Greg Furuiye
All work

Case study

HPE Compute Ops Management

Bringing a cloud server management service to market by grounding every design decision in what customers told us.

Role
Design strategy lead
Platform
HPE GreenLake
Partners
Product management, engineering, research
Methods
Design sprints, customer research, accessibility assessments
Compute Ops Management overview dashboard showing server health, security status and a map of server locations

Overview

HPE Compute Ops Management is a server management service in the HPE GreenLake platform. I led the design strategy from concept to launch through cross-functional design sprints.

That meant gathering and synthesizing existing user feedback, running customer research and analysis to guide each round of design, and making sure we met key business objectives while keeping the solution centered on the people using it.

Customer problem summary listing pain points in managing servers
Customer problem framing from early research
Persona cards for architects, IT staff, server admins and HPE support
Personas used to anchor sprint decisions

Design sprint iterations

Early, foundational research with customers surfaced opportunities backed by data, which we built into design iterations.

We then tested those iterations with other customers to validate what we were exploring. I led the analysis of those insights and how they were brought into the design, keeping the process centered on users.

Overview screen with a world map of server locations and summary counts
Overview iteration: fleet status and location at a glance
Firmware screen with compliance donut charts
Metrics screen showing utilization percentages and a usage chart

Strategic intent

Within HPE Compute, I introduced a product design strategy drawing on MIT, IDEO and Sprint methods.

Bringing these ideas to the design team and to cross-functional partners aligned the HPE GreenLake platform organization around design thinking practices. Those principles were the foundation for bringing Compute Ops Management to market.

Whiteboard sketches from a strategy session
Whiteboard with sticky notes mapping effort against impact
Prioritizing what to build first
Diagram connecting a strategic path to a production path across sprint stages
From strategic path to production path

Impact

Forrester ran a Projected Total Economic Impact study of HPE Compute Ops Management in 2024. Compute Ops Management now manages about 50,000 servers worldwide.

We keep running user research with product management and engineering to look for the next opportunities. I started the practice of regular, ongoing research goals and accessibility assessments.

155–420%projected ROI
38–75%less time spent managing remote servers
4.8 hrsof single-server downtime avoided per year, saving the study's composite organization $343k
A firmware update used to be 4, 6, or 8 hours. Now with Compute Ops Management, it's 45 minutes to an hour.Customer
It makes it easier to see all your environment in one location. I can look at all my servers without having to go to each individually.Customer
Firmware updates are a lot better. Our server team knows they're going to have more time to spend with their families on the weekends.Customer
Compute Ops Management product page hero
Server details screen in dark theme
Server list with health charts in dark theme

Contact

Have a complex system that needs to feel simple?

I'm glad to talk about product design leadership roles, infrastructure and developer-facing products, or design strategy work.