Have we Reached Our Peak? Spotting the Next Mountain For DesignOps to Climb
Summary
This session is for established DesignOps teams starting out on their journey to reach greater heights. How do you spot your next growth opportunity? What roles will get you there? What services can DesignOps offer to adjacent design functions at your company? How can other Ops practices, like BizOps or DevOps, help chart a path to your next peak? Most importantly, we’ll examine how to scale up when you’re always operating sideways, and how adopting a beginners’ mindset (and an explorer’s heart) will help you seek the right opportunities to grow your discipline.
Key Insights
-
•
Using mountain climbing as a metaphor helps illustrate the agility, goal setting, and peripheral vision needed in design ops.
-
•
Adjacent design functions at a company represent prime opportunities for expanding design ops impact, even if those teams currently lack ops support.
-
•
Codifying and clearly articulating design ops services enables better advocacy and alignment with the distinct needs of various design functions.
-
•
Organizational structure cracks and rickety bridges between teams serve as visible signals for where design ops can add valuable programs and bridge gaps.
-
•
Design ops should partner with leadership to allow leaders to focus on the what and why, while ops manages the how and when.
-
•
Examining the operating model and scaling scenarios (2x, 5x, global) for design ops teams reveals structural weaknesses and future needs.
-
•
Roles carried forward by design ops teams should be intentionally selected based on team strengths and joy, avoiding role bloat and 'design debt'.
-
•
Design ops can learn from established ops disciplines like dev ops, sales ops, and marketing ops by understanding their service areas such as toolchains, enablement, and intake.
-
•
Effective accountability for product managers comes from transparent, linked goals that integrate design and product delivery metrics.
-
•
Sharing both successful and failed trails in design ops practice helps build a foundation for future teams and fosters a collaborative culture.
Notable Quotes
"Establishing a design ops practice is not an easy feat."
"Mountain climbing feels like an appropriate metaphor to describe our practice because it takes agility, goal setting, and peripheral vision."
"If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together."
"Your next design ops peak might actually be beyond the walls of your current design practice."
"Knocking on doors and explaining the value of your ops services sounds like being a salesperson. I reframe it as evangelism and advocacy."
"Organizational cracks and rickety bridges between teams are signals that design ops is needed here."
"Carrying around a bunch of different roles gives you the illusion of opportunity, but unwanted roles are like design debt."
"These are trails that others have blazed before you. By examining established ops teams, you can arrive faster, stronger, and healthier."
"Design leaders actually like having a strategic partner to focus on the how and when so they can focus on the what and why."
"Hold your destination in mind. Have an intention to succeed. Break up the long tracks and brace for the hard parts."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Tech workers in the UK are five times more depressed than the UK average, with stress killing creativity."
Dr. Karl JeffriesThe Science of Creativity for DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"Show them, don’t tell them — involving stakeholders early builds skin in the game and helps control quality."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"When you look at data without training, confirmation bias makes you just find what you already believe."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"It took a lot of relationship building and conversations to break down the perception that designers' time was owned by particular teams."
Alicia MootyDesign Staffing Models
September 30, 2021
"With enough creativity and imagination, you can make anything interesting."
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes Aditi Dhar Michelle Kaplan Nate Osborne Matt LaurenceThe Authentic UX Talent Show
January 8, 2024
"Simply asking stakeholders what success looks like for them in a project is a powerful way to start meaningful conversations."
Lada Gorlenko Sharbani Dhar Sébastien Malo Rob Mitzel Ivana Ng Michal Anne RogondinoTheme 1: Discussion
January 8, 2024
"We think about research as the magnetic field that attracts every part of the business into alignment around the customer."
Sofia QuinteroThe Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ
March 10, 2021
"You are not the first person to try something like this, and they’re typically not looking forward to the next transformation."
Laura KleinUnique challenges of innovation in enterprises
April 23, 2020
"Existing research repositories die at the bottom of slide decks; that’s why I started Everywhere to rethink how we manage insights."
Andrew MichaelBuilding a Product Insights Team
March 10, 2022
