Hitachi had just acquired GlobalLogic and its design studio Method. Tomoe brought the three organizations together to build one product, with my team in Hitachi Vantara holding the design direction — and they left aligned:
3
companies aligned on one plan
Hitachi Vantara · Method · GlobalLogic
20+
contributors building in one direction
1
shared product direction
it later informed VSP One
ROLE
Design lead across orgs
COMPANIES
Hitachi Vantara · Method · GlobalLogic
CONTRIBUTORS
20+
WORKSHOPS
Kraków, Oct 2022 → Lisbon, Jan 2023
STATUS
Strategic proof of concept
Core direction informed later VSP One work.
THREE INTO ONE
One product, built across three companies.
Tomoe ran across all three organizations to build a single product, each company in a clear lane.
Hitachi Vantara
Product & design direction
Method
Journey mapping & competitive analysis
GlobalLogic
Implementation, then design
One product, built as one team
Three organizations with distinct roles — Hitachi Vantara steering product and design, Method framing the journey, GlobalLogic building it — operating as a single team.
OVERVIEW
Tomoe was Hitachi's unified management platform: one console meant to span all of its storage (block, file, and object) plus storage-as-a-service, an early step toward what later became the VSP One brand. Commissioned by Hitachi Limited after it acquired GlobalLogic and its design studio Method, it brought the three organizations together to build that product: Hitachi Vantara owned product and design direction, Method led early journey mapping and competitive analysis, and GlobalLogic handled implementation before taking on design alongside my team. 20+ contributors in all.
WHAT I DID
I owned the direction, not every screen.
I led design from inside Hitachi Vantara, setting the lanes so the orgs reinforced each other instead of overlapping.
What that looked like in practice: I pushed for an onboarding wizard to walk people through initial setup. These are complex systems, and easing that first pass mattered. It’s the user’s first impression of the product.
As the work matured, GlobalLogic's designers came on alongside my team, building hand in hand.
THE APPROACH
Kraków first, then Lisbon: two rooms, three organizations.
Three moves, in order. Each one existed to make the next one stick.
01
Get them in one room
Three orgs that had never worked together can't align over email. I co-led the first session in Kraków, then ran the second in Lisbon myself, so the direction got built by the people who'd carry it.
02
Build it with them
A structured multi-day design-thinking sprint: personas, as-is journeys, problem statements, ideation, wireframes. I facilitated the direction into existence rather than handing it down; when 20+ contributors shape the thing, they defend it.
03
Make it hold at distance
We left with a shared source of truth, not a memory of a good meeting. It kept the teams pointed the same way once everyone was back in their own time zone.
A director's leverage isn't drawing the best screen in the room. It's making sure everyone draws the same one.
— HOW I THINK ABOUT CROSS-ORG WORK
THE OUTCOME
Three companies left Lisbon with the same plan.
3
Companies aligned
20+
Contributors on one direction
1
Shared product direction
The teams left Lisbon with an agreed onboarding model, role-based journeys mapped end to end, and a prioritized workflow set. That work informed the unified management direction that later shipped under the VSP One name.
FROM THE ROOM
Workshop artifacts from Kraków and Lisbon.
THE OUTPUT · LISBON, JAN 2023 — end-to-end onboarding journeys mapped by role (HV Admin · Provider Admin · Org Admin), from first customer to first volume. Click to expand.
THE ROOM · KRAKÓW, OCT 2022 — the whole group working a persona and its flow, live.
AFTER LISBON — my team turned the journey into a persona-led visual story, starring Christian Moore, a Provider Admin.
A DAY IN THE LIFE — meet Christian and the old way's pain, then the payoff: one place to see every customer's storage. Click any panel to enlarge.
