📋 Overview
IBM partners build solutions using IBM technologies and sell them to customers through the ecosystem. However, the process to build, register, and co-sell these solutions with IBM was fragmented across multiple tools and manual workflows.
This project redesigned the Build experience within IBM Partner Plus, simplifying the partner journey and enabling better collaboration between partners and IBM sellers.
- Role: UX Designer, Service Designer and Researcher
- Focus: Partner ecosystem, opportunity management, go-to-market workflows
- Platform Deal Registration & System Unification
- Team: 2 squads (Mexico and NY)
🚩 The Problem
The Build motion relied on disconnected systems and manual processes.
Key challenges:
- Partners and sellers tracked opportunities in different platforms
- Co-sell registrations were handled via email
- Marketplace validation took up to two weeks
- Collaboration relied on spreadsheets, PPTs, and manual updates
Impact: Limited visibility into ecosystem opportunities, slow deal progression, and high operational overhead.
👩💻 My Role
As the Product Designer, I worked with product managers, architects, and engineering squads to redesign the experience.
Contributions:
- Facilitated service design workshops with stakeholders and SMEs
- Designed for partner and seller workflows
- Simplified opportunity and onboarding journeys
- Supported engineering teams through MVP delivery
🔍 Research & Insights
To start, we ran a service blueprinting workshop with stakeholders and users. This helped us align on goals, surface key pain points, and build a shared understanding of the end-to-end experience.
Key insights:
- Two main user types: IBM partners and business partners
- High friction points in opportunity registration and validation
- Dependencies on manual processes slowed the partner journey
Wireframes were created to validate feasibility and align with stakeholders before moving to high-fidelity designs.
🎯 Solution & Key Decisions
Redesigned the Build experience into a single-page 7-step workflow:
Centralized opportunity management
Moved all opportunities into IBM Sales Cloud, creating a shared platform for partners and IBM sellers to track deals, create opportunities, and collaborate.
Digital co-sell registration
Automated co-sell protection process, allowing partners to disclose customer information safely and activate collaboration without technical intermediaries.
Simplified Workflows
Reduced dependency on spreadsheets, emails, and legacy tools, enabling faster progression through the partner journey.
🚩 Constraints & Trade-offs: Limited time and coordination across two squads required prioritizing high-impact changes first.
🧪 Testing & Iteration
- Validated high-fidelity designs with engineering and stakeholders
- Conducted iterative testing of the 7-step workflow
- Refined steps based on usability and stakeholder feedback
🎯 Outcome: A streamlined, centralized, and automated system that reduced friction and improved collaboration.
📈 Impact
Operational improvements
2 weeks → 4 hours
per quarter through self-service features
Ecosystem growth
5× increase
for 2024
Opportunity scale
300 → 3000
💡 Key Takeaway
Designing for a partner ecosystem required simplifying complex workflows across multiple stakeholders. By centralizing opportunity management and automating manual processes, we reduced friction for partners and enabled faster collaboration with IBM sellers.