Frances Yllana
Senior Manager, Design Operations, Coforma
Frances Yllana is a design and organizational operations leader, writer and facilitator who empowers and champions people to succeed beyond their own expectations. Frances is energized by making the joy of accomplishment more accessible and equitable, so those in the communities she serves can find and share their own inspiration to drive positive change in the world around them.
Frances's range of expertise spans the areas of craft, leadership and operations, inclusive of branding, advertising, copywriting, strategy, video, illustration, digital and environmental, experience design and enterprise software. Outside of work, she is experienced in non-profit management, visioning + strategy and is highly active in multiple communities of practice. She serves as a professor of DesignOps Assembly Learning Labs and is helping to lead the DesignOps Assembly knowledge base initiative, and she also hosts the DesignOps Ed Salon webinar series for AIGA. She is also very active in organizing and producing small- or large-scale experiences for non-profit and civic missions and has been a leader of AIGA’s Design For Democracy committee and their national Get Out the Vote campaigns since 2016. She also serves as Secretary of the AIGA national board of directors.
Rosenverse talks by Frances:

" Don’t be scared of frustrating engineers; great design ops will measure impact and build bridges with other teams. "
DesignOps Exposed: What do our peers really think of us?
September 11, 2025

" We’re building and securing better frameworks and futures rather than tangible, countable, easy-to-quantify widgets. "
Theme 2 Intro
September 24, 2024

" We need more storytelling and positive use cases to help people see how AI affects their specific roles. "
The Big Question about Impact: A Panel Discussion
September 24, 2024

" Design ops in all we do at co forma is purpose-driven, intentional, fair, and openly equitable. "
DesignOps–Leading the Path to Parity
April 27, 2023

" Designers have long thought of themselves as heroes, but we had to unpack that conception. "
D.E.A.R.R. Diaries (Discipline, Experience, Architecture, Reflection + Revolution)
November 16, 2022