Acquired product integration

IBM sought to strengthen its threat management portfolio by integrating the recently acquired attack surface management (ASM) solution, Randori Recon, into the threat management platform, QRadar Suite. I was tasked with using design to help accelerate this integration.

My role

Project lead. Identified integration opportunities. Created educational materials to align stakeholders. Designed and facilitated a 3-day intensive workshop.

Team

Design leadership, myself, my teammate (UX designer), Randori and QRadar Suite PM and dev teams.

Timeline

7 weeks

Discovery & research

I worked closely with Randori and QRadar product managers to understand both products, their similarities, and their differences.

Randori Recon

Proactively identifies and reduces unknown, exploitable vulnerabilities in an organization’s security.

QRadar Suite

Relies on pre-configured alerts and information about known vulnerabilities to detect and remediate threats.

The differences

Randori does not have remediation capabilities. QRadar Suite does not have the ability to identify unknown vulnerabilities.

I used illustrated analogies as one method to explain how each product works to non-technical stakeholders.

Strategy

My challenge was clear. What could I do to help speed up the integration process and set the product teams up for success?

Educate key stakeholders about both products and the problem space to ensure both technical and non-technical team members are prepared and aligned for their upcoming contributions to the project.

Identify integration opportunities to help the product teams understand how the two products might work together.

Facilitate a design-thinking MVP workshop to allow the product teams to create a shared vision for the integration, define their MVP, make decisions quickly, and create a plan of action

I created educational materials to level set and create alignment.

I developed a strategic proposal for 4 integration paths, and scoped them based on business value and required dev effort, and presented them to stakeholders. I used mid-fidelity mockups to help them visualize each proposed path.

I planned (in collaboration with my design leadership) and facilitated a 3-day intensive MVP workshop for 24 participants from both product teams.

Participants rapidly ideated using storyboarding, defined their MVP, identified KPIs, and created a cross-functional delivery plan. This plan defined key milestones, team assignments, action items, and resources.

Results

The acquisition and integration process is long and complicated but, in just 5 months from the start of our efforts, the product teams were able to begin building the MVP.

Stakeholder alignment made the planning phase for the integration go quickly and smoothly.

My data-driven decision framework for integration allowed the product teams to immediately begin testing the proposed paths for product value and market fit.