Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Designing Systems at Scale
Gold
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Share the love for this talk
Designing Systems at Scale
Speakers: Alëna Iouguina
Link:

Summary

To be alive in the twenty-first century is to rely on countless complex systems that profoundly affect our lives, where small mistakes can turn into massive inefficiencies and failures. These failures seem to stem from very different problems, but their underlying causes turn out to be surprisingly similar. This talk will cover about the common threads of these failures, how they can be detected and ultimately prevented using various research disciplines – from market research to anthropology to data science. We need to get good at designing and building for systems to tackle multi-dimensional problems at the intersection of people and technology.

Key Insights

  • Judy Ellis taught that the key to good design is combining aesthetics, manufacturing knowledge, business understanding, and an appreciation of play.

  • Successful processes must be transparent yet become invisible in their application to empower creativity and decision-making.

  • Shopify divides work into product lines addressing audiences and service lines ensuring knowledge flow and organizational alignment.

  • Data types fall into two complementary streams: object-oriented 'what' data and context-oriented 'where' data.

  • The brain processes 'what' and 'where' data in different hippocampus areas before combining them for decision-making.

  • Qualitative, context-rich data (the where stream) reaches decision centers earlier and is critical for effective decisions.

  • Cross-disciplinary collaboration among UX researchers, data scientists, anthropologists, and market researchers maximizes insight quality.

  • Knowledge distribution is best managed by shaping the environment and workflows rather than micromanaging the process itself.

  • Leadership support and clear executive ownership are vital to sustaining centralized research and knowledge cycles.

  • Tools like Shopify’s merchant frustrations database improve asset visibility and continuous improvement for customer-centric decisions.

Notable Quotes

"Toy design is not about the toy itself but a tool that unlocks unlimited possibilities before a child."

"Successful operations must have well laid out and transparent process documentation but that process must become invisible in its application."

"Service lines bridge gaps between product lines by facilitating knowledge flow and alignment."

"Our brains are terrible at operating on only one type of information—object-oriented or context-oriented."

"It’s the context-related data gathered through qualitative research that reaches our decision-making centers first."

"UX researchers at Shopify travel across product lines to share expertise and knowledge continuously."

"Knowledge creation, distribution, application, and evaluation form a reusable circular process, not a linear one."

"Leadership is really important—having an executive who understands the value of the knowledge cycle is key."

"Shopify’s merchant frustrations tool tracks customer issues over time, making that knowledge available to all teams."

"Properly maintained, knowledge becomes a vehicle that probes the most hidden spaces of what’s possible."

Ask the Rosenbot
Gabriela Barneva
Operationalizing Inclusive Design in Design Ops
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Saara Kamppari-Miller
"Prototype" vs "Prototype"--Breaking Down and Rebuilding Our Understanding of What We Do
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Matt Stone
Scaling Empathy, A Case Study in Change Management
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sol Mesz
Hands or Brains? How to Hire for Strategy, Strategically
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Jilanna Wilson
Distributed Design Operations Management
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Jeff Ephraim Bander
Eye Tracking Gamechanger: Why Smartphone Eye Tracking will Revolutionize Your UX Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Alan Williams
Designing essential financial services for those in need
2022 • Civic Design Community
Laine Riley Prokay
Carving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Doug Powell
DesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Jacqui Frey
Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Yunyan Li
UX Best Practices
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Vincent Brathwaite
Opener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Hugh Dubberly
Problems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving
2019 • Enterprise Community
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Christian Crumlish
AMA with Christian Crumlish, author of Product Management for UX People
2022 • Enterprise Community
Florence Okoye
AfroFuturism and UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold

More Videos

Nalini Kotamraju

"I believed we could do more — more for the company, customers, stakeholders, and ourselves if we had more agency."

Nalini Kotamraju

Research After UX

March 25, 2024

Dean Broadley

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."

Dean Broadley

Not Black Enough to be White

January 8, 2024

Denise Jacobs

"It can be so tiring to be the only one constantly saying this has to be done differently."

Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa Welchman

Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design

January 8, 2024

Kim Fellman Cohen

"Focus groups build empathy by letting team members share their experiences in real time."

Kim Fellman Cohen

Measuring the Designer Experience

October 23, 2019

George Aye

"We mostly have something called a BYOE scenario or bring your own ethics."

George Aye

That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide

November 16, 2022

Nathan Curtis

"Google’s Material Design has echoes of design decisions flowing through many of their applications."

Nathan Curtis

Beyond the Toolkit: Spreading a System Across People & Products

June 9, 2016

Greg Petroff

"Platforms need researchers and designers to make them meaningful and intentional for the people they are designed to serve."

Greg Petroff

The Compass Mission

March 10, 2021

Chloe Amos-Edkins

"Digital connectivity is necessary for participation in society, but half the world lacks internet access."

Chloe Amos-Edkins

A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation

March 27, 2023

Mackenzie Cockram

"Some stakeholders still prefer their beliefs to data, even in academia."

Mackenzie Cockram Sara Branco Cunha Ian Franklin

Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research from Discovery to Live

December 16, 2022