The computing power that runs the world is hidden away in data centers that few people get to see. While many data centers are lights-out operations most of the time, people are still needed to update them, keep them running, and prevent and resolve outages. Those people need to know where their critical assets are in the labyrinth that is their global data center network. They need to know when areas get too hot, or get so cold and humid that condensation becomes a worry.
In addition to data centers, large enterprises will also have smaller compute sites scattered across the nation or the world. Those sites are often physically unmanned with poor visibility into the health of critical systems. Operators need to know when potential issues arise and how to prioritize them.
I helped solve both of those problems by operating as a product designer and product manager.
At the start of a new initiative, I want to understand how it’s meant to help the business, who the buyer is and what their behavior is like, and whether we can feasibly produce a solution which is both valuable and usable.
I also want to understand the context of the challenge as best I can. I put together extensive design research presentations with photos and video inside of real, working data centers. These included profiles of specific data center operators, personas/archetypes extracted from them, and detailed notes on pain points that customers face.
Once the context and specific challenges are understood, it’s time to start rapidly sketching and prototyping solutions. I like to use sketches to validate ideas quickly, without a lot of investment in the wrong direction.
Once I’ve put ideas in front of customers and gotten enough feedback to be confident in a direction, I produce specs for engineers to build the real thing. While sketches can convey functionality, if new elements are used for which I don’t already have a visual design specification, it’s important to provide fully realized mockups. This frequently involves extensive annotation, a set of mockups of design prototype, and/or finished HTML/CSS.
In many cases the sketch is sufficient because the visual design of reusable elements has already been defined as part of a component library or as part of the product design guidelines. Either way, having as much common material in one place as possible saves a lot of time.
Once the appropriate specifications are produced, I work extensively with software engineers. I write stories in JIRA, collaborate to find clever solutions to performance problems on Slack, attend daily standups, and even contribute CSS here and there. Whatever I can do to ensure that the finished product is as good as our intentions.
Getting a product off the ground is bigger than any one specialization. As needed, I’ll produce user guides, hardware UX input, marketing materials, you name it.
