Luke Firth is the Product Management Leader & Design Principal for AI in Asset Management at IBM. Previously i2 group & Jacob Jensen Design.

Bio

I’m a product manager and designer specializing in AI and enterprise platforms.

Over the past decade, I’ve worked across product strategy, design, and delivery to modernize one of the world’s leading asset management platforms at IBM Maximo, launch solutions from 0→1 in as little as 90 days at Watson IoT, and bring more than 20 software products to mass market.

Before that, I created physical products ranging from luxury wristwatches at Jacob Jensen Design, to lighting systems at Aktiva Systems that illuminate places like Oxford University library to this day.

A man with light-colored hair and a beard smiling, sitting in front of green leafy plants, wearing a dark blazer and black shirt.

Experience

IBM Asset Lifecycle Management

Product Management & Design Principal
2025 – Current

Design Principal
2024 – 2025
—

IBM Maximo

Senior Design Strategist
2022 – 2024

Senior Designer
2020 – 2022

IBM Watson IoT

Design System Owner
2019 – 2020

UX Team Lead
2018 – 2019

UX Designer
2016 – 2018
—

i2 Group

UX Designer
2015 – 2016

Jacob Jensen Design

Industrial Designer
2014 – 2015
—

Brady Corporation

Industrial Designer
2013 – 2014
—

Aktiva Systems

Industrial Designer
2012 – 2013

I lead the global team of product managers and designers, supported by hundreds of developers, sellers, enablers and more to bring about the revolution of AI in the field of Asset Lifecycle Management.

The work spans embedded AI, assistants, and emerging agentic capabilities across the asset lifecycle, helping organizations make faster decisions, reduce manual effort, and improve how critical work gets done.

Major awards

5x

Selected work

AI in Asset Lifecycle Management

Product Management

1st

40+

Of its kind

New usecases

Layered diagram with six layers labeled, from bottom to top: Technology stack, Carbon for AI, AI Experience Principles, AI Interaction Patterns, AI Experience Workflows.

Maximo Application Suite

I led the experience strategy that unified 10+ applications and two legacy platforms into a single modern suite experience that was easier for customers to adopt and easier for IBM to evolve.

I created the suite UX model later used more broadly across IBM Sustainability Software, shaping a shared approach for products that over 100,000 people use each day to run the machines that run the world. Read more.

Design Leadership

Avg usability uplift

10→1

App consolidation

+35%

Screenshot of IBM Maximo Application Suite dashboard with maintenance management overview including work orders, safety backlog, workflow assignments, work queues, favorites, quick actions, suite applications, and accelerate your value sections.

Establishing a partner ecosystem & marketplace

I led design for a new model with our partner ecosystem including a new marketplace that influenced acquisition strategy, led to the creation of a new accelerators team, and became the template for Sustainability Software discovery.

The resulting experience improved usability, accelerated implementation, and dramatically reduced design effort through reuse across additional platforms. Read more.

UX Design Craft

6.5/7

25

Ease of use scoring

Partners onboarded

Two computer screens showing application management and product details in a software suite, with menus, search bar, and product listings.

Launching a 40 year old platform on SaaS & in Hyperscaler marketplaces

I helped lead the transformation of IBM Maximo into a viable SaaS offering, combining invention, journey design, organizational alignment, and close partnership with engineering and site reliability teams.

This work reduced complexity in deployment and adoption, strengthened our path into hyperscaler marketplaces, and helped modernize how customers discovered, bought, and realized value from the product. Read more.

Product Strategy

2x

6→1

12→1

Weeks till value

Steps to deploy

Screenshot of IBM Maximo Application Suite dashboard displaying license usage, app management, and application details, with a smaller overlay window showing a pie chart of estimated app usage.

Major awards

Reuse cost

-95%

Other works of note

Laptop screen displaying a strategy exploration application with asset types such as diesel engine, fan, heat exchanger, drive, compressor, valve, motor, transformer, gearbox, and pump.

IBM Reliability Strategies
UX Design Craft

I was key in bringing reliability-centered maintenance into IBM through acquisition, redesign, and launch, consolidating three existing products into a single experience in a little under 4 months.

This established a first-of-its-kind offer in the portfolio and helped reduce user task failures by 4x.

A digital map displays New York City with various asset locations and a line graph showing projected asset numbers over time, including system statistics at the bottom.

IBM x Vodafone Mobile Asset Optimization
UX Design Craft

I led the design of a joint solution for logistics teams to track, manage, and optimize mobile assets across global operations.

The work restored our partnership, turning a technically complex proposition into something operationally useful for coordinators making decisions in motion.

