Cognizant Accelerator

leadership, content, visual design

In mid-2017 Cognizant created an internal digital product incubator and called it Accelerator. Here, select product ideas are run through a 12-week program of research, validation and prototyping. This culminates with a Pitch Day where the ideas and prototypes are presented. Leadership then chooses which move on for further funding and development.

In the Accelerator, I started off as a lead product designer. After some success with my first set of startup projects, I was promoted to design team manager. Over the next 12 months, we grew the design staff from 3 to 10 hiring UX designers as well as UX researchers.

Along with hiring, I was charged with building a UX design program complete with a design process and an underlying philosophy. The journey has been enlightening and epic.

Below is a graphical representation of Accelerator’s first iteration. Many have contributed and, though I often was quite hands-on, I ultimately can only take credit for facilitating the magic.

Job Title

Design Team Manager

Role

Team Lead, Program Developer

For

Cognizant Accelerator




Identity Development







Process & Philosophy Development

Checkout the Accelerator Product Manifesto ︎




Culture Cultivation

︎Laptop Stickers



︎ Medium Blog︎Cohort Badges









︎

Credits

Brad Ambrose: illustration
Alyssa Resse: copy & design
Lisa Scala: design & research
Joe Valley: photography
...the entire team from this period in history

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