Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

8 Types of Measures in Design Operations
Thursday, April 16, 2020 • DesignOps Community
Share the love for this talk
8 Types of Measures in Design Operations
Speakers: Kristin Skinner and Kamdyn Moore
Link:

Summary

DesignOps as a practice is still relatively new—but the activities have been around long enough that we’re increasingly challenged to justify and quantify what we do. Accordingly, we need to address not just what is DesignOps, but how do we prove its value? What outcomes can we genuinely promise? And how do we know we are successful? In this webinar, we identify techniques, tactics, and tools for proving (and even measuring) value, and describing the outcomes that matter most.

Key Insights

  • 62% of design ops professionals are unsure how to measure the value of their work or have not figured it out yet.

  • Design ops teams typically spend about 60% of their time on coordinating work rather than direct impact activities.

  • Spotify organizes design ops work around three pillars: learning and inspiration, community culture, and tools/systems.

  • Measurement frameworks must be flexible and adapt depending on an organization's design ops maturity stage.

  • Designer productivity measurement focuses on identifying bottlenecks in workflows rather than just accelerating speed.

  • There is often resistance from designers to processes intended to streamline work, posing a challenge for design ops.

  • Attribution of design ops outcomes is difficult due to long and variable product release cycles.

  • Partnering with analytics and data science teams is essential to effectively measure design ops impact.

  • Design systems measurement commonly starts with adoption rates and usage metrics but is difficult to fully quantify.

  • Remote work and current global challenges have complicated measuring designer happiness and productivity, emphasizing empathy.

Notable Quotes

"People spend about 60% of their time on the work about the work."

"Only one in 10 companies have quantifiable measurement for their design leaders."

"Measurement is not just about tools but about an intentional strategy with a flexible framework."

"In many cases, we don’t even know what the work is in design ops."

"It’s far more helpful to focus on removing bottlenecks and friction points in designers’ workflows than just trying to make them work faster."

"Designers often resist processes meant to streamline their work because it feels restrictive."

"There’s not yet an industry standard for measuring the impact of design ops."

"Shared outcomes and shared goals are critical to any measurement initiative."

"Attribution is tricky because design work’s impact often occurs six months or a year after the work is done."

"Empathy is essential now more than ever in measuring and supporting designer happiness during remote work."

Ask the Rosenbot
Nancy Douyon
We'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Bud Caddell
DesignOps Community Sensing Session
2021 • DesignOps Community
Ricardo Martins
Unlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Laine Riley Prokay
Carving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Roberta Dombrowski
Making Research a Team Sport
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Alnie Figueroa
Teamwork: Strategies for Effective Collaboration with Other Program Management Teams
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Dalia El-Shimy
So You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Eniola Oluwole
Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Nicole Umphress
Delivering Design Education During a Global Pandemic: Lessons Learned
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Robert Reimann
Taming Design Complexity with UX Models
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Kit Unger
Theme 2: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Vitorio Miliano
Don’t call it AI: Turn words into numbers with quantitative ethnography
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Conference
Dave Malouf
The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 2)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Sean McKay
Coexisting with non-researchers: Practical strategies for a democratized research future
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold

More Videos

Erin Hauber

"Scaled Agile felt at first like a step backwards—design looked like just the finishing touch, not a key ingredient."

Erin Hauber

Design is Not the Frosting on the Scaled Agile Layer Cake

October 24, 2019

Uday Gajendar

"Let's keep up those discussions in Slack—there's some really good stuff going on today."

Uday Gajendar

Theme Four Intro

June 6, 2023

Sam Proulx

"Accessibility isn’t a checkbox you run automated tests for; you must involve people with disabilities to benchmark success."

Sam Proulx

Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience

June 7, 2023

Jeff Ephraim Bander

"Sometimes it is hard to articulate what you looked at, but eye tracking makes it measurable and objective."

Jeff Ephraim Bander Ariane Rahn Philipp Reiter

Eye Tracking Gamechanger: Why Smartphone Eye Tracking will Revolutionize Your UX Research

March 11, 2022

Susan Simon-Daniels

"Steve just talked about humans being humans in a world full of humans."

Susan Simon-Daniels

War Stories LIVE! Susan Simon-Daniels

March 30, 2020

Robin Beers

"You can do everything right, but timing and organizational readiness are beyond your control."

Robin Beers Nalini Kotamraju Andy Warr

Panel: Excellence in Communicating Insights

March 26, 2024

Jemma Ahmed

"The skills we hold are exactly the skills that this moment requires."

Jemma Ahmed

Theme 1 Intro

March 10, 2026

Christopher Geison

"Removing research from underneath UX has increased our ability to influence at Salesforce."

Christopher Geison

Theme 1 Intro

March 25, 2024

Bianca Jefferson

"Hope is not a strategy, and mandates don’t build culture. What works is scaffolding."

Bianca Jefferson

From Sprints to Systems: Operationalizing Continuous Discovery Through DesignOps

September 10, 2025