IBM UX Research
Problem
How might we ensure Black Designers have an inclusive working environment and the resources they need to build fulfilling connections and genuine community so that they are willing to stay and build careers at IBM?
Scope
UX research project conducted in the 6 week Patterns Program hosted by IBM.
Role
Lead Visual Designer
UX Researcher
Background
Setting the Stage
There were two important statistics that helped frame our project:
3% of designers are Black (2019 AIGA design census).
Nearly 90% of employees decide whether to stay or go within that first 6 months (Society for Human Resource Management).
At IBM, Black Designers make up about 5% of the design population and because of this, newly hired Black Designers may feel a sense of isolation and tokenism in the work place. Knowing this, we ask the general question: If these Black Designers have specific pain points that aren’t being addressed within their first year of joining IBM, does this lead to them leaving the company? Can a better experience during the critical first 6 months build the foundation for a stronger and longer relationship between an individual and the company?
Research
Research Question
How might we ensure Black Designers have an inclusive working environment and the resources they need to build fulfilling connections and genuine community so that they are willing to stay and build careers at IBM?
Research Key Findings
We conducted user interviews. There were 10 people in total consisting of Black Designers and Design Managers.
Through interviewing Design Managers, we discovered that there were a variety of ways the onboarding was being defined. Some used task completion to signify when their new hire was fully onboarded where as others used introductions to the general IBM community as onboarding. But, the true key finding was that some managers knew that Black Designers may have unique pain points in their onboarding experience (like imposter syndrome, tokenism, micro-aggressions) but they didn’t prioritize addressing theses issues.
Personas
Main Persona
Through our user research we created a handful of personas. Focusing on the emotional state of the Black Designer before they experience the process of onboarding was crucial to understand how onboarding emotional impacts the Designer.
Justice | Early Career Hire
Justice is a new hire Black Designer working at IBM. She is now starting the onboarding process.
Her goal is to complete onboarding, build domain knowledge, and find a sense of community.
She expects the onboarding process to equip her to tackle daily tasks. Overall, sh she is excited to meet their co-worker and the larger IBM community.
Support System
The research highlighted the important people that play a current role in the onboarding process. Victory, the Design Manager is very involved in the process of onboarding Justice on to the team.
The research also showed the areas of onboarding where there was little to no support. Champ, Journey, and Guru will help fill these gaps later in the To-Be scenario.
As-Is Scenario
First Day
Justice: Feels stressed and overloaded with information, notices that there were no culturally specific resources given or mentions and overall just feels overwhelmed due to meeting fatigue and adjusting to the new environment. In other words, they feel like they’ve “been swimming trying to find shore.”
Victory: Excited for Justice to onboard and is ready to introduce her to the rest of the team. Knows of that onboarding looks different across orgs, but is confident in their process and the amount of time it will take Justice to conclude onboarding. In general, he hopes to create an inclusive culture where all team members can bring their full selves to work.
First Few Months
Justice: Feels like the token Black person on her team because she is the only Black Designer on her team and she experienced micro-aggressions from community members. She explained that, “sometimes people think that they could talk to you any kind of way.” Because of this, she conducted self-driven searches to find community and resources which took some time. She is also aware of mentorship opportunities, but priority was not given due to information overload.
Victory: Is aware of the culturally specific support that Justice might need but is unaware of the resources to give them. As a default, he relies on buddies to build connections but may not connect the right people together. Overall, he doesn’t make the consistent effort to connect Justice with other BIPOC Designers - the real connections that she has been longing for.
First Year
Justice: While she feels welcomed, supported, somewhat connected, she did not feel well prepared. Socially, she fells left behind and is still struggling to onboard onto her team and the IBM community. Because of this, she decides to leave IBM and look for other job opportunities.
Victory: Because Justice completes all of her onboarding tasks, Victory believes her onboarding is complete and is shocked when Justice says she is looking for opportunities outside of IBM. Victory wants to retain great talent and has different retention methods such as developing safe spaces within his team and offering cash/salary promotions, but they do not align with Justice’s needs in order to keep her at the company.
The Never Ending Cycle
The Issue of Attrition
With the lack of support from Victory and their team, Justice feels disconnected from the community and is unwilling to stay. This cycle continues as more and more Black Designers leave.
