![[backup-recovery.png]] IBM Cloud Backup & Recovery is a fully managed backup service that simplifies enterprise data protection for VPC, VMware, and Kubernetes workloads across five global regions. Built for security-conscious organizations like financial institutions, healthcare, and airliners, the product eliminates infrastructure management overhead while meeting stringent compliance requirements. `Platform: Web` `Role: Lead Designer` `Timeframe: Jan 2024 - Dec 2025` `GA Date: Q4-2025` --- *Disclaimer: This is a large, net-new (Greenfield) product offering on IBM Cloud, so I will only be highlighting my contributions which had the biggest impact* # Summary of achievements 1. I led the end-to-end UX for IBM Cloud Backup & Recovery from vision to GA across 5 regions. 2. I drove a product architecture change through user advocacy, simplifying enterprise backup for thousands of customers which **eliminated customer infrastructure management and reduced onboarding complexity by 50%**. 3. I oversaw the design and development of **70+ UI pages and subpages**, as well as designed and implemented usability improvements across **17 UI pages.** ![[Global dashboard.png]] # The challenge Following the vision work that established the north star for IBM Cloud Backup & Recovery (see [[Project Databunker]]), I transitioned into leading the UX execution for the product's general availability launch. I was tasked with delivering a managed backup service across 5 regions while navigating complex stakeholder dynamics between IBM and our vendor partner. Embedded in the architecture was a contradiction: the initial design required customers to manage a SaaS Connector — additional infrastructure they had to provision and maintain — for a service marketed as being fully managed for them. Whether that assumption could be challenged, and whether design could be the catalyst to change it, became a defining question of this project. # My impact and role In the year leading up to our public release, I: - Crafted and moderated usability tests of our experience with sponsor users. - Led a team of designers and developers with designing and implementing modifications to improve usability and compliance. - Presented at 2 in-person workshops: a client workshop as a representative of Design and an alignment workshop with our vendor partner. - Onboarded a UX Designer through a structured handoff document and hands-on mentorship, gradually expanding her ownership from a single feature to leading the full product experience. ## 1. Led UX readiness for general availability - Oversaw design and development of 70+ UI pages and subpages - Designed and implemented usability improvements across 17 UI pages - Integrated critical documentation entry points throughout the experience - Managed 80+ individual design enhancements to improve task success and user satisfaction ![[Figma library.png]] **Key outcome:** Provisioning flows achieved a UMUX average score of 5.5/7. Onboarding flows for VPC, VMware, and IKS/ROKS workloads were simplified by reducing ~20% of steps that added unnecessary redundancy. ## 2. Conducted sponsor-user research that surfaced an architecture problem I facilitated 9 user engagements including an in-person workshop in Paris and 3 moderated sponsor user tests. I designed and executed hi-fi clickable prototypes for the entire Backup & Recovery digital experience to demo undeveloped experiences and gather real-time feedback. ###### **The Paris workshop was the turning point.** With 9 members of the client's backup operations, security, and technical teams in the room alongside 6 IBM stakeholders, I led a live prototype walkthrough of the new single-pane-of-glass experience. The goal was to validate the upcoming UI. What surfaced was more consequential. When the SaaS Connector came up, the room shifted. The client team were adamant that the model itself was wrong: > _"We do not want to manage another piece of infrastructure for a managed service."_ — Backup Team, Paris Workshop Notably, the IBM STSM present in the session later reflected: > _"This is exactly what we wanted out of the Figma demo. IBM stakeholders were able to capture requirements and priorities of [the clients] through Design's demo of the experience much earlier in the product development process."_ — Amit, IBM STSM The prototype and UI visuals gave the enterprise users something concrete to react to. It unlocked specific, candid feedback that would never have surfaced in a requirements meeting. Design in the room changed what IBM heard. ![[Workshop.png]] ###### **This did not stop with one client's comments.