Changying (Z) Zheng

DesignOps Leader and Educator

Z works at the intersection of operations, design, and AI, helping organizations scale through better systems, stronger alignment, and more effective teams. Most recently, she led a five-month AI transformation initiative at Cloudflare, advancing AI literacy and practical adoption across teams.

An entrepreneur and educator, Z is passionate about operational excellence and creating environments where teams can do their best work. Throughout her career, she has led design in-house and in consulting, taught leadership and interaction design, and mentored the next generation of designers.

Outside of work, Z co-creates a sci-fi series and paints large-scale floral artworks, reflecting her passion for creativity both at work and beyond.

Rosenverse talks by Changying:

" Less handoff and more collaboration is becoming possible by bringing designers into the workflow with AI assistance. "

From prototype to production: Vibe coding design for real engineering systems

June 10, 2026

" Different AI systems have different strengths; Claude is great for creative writing, ChatGPT is concise and to the point, Gemini is deeper for research. "

Practical DesignOps: From Ideas to Tools That Teams Actually Use

September 25, 2025

" Experimentation gives us the permission to innovate and is in fact an invitation to innovate. "

Navigating Innovation with Integrity

September 25, 2024

" Design ops is like when everything's working well, nobody notices it; when things break down, everyone misses it - Theresa citing Camden Moore. "

Charting the future of DesignOps: A community workshop

April 18, 2024

Rosenverse People Everyone

Mary Aviles

UX Research Expert at Allstate

Peter Van Dijck

Head of Product and Technology, Helpful Intelligence Co.

Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa

Research and Design Manager, National Grid

Daniel Gloyd

Independent Design & Research Consultant

Rachel Garb

Retired UX Leader

Anne Cantera

Founder, Elementyl Intelligence and Voiceofai.io

Julia Cowing

User Researcher & Research Ops Manager

Robin Beers

Founder, Ubuntu Culture Company

Uday Gajendar

UX Design Leader

Greg Baker

Chief Strategy Officer, DesignMap

Joe Elmendorf

Creator of Shitty Maps and Principal of Maps and Mirror

Santiago Bustelo

Director, Kambrica

Catt Small

Staff Product Designer at Dropbox and Author of The Staff Designer

George Aye

Co-Founder and Director of Innovation, Greater Good Studio

Angelos Arnis

Co-founder / Strategic Designer, Joint Frontiers

Paul Bakaus

CEO and Founder, Renaissance Geek, Inc.

Snehal Pendharkar

Vice President Experience Research, JPMorgan Chase & Co

Elyse Holladay

Staff Design Engineer, Color Health

Adekunle Oduye

Independent UX Engineer

Rikki Teeters

Sr. UX Designer, Amazon

Benjamin Jackson

Founder, Offtrail

Kritika Sony

UX Designer, PromptPath AI

Amelia Wattenberger

Developer, Designer, and Prototyper

David Eisner

VP Product Design & Research, founder of CraftAmplify

Ben Blumenrose

Managing Partner, Designer Fund

Changying (Z) Zheng

DesignOps Leader and Educator

Christian Crumlish

Author of Product Management for UX People

Erika Flowers

Principal Service Designer, Author, Facilitator

Anil Dash

Principal and Co-Founder, antitech

Vanessa Varin

Sr. Design Program Manager, Amazon

Paul Ford

Co-Founder, Aboard

Josh Clark

Principal of Big Medium, Co-author of Sentient Design

Beth Chappell

Senior Manager, Product Design (AI & Creator Tools), Articulate

Veronika Kindred

Designer and Researcher at Big Medium, Co-author of Sentient Design

Joy KendiMwiti

Senior Creative Lead, Dalberg Design

Claire Dhoosche

Senior DesignOps Manager, Criteo

Louis Rosenfeld

Founder, Publisher, & CEO, Rosenfeld Media

Allan Lowson

Head of Experience Design and Research, Arity

Maria Rosala

Director of Research, Nielsen Norman Group

Marc Rettig

Principal, Fit Associates

Dave Gray

Author of Liminal Thinking, Founder of the School of the Possible

Dolly Parikh

Impact Strategy Fellow, The Nature Conservancy and Founder, Aloki Design Labs

Hugh Dubberly

Designer, Design Theorist, and Educator

Nathan Shedroff

Co-author of Blind Spot and Make It So; author of Design Is the Problem

Thomas J. McLeish

Lecturer, UC Berkeley & CCA

Shivanjali M.

Research Operations Manager, SumUp

Johnny Michaelsen

Director of Design & Research Operations @ Wise

Eric Shumake

Principal Researcher at HXRlabs.com

Meghan Bausone

Doctor of Design, NC State University

Himanshu Bharadwaj

Founder, Joyful Design