Tracking Usage with IBM Software Central

As a lead UX Designer on Red Hat Marketplace, I owned any experiences related to account management. As part of that work, we needed to provide a experience so that our customers could track the usage of the software that they purchased. The output of that work eventually led to what is now known as IBM Software Central. Software Central is a single home for IBM customers to track usage of all their deployed software.

Working alongside senior product management and technical leadership, I needed to define a vision for usage metering of products from the Red Hat Marketplace and IBM wide. That vision would be used to gather executive support and buy-in leading to the eventual development of IBM Software Central.

My early dashboards ideas for usage tracking

Usage dashboard A

Usage dashboard B

Usage dashboard C

Product usage page

My Role

Develop vision for gathering critical executive support to build a software usage metering experience for all IBM customers
Create conceptual designs through to delivery of final designs to visual design and development teams
Lead cross-team design requirements gathering with IBM software and sales teams to understand needs
Coordinate with business development, senior leadership, and marketing to ensure proper branding and positioning of Software Central
Build consensus across core team and executive leadership through communicating design direction and intent

Delivered example mid-fi design updates

Products reporting usage

Bundled product usage

Switching usage metrics

Single product usage

Key Challenges Overcome

Building a vision

Built strategic vision playbacks for sharing to the core team and larger organization
Presented at design playbacks key user flows and stories for tracking software usage
Received executive support to move forward with project proposal to build IBM Software Central

Understanding Software USage

Completed wide ranging research to understand software entitlements and usage metering concepts
Balanced branding considerations related to IBM customer expectations vs building Software Central as part of the Red Hat Marketplace platform
Prioritized customer usage metering needs for MVP delivery vs future releases

Current IBM Software Central designs

Software Central home

Single Product Usage

Bundled Product Usage

Child Product Usage

IBM Software Central

The breadth of work and responsibility to create, pitch, and design IBM Software Central was one of most proud successes in my career. My work on this project was key to my promotion to senior UX designer and receiving my first Outstanding Technical Achievement award at IBM.

Today, the platform is now a home for IBM customers to track and manage their software usage. The usage reports and visualizations allow for customers to accurately understand their software consumption to reduce overages and ensure compliance. The Software Central platform is also now home to a number of initiatives and programs for IBM customers all centered on accurate usage reporting. Providing accurate and clear entitlement and usage data is critical to customer success.