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DesignOps Community Sensing Session
Thursday, May 13, 2021 • DesignOps Community
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DesignOps Community Sensing Session
Speakers: Bud Caddell , Kristin Skinner and Alana Washington
Link:

Summary

Join us to explore the future of the DesignOps role, as well as the joys and challenges folks are facing in that role.

Key Insights

  • Design operations struggles less with ideas and more with organizational culture and ways of working that hinder idea adoption.

  • Many design ops practitioners feel isolated as 'teams of one,' facing challenges defining their role and gaining recognition.

  • Leadership support is a crucial variable influencing design ops success, with some having strong champions and others lacking basic resources.

  • Scaling design ops functions risks losing the humanity and startup agility that early-stage teams enjoy.

  • Internal organizational operations directly influence customer experiences externally, creating a feedback loop of impact.

  • Community events and cohorts foster solidarity and shared learning invaluable to those navigating ambiguous roles.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has driven shifts in work practices, emphasizing remote efficiency but also risking increased bureaucracy.

  • There is tension between adopting bureaucratic scaling systems and maintaining human connection within growing design ops teams.

  • Iterative development in design ops means many contributions build foundations for future success even if not immediately visible.

  • Active curation of conference content grounded in real participant feedback ensures relevance and practical usefulness for the community.

Notable Quotes

"Organizations weren’t suffering from a lack of ideas, they were suffering from ways of working and culture that didn’t allow good ideas to get heard."

"I see design ops as deeply linked to how internal operations influence what our customers experience."

"The biggest challenge I see is scaling without losing our humanity."

"There’s still folks who are entering saying I’m a team of one, no one knows what I do."

"Having a 'dope' leader who champions design ops changes everything."

"Sometimes you’re just laying the foundational bricks so an idea or process can get off the ground."

"We want to prevent our community from the dehumanizing impulses often brought on by bureaucratic scaling."

"This conference is a polished snapshot of conversations already happening at scale in the community."

"We’re seeing a bifurcated experience between teams ready for virtual work and those struggling with it."

"Evangelizing and doing design ops day-to-day is a tough balance when resources are slim."

Louis Rosenfeld
Discussion: What Operations can teach DesignOps
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Bria Alexander
Theme Two Intro
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
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Jacqui Frey
Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
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Marc Fonteijn
First Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
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Louis Rosenfeld
Welcome / Housekeeping
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
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Sarah Auslander
Insights Panel
2022 • Civic Design 2022
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David Sternberg
Uncovering the hidden forces shaping user behavior
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Billy Carlson
Pro-level UI Tips for Beginners
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
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Mujtaba Hameed
Frameworks for Excellence: Using Visual Thinking and Communication to Elevate Your Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
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Devon Powers
Imagining Better Futures
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
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Noz Urbina
Rapid AI-powered UX (RAUX): A framework for empowering human designers
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Dave Gray
Group Activity: Making Sense of DesignOps
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
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Tricia Wang
The most popular design thinking strategy is BS
2022 • Enterprise Community
Sarah Brooks
Theme Three Intro
2022 • Civic Design 2022
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Erin Hoffman-John
This Game is Never Done: Design Leadership Techniques from the Video Game World
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
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Alana Washington
Theme 3 Intro
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
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