Phil Gilbert (design executive): Difference between revisions
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To introduce design thinking to 400,000 IBMers, Gilbert identified three broad aspects of the company that needed to change: its People, its Practices, and its Places.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stamps.umich.edu/events/phil-gilbert-ibm |
To introduce design thinking to 400,000 IBMers, Gilbert identified three broad aspects of the company that needed to change: its People, its Practices, and its Places.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stamps.umich.edu/events/phil-gilbert-ibm |
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|title=At the Crossroads of Chaos and Calamity |website=Stamps School of Art & Design |publisher=University of Michigan |date=October 9, 2014 |access-date=October 19, 2023}}</ref> To facilitate this, Gilbert organized the Design Program Office (DPO) in 2013 and hired IBM’s first cohort of 60 designers.<ref name="Datar">{{cite news |last=Datar |first=Srikant |date=April 20, 2021 |title=IBM: Design Thinking |url=https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/121007-PDF-ENG |work=Harvard Business Review |access-date=August 10, 2023}}</ref> IBM set up a design facility in Gilbert’s home of Austin, where among other things they started holding design “boot camps” for new hires and multidisciplinary product teams |
|title=At the Crossroads of Chaos and Calamity |website=Stamps School of Art & Design |publisher=University of Michigan |date=October 9, 2014 |access-date=October 19, 2023}}</ref> To facilitate this, Gilbert organized the Design Program Office (DPO) in 2013 and hired IBM’s first cohort of 60 designers.<ref name="Datar">{{cite news |last=Datar |first=Srikant |date=April 20, 2021 |title=IBM: Design Thinking |url=https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/121007-PDF-ENG |work=Harvard Business Review |access-date=August 10, 2023}}</ref> IBM set up a design facility in Gilbert’s home of Austin, where among other things they started holding design “boot camps” for new hires and multidisciplinary product teams.<ref name="O'Keefe" /> |
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The DPO utilized the [[Stanford]] five-step rubric empathize, design, ideate, prototype, and test. Engineers initially objected to this linear progression, so adapted a repeated three-phase process of observe, reflect, and make called ''The Loop''.<ref name="Datar" /> This would become the subject of a documentary film of the same name in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/invision-ibm-the-loop/ |title=THE LOOP, a short documentary about design thinking at IBM |website=YouTube |publisher=Inside Design |date=November 14, 2017 |access-date=August 10, 2023}}</ref> |
The DPO utilized the [[Stanford]] five-step rubric empathize, design, ideate, prototype, and test. Engineers initially objected to this linear progression, so adapted a repeated three-phase process of observe, reflect, and make called ''The Loop''.<ref name="Datar" /> This would become the subject of a documentary film of the same name in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/invision-ibm-the-loop/ |title=THE LOOP, a short documentary about design thinking at IBM |website=YouTube |publisher=Inside Design |date=November 14, 2017 |access-date=August 10, 2023}}< /ref>By 2020, the impact of IBM’s new approach was validated as its Net Promoter Score had increased by 20 points.<ref name="Rometty" /> |
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By the time of his retirement in 2022, the design group had expanded to 5,000, integrated into every aspect of the company’s business across 175 countries, playing a major role in performance evaluation, HR, finance organization, data, and other services.<ref name="Rometty">{{cite book |last=Rometty |first=Ginni |date=March 7, 2023 |title=Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World |publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |page=139 |isbn=978-1647823221}}</ref> To improve the user experience, Gilbert integrated designers into |
By the time of his retirement in 2022, the design group had expanded to 5,000, integrated into every aspect of the company’s business across 175 countries, playing a major role in performance evaluation, HR, finance organization, data, and other services.<ref name="Rometty">{{cite book |last=Rometty |first=Ginni |date=March 7, 2023 |title=Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World |publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |page=139 |isbn=978-1647823221}}</ref> To improve the user experience, Gilbert integrated designers into “all of the really gorpy details of integrating a product.”<ref name="McElroy" /> |
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By 2020, the impact of IBM’s new approach was validated as its Net Promoter Score had increased by 20 points.<ref name="Rometty" /> |
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==Awards and honors== |
==Awards and honors== |
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Revision as of 18:16, 9 November 2023
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Phil Gafford Gilbert | |
|---|---|
| File:Phil Gilbert (design executive).png | |
| Born | September 8, 1956 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Oklahoma (BS) |
| Occupation(s) | Investor, lecturer |
| Spouse | Lisa (2001–present) |
| Children | 4 |
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Phil Gafford Gilbert Sr. is an American executive and design leader specializing in corporate culture. He spent 30 years as a start-up entrepreneur before IBM appointed him as their General Manager of Design in 2012 to spearhead a broad transformation of the company.
