Partner ecosystem. We believed this could be attained through a single concise entry point that could route the potential partner to the known most important partner information. Through past research and interviews, the potential partner expressed a desire to have a clear high-level understanding of IBM’s benefits, incentives, and opportunities available to an IBM Partner.

This can be validated when we can notice an upward trend of traffic and engagement to the entry point pages.

Graphic of a Mural Brainstorm session

Cross-functional collaboration:

It would not be an easy task as there would be a large number of business units with ownership. A cross-functional collaboration of executive IBM Business Unit leaders, content specialists, GA analysts, performance marketers, SEO specialists, UX designers, and developers would workshop and decide on a precise roadmap.

Research & Analysis:

We conducted a competitive analysis of several partner experiences. Specifically, I broke down the features and experiences of Atlassian’s Partner portal and Microsoft’s Partner network. Our main takeaway from the competitive analysis was that IBM’s competitor partner programs had a succinct portal page with an emphasis on a match between system and real-world language.

Several workshops were conducted with IBM Business units and content specialists. These were held to give everyone a sense of ownership and gain support.

  • Implement a simplified entry portal page or front door to existing informational IBM PartnerWorld pages.

Define:

Front door flow
 
 
 

User Goals:

Based on previous research and discoveries. Potential partners wanted:

  • Simplicity and a clarity of where to find relevant information

  • High level information with the option to discover more detailed

Design and Develop:

Design Studio & Mockups:

The initial phase of the design process was to mockup several designs and pick the best or most practical ideas. As mentioned above, I worked with two other UX designers to help, but I had the best grasp on a relatively new Carbon for .com design system. I delivered several mockups and conducted design reviews before presenting them to leadership.

Deliver:

Click below to view the Front Door

 

Findings:

Based on our findings, we could have leadership sign-off on the designs, and we began another sprint with development. We encountered a slight hurdle because we had decided to adopt the experience using Web components. For IBM.com, this was considered an adopter program that would set up an easy transition to Adobe Experience Manager. Carefully working in collaboration with a great developer, we launched the experience.

  • The IBM "Front door" experience was launched and had immediate success. The traffic and analysis validated an organic SEO experience.

Iterations & Next steps

A continuation and comeback for the Front door experience:

After organizational shifts and ownership changes, we assembled another cross-functional team to evaluate and iterate on the experience. After quantitative and qualitative analysis, we developed a hypothesis.

  • We could increase engagement if we adjust the content, add an updated value proposition, and make a few UI adjustments.

  • We made fast, simple changes that had a high probability of growing IBM Partners. Currently, the engagement has increased over 30% based on this iteration. It is a testament to cross-functional teamwork.

Next steps:

  • Continue the iterative process 

  • Align through discovery with IBM's universal Partner experience

  • Integrate and continue the experience across the public-facing side of IBM's PartnerWorld

  • Migrate to Adobe Experience Manager. It will bring personalization, dynamic content, and a simplified globalization process. 


AEM next steps -