Read more

An illustration of a hand holding a purple leaf, with multiple green leaves branching out. To the right, a screenshot of an IBM Watson IoT Platform dashboard displaying data related to a model, including entity IDs, dimensions, and data graphs.

IBM Watson IoT Analytics Service
UX Design Craft

I identified an opportunity to simplify a fragmented analytics portfolio, then led the design of a unified experience that brought together eight separate applications.

The result improved the user experience while freeing roughly 30 developers to focus on higher-impact work.

A Lenovo laptop displaying a network diagram with nodes and connections, titled 'IBM I2 Analyze'.

An illustration of a computer screen and a tablet displaying a website about building AI applications and app icons, with a background of blue and purple gradient.

i2 Analyze
UX Design Craft

I led the SaaS launch of this visual intelligence and investigative analysis software used by defense, law enforcement, and commercial organizations.

The work demanded clarity, speed, and confidence in complex analytical workflows, shaping tools built for high-stakes decision-making.

A green first aid dispenser box for plasters and wipes mounted on a wall, with a transparent cover showcasing different colored plasters and wipes inside.

Digital screens displaying IoT device management platforms, maps, and data charts against a pink background.

IBM Sustainability Design System
Design Systems

I owned and managed the IBM Sustainability Design System, contributing to a shared library of 40+ components used across multiple product lines.

The system accelerated delivery, improved consistency, and helped support the launch of seven major product sets with an estimated 30–50% increase in speed.

IBM Watson IoT Platform
UX Design Craft

This was where my work in asset-related software began at IBM: designing new experiences for a fast-growing IoT platform in an emerging market.

I shaped the next generation of workflows and interactions at scale, helping the platform establish a strong early position.

Read more

Brady Harmony First Aid
Industrial & Service Design

I partnered with the Brady team to launch on product and service concepts for the management and maintenance of workplace first aid consumables.

The focus was on making an overlooked but essential operational need easier to manage through clearer systems, services, and product thinking.

A hand holding a marker with a wooden clip-on attachment and a keychain hanging from it.

National Geographic Plantspotter
Industrial & Service Design

I designed a miniaturized Raman spectroscope concept that identified plants in the field, combining scientific sensing with community-driven exploration.

The idea imagined a tool that could support both discovery and everyday gardening through real-time identification and plant health insight.

“From being critical in major works like the launch of our next billion dollar product, and the launch of a product in 90 days, to the acceleration of design for our next 7+ products, Luke’s impact to our business has been immeasurable.”

Joseph Berti

CEO of Gigawatt.ai, and former VP Product Management, IBM

Speaking

From UX to product management

[IBM Alumni] Hosted 29 January 2026

This conversation brings together designers and researchers who moved into product roles, but did so in very different ways, across different… Read more

Promotional poster for a discussion panel titled "from UX to Product Management" scheduled for Thursday, January 29, 2026, at 12:00 PM ET. Featuring four panelists with their photos and titles: Nick Stiles, Product Manager at Sequencing; Claire Priestley, UX Research Executive and Ex-Meta; Luke Firth, PM and Design Principal at IBM; Aryel Cianflone, Product Manager at LinkedIn. The background is a colorful gradient with a pink box containing the text "IBM Design Alumni & Allies."

AI Built for the Work that Keeps the World Running

[ReliabilityWeb] Hosted 27 January 2026

Join IBM’s AI in Maximo team to see how customers can begin utilizing embedded AI in… Read more

Turning AI Hype into Operational Excellence

[IBM] Hosted 19 November 2025

This session brings together IBM experts to explore how the Maximo Application Suite is embedding AI and automation… Read more

Two men working on laptops at a conference, surrounded by other attendees.

Writing

The role of AI in the future of asset lifecycle management

[IBM] Published 20 November 2025

Our world runs on assets: turbines, tracks, conveyor systems and the people who keep them going. Those… Read more

A scientist or engineer working with a large, complex scientific instrument or machinery in a laboratory, wearing purple gloves and bending over to examine or adjust the equipment.

Beyond “done”— prioritizing quality in product experiences

[Personal] Published 4 May 2025

When quantity of features is the default for many organizations, how can UX-mind… Read more

A person is drawing a dot pattern on a piece of paper with a black marker. The paper features a detailed, abstract dotted pattern with black circles of various sizes and some rectangular sections with circular designs.

A field guide to operationalizing product discovery

[Personal] Published 12 Apr 2025

The inherent correlation between scope of impact, and level of uncertainty.… Read more

A chart showing the decreasing range of uncertainty over time in relation to delivery release closeness, with stages labeled as organizational visionary discovery, team exploration discovery, and capability/feature discovery.