Always on the Go at Big Blue

Every day is packed with meetings and demos for this Bentley grad who works in software product development at IBM

Suzanne Olivia Minassian
Workplace Solutions Domain Engineer
IBM Software Group, Cambridge, MA
MBA, McCallum School of Business, Bentley College 2004

Story Tools

• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• digg this
• save to del.icio.us

I'm a Workplace Solutions Domain Engineer at IBM in Cambridge, Mass. As part of a software product development team, I manage product requirements by working with clients, analysts, and experts to strengthen the product's position and differentiation. As the external communicator to customers, press, and analysts, I deliver product demonstrations through talks and Webcasts to audiences worldwide, including client presentations and conferences.

I received my MBA degree from the McCallum School of Business at Bentley College in May, 2004. My internship at IBM Research led me to my current role in product development. I interned for two years through grad school, and someone who saw my résumé suggested I consider the role.

The best way to get your foot in the door at IBM (IBM) is through internships. They provide access to many resources in the company and allow you to meet employees in different divisions. It's great for finding out what role is right for you (see BusinessWeek.com's Recruiter Q&A, 8/19/05, "Big Traits for Big Blue").

Here's a typical workday for me:

8:00 a.m.—I'm out the door and on my bike, laptop strapped to the back. It's a 15-minute ride to work, crossing over the Charles River from Boston into Cambridge. This is my favorite commute.

8:30 a.m.—While my e-mail is multiplying, I grab a cup of coffee. Typical e-mail includes meeting invitations, news on product development, questions from sales teams and business partners about product capabilities, and requests for customer demos. I also get mail from our team in China letting us know the result of their day's work and presentations to review.

9:00 a.m.—I turn on Sametime, our internal chat program. If we didn't have Sametime, my e-mail would probably be doubled. (My team is distributed through Massachusetts, some in North Carolina, and many in China!) Questions, requests, and can-you-join-a-conference-call-right-now are the normal pings.

9:30 a.m.—First call of the day is a status check-in with a team that's using our software to manage their team's performance. Over the last few weeks, I've been working with them to understand how they run their department.

10:00 a.m.—Second call is a one-on-one with our chief architect. We're going through business scenarios for a side project. We're also co-writing a project pitch to share with the stakeholders and sponsors.

10:30 a.m.—I get pinged by a sales rep asking if I can join a Web conference in 30 minutes. A customer they think would be a good candidate for our software would like to see a demo of the product.

Noon—Lunchtime lecture with a guest speaker on information design. I ping one of my friends over instant messenger to grab lunch for the discussion.

1:30 p.m.—Get ready for a 2 p.m. meeting with another group that's interested in seeing some mock-ups of their business operations in our tool. I have interviewed them several times and have a few ideas on how they would benefit from using our tool.

3:00 p.m.—Cross-team meeting with development, marketing, and user experience teams. Topics usually relate to product requirements and collecting perspectives from across the team.

5:00 p.m.—Time to finish up the project proposal from my earlier call. I ping a colleague from market research and see if he has any information I can use.

6:00 p.m.—Once the presentation is all set, I bike home, laptop included, for evening meeting.

9:00 p.m.—Last and final call of the day with a business partner in Asia whom we're preparing to visit later in the month.

Before I started my job in product development, I was concerned that the emphasis would be more on technology than on users. I was very wrong. At IBM, we have many different types of meetings. Some are purely educational and lecture style, where 50 to 60 people will join a Web and phone conference to hear about a new product, release, or concept. I enjoy meetings like this because they're a great way to learn what's going on inside such a huge company with more than 360,000 employees.

Coffee Time

Some meetings are regular calls where we discuss product development with stakeholders—from our services organization to our testing teams to our marketing groups or development team. More frequent are the "let's arrange a quick call with a few people to address an issue." Several of those can happen on any given day. There's also the occasional "Can you join a call and do a product demo—now by any chance?" call.

Almost always I have time for lunch. Some days I eat while working, other days I can grab lunch with colleagues. Of course, there's room for coffee breaks—some of the best meetings are over a cup of coffee! Since the company is so large, it's not unusual for someone you don't know to ask to have coffee with you to find out more about what you do.

If I could go back to B-school, I would take more management courses. I work with engineers, marketers, managers, and designers. In my role, it would be difficult to be successful without being able to understand their perspectives, align our teams to create a successful product, and understand our impact on the business. Having an MBA is a great asset.