How IBM applies DesignOps, accessibility and AI to scale design and create inclusive experiences, with insights from Raúl Luque, Senior Design Manager.
We were lucky enough to speak with Raúl Luque, Senior Design Manager at IBM Consulting (Spain), about how to scale design with DesignOps that enables (processes, tools and community), feedback as a driver of improvement, and accessibility as a competitive advantage beyond legal compliance. Raúl explains how they use AI in the design workflow (and to design AI-powered products) in enterprise environments, and shares applied case studies such as Ferrari F1 (from telemetry to storytelling for fans) and Sevilla FC (scouting combining objective and subjective data). He closes with recommendations on the future of UX: fundamentals, judgement and creativity. We also include practical resources: IBM Able Toolkit, IBM Design, Carbon, Enterprise Design Thinking and IBM Design for AI.
Before we begin: thank you, Raúl! For your time, your generosity and the clarity with which you shared your experiences and lessons. It was a privilege to listen to you.
Who Raúl is and what he does today
Current role. Raúl is a Senior Design Manager. He leads teams in Barcelona and Madrid, with a community of between 15 and 20 people depending on the moment. His role spans people management, delivery quality and design culture across both locations.
IBM context. Globally, IBM has 3,000 designers, organised across 50 Design Studios and more than 150 locations. This is no coincidence: design has been embedded at IBM for decades; the maxim from Thomas J. Watson Jr. (IBM's president), who said in 1973 that "good design is good business", still carries weight. Today two major areas coexist: Technology (infrastructure, cloud, AI, mainframes) and IBM Consulting (services, design, product engineering). That is where Raúl's work lives.
A brief professional journey
From graphic design to digital (and entrepreneurship). Raúl trained as a graphic designer and made the leap into digital (3D, web) when everything was still being invented. He founded an agency where he spent almost 18 years, living through the evolution of the industry — from CD-ROM to the web and, later, to complex digital products.
Joining IBM. In 2016 he sought a change to work at the cutting-edge intersection of design and technology. IBM offered him exactly that. Since then, he has navigated challenges of scale, product and industry from a consulting perspective.
1) DesignOps that enables (not obstructs)
What it means at IBM. DesignOps is both a discipline and a practice. Globally, IBM creates processes, platforms and tools that standardise quality and accelerate work: from IBM Design Thinking (classic design thinking, grounded in enterprise rhythms and artefacts) to the Carbon Design System as an open-source design system for consistent and accessible products.
What Raúl does in Spain. His DesignOps is very much about hands-on management:
- Removing friction (licences, bureaucracy, organisational noise).
- Ensuring standards and good practices in delivery.
- Building community and a sense of belonging (dispersed consulting is not the same as a dispersed team).
- Advocating for the value of design in a tech-centric company ("we're still the odd ones out") and building external presence to attract talent.
"A core function of a design manager is to eliminate the noise around the team."
2) Internal communities that learn through feedback
How it works. The community grew organically: out of a need for spaces to share real work and receive feedback. They run design critiques, "raw and live" demo days (opening Figma/a deck and showing it as-is), training sessions and attendance at events. Keeping it alive requires constant drive and budget. They also connect with the Global Design Council (updates on processes, tools, Carbon and projects).
"I am convinced that the only way to progress in design is through feedback."
Online vs in person. They want to meet face to face: they dream of a small design festival to see each other, celebrate successes and learn from mistakes.
3) Accessibility: from legal obligation to competitive advantage
Practice and resources. IBM was a pioneer in digital accessibility and today has a global practice, documentation and toolkits (including a browser plugin for automated checking). Raúl acts as the focal point: he trains teams, advises on proposals and is creating an offering to help clients operationalise European regulations (WCAG 2.2, EAA) with actionable plans.
AccessibilityOps. They standardise how to document accessibility from design (Figma assets, checklists before delivery, keyboard navigation, semantic HTML, alt-text, clear handover to dev). Willingness is rarely lacking; what's missing is a starting point and leadership to put it into practice.
"The documentation is there, but it needs to be turned into an actionable plan."
4) AI in the design workflow (and for designing AI)
Two levels. Raúl distinguishes between designing with AI and designing for AI. In enterprise contexts, security and privacy take precedence; that is why they work with internal assistants on a controlled platform.
What do those assistants accelerate?
- Discovery: distilling research, detecting insights.
- Strategy: generating personas, empathy maps, pain points, journeys (AS-IS and TO-BE).
- Delivery: well-formed user stories (including accessibility criteria) and even an initial wireframe.
All of this with real project context and full human control to make adjustments. They began using them at the end of last year and the platform continues to grow with new assistants and agents.
"We operate in a corporate context… which is why all AI tools and models are developed within IBM."
5) Ferrari F1 case study: from telemetry to fan storytelling
An F1 car generates millions of data points per second. With IBM, Ferrari transforms that ocean of telemetry (pre-season, practice and race) into insights for the team and into comprehensible and engaging experiences for technically minded fans who want to feel "seated at the control centre of a racing team". The key: combining analytical capability (AI) with design to tell the story well.
6) Sevilla FC case study: scouting with objective and subjective data
The club was accumulating around 200,000 scouting reports per year, most of them handwritten, with non-standardised language. The challenge: training a model that understands those subjective descriptions, normalises them and cross-references them with objective metrics. The result? A text interface where you define in natural language "the type of player you want" and the system returns profiles assessed across multiple dimensions, accelerating both search and decision-making with greater confidence.
"It's not just a faster search — it's faster decision-making."
7) His perspective on UX in 5 years
- AI will profoundly change the profession (it will not replace us).
- The gap between design and development will narrow; the process will tend to become continuous.
- Prototyping will accelerate and become democratised (PMs and devs will prototype too).
- Standing out means mastering design fundamentals, judgement, critical thinking and creativity.
- There will be more vanilla frameworks; what sets you apart will be your area of expert knowledge.
Resources Raúl shared with us (and what they're for)
- IBM Accessibility – Able Toolkit → Guides, checklists and tools (including a plugin) to operationalise accessibility throughout the product lifecycle.
- IBM Design → Portal for IBM's design ecosystem (principles, practices, tools and case studies).
- Carbon Design System → IBM's open-source design system (components, tokens, patterns and guidelines) for building consistent and accessible interfaces at scale.
- Enterprise Design Thinking (IBM Training) → Training to apply Design Thinking at enterprise scale: rhythms, roles, artefacts and rituals in large organisations.
- IBM Design for AI → Principles and practices for designing AI-driven experiences (ethics, transparency, human control, data quality, UX for assistants/agents).
Key takeaways (at a glance)
- DesignOps that enables: less bureaucracy, more quality and community.
- Feedback as a driver: without feedback, there is no progress (or judgement).
- Strategic accessibility: actionable plan, clear roles and ready-to-use assets.
- Pragmatic and secure AI: internal assistants to accelerate without compromising privacy.
- The UX profile of tomorrow: fundamentals + judgement + creativity, with AI as a lever.
Thank you again, Raúl, for opening your toolkit and showing us how design is really done at the intersection of team, method, accessibility and AI. If you'd like to watch the full video of the conversation with Raúl, you'll find it on our YouTube channel.
