Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
What happens to your DesignOps team when your Design organization hits scale? Juggling the growth of your product, your people, and your processes is a demanding challenge, and strains the jack-of-all-trades skillset of even the most seasoned DesignOps practitioner. This continues the conversation we started at the DesignOps Summit about how we scaled and reshaped our UXOps team at Salesforce into two discrete tracks and we dive deeper into four themes: UX Product & UX Team Ops Design & DesignOps Team Maturity Design Ops Role Clarity and Career Ladders The Future of DesignOps
Key Insights
-
•
Unconventional career paths such as ballet and game design can lead into design operations, bringing diverse perspectives.
-
•
The design maturity model helps determine when to hire dedicated design operations roles, typically around 14-20 designers.
-
•
Design Ops teams face challenges balancing broad responsibilities like onboarding, delivery, culture, and tooling at scale.
-
•
Splitting design Ops into Team Ops (culture, systems, community) and Product Ops (delivery, strategic partnerships) improves clarity and impact.
-
•
Measuring and proving the value of design Ops requires defining clear, discrete, and measurable service offerings aligned to products and teams.
-
•
COVID-19 accelerated global collaboration and forced design Ops teams to adopt experimental communication methods and virtual socialization.
-
•
Maintaining team connections remotely involves virtual coffee chats, stand-ups with fun elements, weekend updates, and design crit-style feedback meetings.
-
•
The future of design Ops may blur roles with PMs and TPMs, focusing more on empowering teams and less on rigid titles.
-
•
Design Ops is evolving from supporting design teams only to influencing broader organizational processes and cultures.
-
•
Intentional, targeted communication and roadshow efforts are vital to re-educate the organization about changes in Ops structures and roles.
Notable Quotes
"My path into design Ops was winding—I started as a professional ballet dancer before falling in love with academia and design."
"Around 14 to 20 designers is usually the tipping point where having a dedicated design ops person starts to make sense."
"If adding a design program manager gives each designer back even one hour a day, you might make your entire team more efficient."
"We realized we were solving problems of a design practice when our organization had actually scaled to an organizational level."
"Trying to do all things well can mean doing all things kind of not so great—specialization became necessary."
"We created separate tracks so people can self-organize, leverage the right skills, and grow their careers in focused ways."
"Our team Ops Charter is about amplifying and celebrating the work and impact of design and design Ops."
"COVID has maybe made us a better global team by forcing us to figure out how to work across time zones and communication preferences."
"Employee experience and customer experience are inextricably tied—operationalizing design Ops impacts both."
"Design Ops might not just support design anymore—our work is requested by non-designers and solving broader business problems."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"What is design’s relationship to power and privilege? Which humans do we center when we say human-centered design?"
George AyeThat Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
November 16, 2022
"Engaging communities requires thinking beyond western-centric tools, considering language and cultural relevance for accessibility."
Xenia Adjoubei Sean BruceEmpowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
March 29, 2023
"The world is your oyster with whatever tool you want to use, even if we don’t directly integrate with it."
Benjamin Wiedmaier Annie MayfieldRedefining Toolkits: Unbundling to Create a Perfect Match
March 11, 2025
"Design systems help address integration challenges and differing cadences between design and development."
John DevanneyThe Design Management Office
November 6, 2017
"Just because you've been right in the past doesn't guarantee you'll be right in the future."
Steve Sanderson Alissa Briggs Jeff Gothelf Bill ScottDiscussion
May 14, 2015
"VB Rosenstein scaled Zendesk’s global UX research practice while adding rigor and credibility to their work."
Jemma AhmedTheme 2 Intro
January 8, 2024
"You need to believe what you’re doing is the right approach. You need to believe in your own skills and your team’s skills."
Megan KiersteadYou Are a Badass at UX: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
March 10, 2021
"Naming things — components, properties, parts — is the hardest thing and it never stops. Thankfully, we have Jess Satel, our amazing content strategist."
PJ Buddhari Nate BaldwinMeet Spectrum, Adobe’s Design System
June 9, 2021
"Scaling communities is about propagation, not just growing as big as possible."
James LangIf you can design an app, you can design a community
May 22, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How does Rally’s research infrastructure facilitate participant management and integration with enterprise data systems?
What were the main challenges Daniel and Justyna faced with fully autonomous AI feedback synthesis?
How can large language models assist in quantitative ethnography and what are the limitations?