At IBM Gilbert established the principle of design thinking into IBM at an unprecedented scale, and led the re-skilling of its global workforce into more human-centered. Gilbert’s contributions have been widely attributed for IBM’s ability to survive the rise of 21st Century tech giants like Amazon and Google, and were the subject of the documentary film The Loop.
Gilbert retired in 2021 but remains active as an investor, consultant, lecturer, and member of various boards of directors.[1]
Early life, family, and education
Gilbert was born and raised in Oklahoma City. As a young man, he worked as a newspaper carrier for The Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma City Times, attended John Marshall High School, and graduated as a Pe-et (top ten) senior from the University of Oklahoma in 1978. He currently lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Lisa. They have four children, and six grandchildren.[2]
Career
Following graduation, Gilbert started Gilbert Technologies Group, which he ran for 11 years as CEO.[3][failed verification] Afterward, he helped manage a variety of tech start-ups and other companies, including Lombardi Software in Austin, Texas, where he was Chief Technology Officer and later president.[4] In 2010, Lombardi was acquired by IBM,[4] which kept him on board in a leadership capacity under the application of design thinking.[5]
When Virginia M. Rometty became chief executive in January 2012, she told her executive team that she wanted “to rethink and reimagine” the experience of IBM’s customers. She asked Gilbert “what would it take to get our massive company to move more quickly and invent things in new ways? And fast?”[6] Gilbert opted to put “Design thinking at the center” of the cultural transformation of the company.[4]
Design Thinking
According to Gilbert, design thinking reverses traditional technology product development to focus more on user experience.[4] Although not trained as a designer, Gilbert “got religion” on how it could help scale businesses in the 1980s, and “Ever since then I’ve been pursuing this notion that the magic in any product or service is how it's experienced by the end user,” he said.[7]
As technology advanced, this practice become increasingly more important. Gilbert told the Harvard Business Review in 2021 that software developers are often in the habit of addressing pain points of IT departments rather than the needs of the end user. “Sometimes we developed new features simply because they represented a technical advancement, not because they solved the users’ business problems.”[8]
To introduce design thinking to 400,000 IBMers, Gilbert identified three broad aspects of the company that needed to change: its People, its Practices, and its Places.[9] To facilitate this, Gilbert organized the Design Program Office (DPO) in 2013 and hired IBM’s first cohort of 60 designers.[8] IBM set up a design facility in Gilbert’s home of Austin, where among other things they started holding design “boot camps” for new hires and multidisciplinary product teams.[7]
The DPO utilized the Stanford five-step rubric empathize, design, ideate, prototype, and test. Engineers initially objected to this linear progression, so adapted a repeated three-phase process of observe, reflect, and make called The Loop.[8] This would become the subject of a documentary film of the same name in 2017.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). To improve the user experience, Gilbert integrated designers into “all of the really gorpy details of integrating a product.”[5]
Awards and honors
At IBM, Gilbert served as co-chair of the global Women’s Executive Council, and established the company’s Racial Equity in Design team. He has lectured at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, on leadership and design.[10]
In 2018, Gilbert was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame for his role in establishing a modern standard for the role of the arts in business.[1] In 2019, Gov. Kevin Stitt named him an Oklahoma Creativity Ambassador for his achievements in the world of creative thinking and innovation.[2]
References
- ^ a b "NYFA Hall of Fame Honoree Phil Gilbert". nyfa.org. New York Foundation for the Arts. March 12, 2018. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
- ^ a b "Phil Gilbert, GM of Design - IBM" (Press Release). creativeoklahoma.org. Creative Oklahoma. April 6, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
- ^ "At the Crossroads of Chaos and Calamity". Stamps School of Art & Design. University of Michigan. October 9, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Lohr, Steve (November 14, 2015). "IBM's Design-Centered Strategy to Set Free the Squares". The New York Times. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
- ^ a b McElroy, Nicole (September 7, 2021). "The innovative engine of IBM's design philosophy". Fortune. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
- ^ Rometty, Ginni (March 7, 2023). Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World. Harvard Business Review Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-1647823221.
- ^ a b O’Keefe, Brian (July 15, 2022). "How IBM is Training Its Workforce to Think Like Designers". Yahoo! News. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c Datar, Srikant (April 20, 2021). "IBM: Design Thinking". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
- ^ "At the Crossroads of Chaos and Calamity". Stamps School of Art & Design. University of Michigan. October 9, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2023.
- ^ ""The Art of War"- IBM's Phil Gilbert on design and security contexts". YouTube. Joint Special Operations University. December 20, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2023.