Cognitive Build was an IBM-wide project intended to get as many IBMers as possible to learn about Cognitive Computing and modern ways of working, such as Agile development process and Design Thinking. My task was to lead the effort to make this learning environment about building, not just learning -- which meant tying together a set of tools for IBMers to use. In the end, 270,000 IBMers used the platform.

Challenges

• Working with a consulting firm, an outside vendor, and several internal teams, to string together an end-to-end chain of tools.
• Coming up with a workable process for a team that had previously only done training, no building
• Developing the plan on a tight deadline -- we started planning in December, and had to launch by mid-February. The entire campaign was finished by May.
• Developing a process that would work for IBMers who were not familiar with the tools, Agile process, Design Thinking, or Cognitive Computing.

What I did

My initial task involved working out various options for the tools part of the experience that would make up Cognitive Build. According to the training that was being developed, and the directive given by our executives, the intention was:

• To encourage people to find IBMers to work with, forming teams around an idea (each team was required to have a minimum of 3 people)
• To incorporate Design Thinking and Agile Practice into the process.
• To have "Cognitive Coaches" who would vet the ideas, before they could move forward.
• To use our internal crowdfunding platform, ifuundIT, to allow all IBMers to invest in ideas.
• To use Bluemix for development of any funded prototypes.
• To have a single "concierge" experience that led people through the entire process.

Once we decided on tools, I helped the team running the campaign understand how those tools might fit together, along with working out detailed schedules that would allow for data flow between tools.

I worked with the consulting firm that was developing the Concierge, to make sure that they were in contact with the correct IBMers to finalize data formats, and that the process they were building would match the experience we wanted IBMers to have. Next, I worked with Mural, an external company, to clarify what we needed in terms of APIs, so that our process could tie together seamlessly from the user's experience. In addition, I worked with Mural and Agile experts to create Agile and Design Thinking templates for the Mural team rooms that each team would get access to.

In addition to tools work, I ran the support forum to answer questions from IBMers who participated, tested each platform to make sure that it worked correctly, flagged issues when they occurred, trained Cognitive Coaches on the process, and provisioned building tools (Slack, Bluemix, and Github Enterprise) for teams that were funded, so that they could build working prototypes.

The campaign ended with an event in Austin TX, where 100 participants presented their prototypes to IBM executives, with the top prototypes getting funding for being developed into projects. For information on Cognitive Build, see this YouTube video.