Most Recently
I love when I get the opportunity to talk or write about integrating design into Agile, how to maximize the impact of design, the importance of design in IT, design and product strategy, and most effectively prioritizing design talent.
A lot of my blabbering is internal, but here are some recent, externally-accessible examples.
The IBM CIO portfolio is comprised of thousands of tools and services, so it’s extremely important that we allocate our scarce talent to the projects that have the greatest impact. We refined our staffing processes and developed a new metric, The Design Staffing Score, that allows us to measure the degree to which our staffing decisions align with project priority. I describe our new approach, how we measure progress, and the benefits we’ve realized.
The Many Meanings of Design Led
An article in which Jon Temple and I describe four common models of design leadership and our recommendations to blending the best of each into an optimal approach. Illustrations by Michelle Lee.
Design thinking is our approach to partnering with users to optimize the experience and Agile is our method of efficient, iterative delivery. I describe how we seamlessly integrate the two, allowing design, product, & engineering to seamlessly collaborate and deliver to user needs.
Client Briefings
Since 2017, with the IBM CIO, I have regularly met and shared knowledge and practices with companies and organizations such as Google, NASA-JPL, Ebay, Red Storm, Exxon-Mobil, and Acoustic.
Prior to joining the IBM CIO (2014 – 2016) I regularly presented product visions, roadmaps, and designs to over 50 current and prospective IBM clients, including Apple, Chanel, Colgate, PepsiCo, Dutch Tax, and many more.
University Engagements
Over the last three years, I’ve commonly given guest lectures to undergraduate and graduate design classes on topics such as design thinking, integrating design and Agile, and life s a design professional at IBM at Universities such as the University of Miami, the University of North Florida, and the University of Connecticut.
Journals and Online Articles
Commarford, P.M. (2020). The Many Meanings of Design-Led. IBM Design Medium.
Commarford, P. M., Lewis, J. R., Smither, J., & Gentzler, M.D. (2008). A comparison of broad versus deep auditory menu structures. Human Factors, 50, 77–89.
Lewis, J. R., Commarford, P. M., Kennedy, P. J., and Sadowski, W. J. (2008). Handheld digital devices. In C. Melody Carswell (Ed.), Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Vol. 4 (pp. 105-148). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Commarford, P. M. (2004). An investigation of text throughput speeds associated with Pocket PC input method editors. International Journal of Human-Computer International, 17(3).
Commarford, P. M. & Lewis, J. R. (2004). Models of throughput rates for dictation and voice spelling for handheld computers. International Journal of Speech Technology, 7(1), 69 – 79.
Lewis, J. R. & Commarford, P. M. (2003). Developing a voice-spelling alphabet for PDAs. IBM Systems Journal: Ease of Use, 42(4), 624-638.
Conferences
Commarford, P.M. (2020). Effectively Embedding User Researchers and Designers on Agile Teams. Digital Workplace Experience Conference.
Commarford, P.M. (2020). Design Staffing for Impact. DesignOps Summit.
Benitez, L., Brooks, D., Commarford, P.M., Puckett, J. (2015). What’s New and What’s Coming in Connections. IBM Leadership Alliance, Boston, MA.
Commarford, P.M. (2015). What’s New and What’s Coming in Connections files. Customer Council Session at IBM Leadership Alliance, Boston, MA.
Lewis, J.R., Commarford, P.M, & Kotan, C. (2006, October). Web-Based Comparison of Two Styles of Auditory Presentation: All TTS Versus Rapidly Mixed TTS and Recordings. HFES 50th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Commarford, P. M., & Lewis, J. R. (2005). Optimizing the pause length before presentation of global navigation commands. In Proceedings of HCI International 2005: Volume 2 – The Management of Information: E-Business, the Web, and Mobile Computing: St. Louis, MO: Mira Digital Publication
Commarford, P.M., Wilson, K.A., & Stanney, K.M. (2002, September). When should computers talk: Using Multiple Resource Theory to determine whether to add synthetic speech to a user interface. Paper accepted for presentation at the 46th annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Baltimore, MD.
Pharmer, J.A. & Commarford, P.M. (2002, August). Providing military system designers with useful data through human performance modeling. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association, 2002 Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.
Commarford, P.M., Kring, J.P., & Singer, M.J. (2001). Investigating communication as a possible mediator of team performance in distributed environments. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 45th Annual Meeting (pp. 1939-1942). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Kring, J.P., Commarford, P.M., & Singer, M.J. (2001). Personality and team performance in distributed virtual environments. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 45th Annual Meeting (pp. 1943-1946). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Commarford, P.M., Singer, M.J., & Kring, J. (2001). Presence in distributed virtual environments. In M. J. Smith, G. Salvendy, D. Harris, & R. J. Koubek (Eds.), Usability Evaluation and Interface Design: Cognitive Engineering, Intelligent Agents and Virtual Reality. Vol. 1. Proceedings of HCI International 2001 (pp. 644-648). Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Earlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Jerome, C., Ganey, N., Commarford, P.M., Oakley, B., Mouloua, M. & Hancock, P.A. (2001, August). Evaluating the presence of in-vehicle devices on driver performance: Methodological issues. Poster presented at the International Driving Symposium of Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training and Vehicle Design, Aspen, CO.
Patrick Commarford 