** Across 3 separate sessions with a Sponsor User, the same friction emerged: the SaaS Connector was adding unnecessary complexity and acting as a hard blocker for security-conscious organizations. Two enterprise clients in different industries shared the same verdict. > "Your customer wants as few button clicks as possible... automation simplifies so that all customers adopt best business practices [by default]. If you give the customer too much leeway, then their mileage may vary." – Sponsor user ![[Research sessions.png]] **Research synthesis:** I uncovered 11 themes across 43 key insights, directly influencing: - 3 existing roadmap epics (refined based on user feedback) - 3 new AHA items committed to the roadmap (including Connected Component and Gateway Agent) ## 3. Advocate for change: Aligning the team through customer feedback I needed to build a shared understanding across our two organizations grounded in client feedback. Armed with research evidence gathered first-hand, I packaged the findings into a stakeholder narrative designed to make the problems with the as-is architecture impossible to ignore. I presented across multiple playbacks to **233 IBM and Cohesity stakeholders**: consisting of product teams, engineering, and senior leadership. Every session was anchored in the same user evidence: quotes, documented blockers, and prototype-backed walkthroughs that showed the gap between our initial intent and customer needs. ![[catalyst for change.png]] ###### Major outcome: By centering the case on documented user evidence, I secured buy-in from both IBM and our vendor's leadership to commit to a fundamental architecture change for our product: **Before (SaaS Connector):** - Customers had to provision and manage additional compute resources outside of their own workloads - Requiring management from the customer undermined the "managed service" value proposition - Security constraints blocked adoption: The client explicitly stated they would not use the service in its current form without drawbacks - Architecture was unfamiliar to customers and misaligned with other competitive offerings (AWS and Azure both use agent-based models) ![[asis setup ux.png]] ![[asis setup ux screen.png]] **After (Gateway Agent):** - The backup agent is installed directly on customer workloads. It is a familiar, infrastructure-free architecture - The initial setup process simplified by 50% (SaaS connector provisioning steps removed entirely) - Aligned closer with industry-standard backup patterns, which is much more familiar to enterprise customers ![[Pasted image 20260222112008.png]] ![[Pasted image 20260222112053.png]] ## The outcome IBM Cloud Backup & Recovery launched in Q4 2025 across 5 multi-zone regions. ![[Pasted image 20260222112329.png]] ![[Pasted image 20260222112357.png]] ![[Pasted image 20260222112411.png]] Two new features tied to the Gateway Agent improvement were committed to the product roadmap: 1. **The Gateway Agent**: the introduction of an agent-based data mover eliminating customer infrastructure management (delivery targeted 1H 2026) 2. **Connected Component**: a streamlined onboarding experience which leverages the Gateway Agent and reduces setup time by 50% (UMUX-Lite score: 70.84) ## Measurable UX Impacts - **50% reduction** in onboarding setup time through Connected Component design - **~20% reduction** in onboarding steps for VPC, VMware, and IKS/ROKS workloads with the new Gateway Agent. - **UMUX provisioning score:** 5.5/7 (task success and satisfaction) - **2 features** added to the roadmap, driven directly by Design and supported by sponsor-user research - **233 IBM + vendor stakeholders** reached with user feedback playback sessions, shifting design's perception from downstream executor to strategic driver ## Business Context The product is positioned to serve enterprise customers with an average deal size of $37,803 ARR (based on 25TB consumption growing at 5% monthly). Projected first-year revenue potential: $3.7M with 100 customer conversions. 3-year total contract value (5% YoY growth): $11.65M. --- ## Reflection To me, this project reinforced the power of user advocacy as a design tool. The most impactful work was using real, enterprise user feedback to challenge a foundational architectural assumption and secure organizational buy-in for a better solution. Our client told us directly that the product wouldn't work for them. Another client confirmed the pattern across multiple sessions. The question then became how could Design share these insights and recommendations to change direction before launch. By positioning design as a bridge between user needs and technical feasibility — and by presenting the same user evidence repeatedly, across two organizations, until it created shared urgency — I helped shift the product direction before GA, **preventing costly rework and removing the adoption barrier for exactly the high-value enterprise clients the product was built to serve.** The cross-organizational complexity (IBM + vendor) also reinforced a durable lesson: when influencing without authority, evidence is leverage. Presenting the user feedback, in the right room, at the right moment, is what ultimately moved the needle. --- #### Any Questions? Thanks for making it all the way through this project! If you have any questions please **feel free to reach out to me at** [email protected] Get back to my homepage: [[Home]] Or view my other professional project: [[Project Databunker]]