Summary
Experience the fantastical world of navigating rabbit holes, unlocking doors with hidden keys, and racing against the clock as Carla Casariego and Sarah Spencer take you through their adventures in creating and sustaining an agile DesignOps org at Express Scripts.
Key Insights
-
•
Adopting an Agile mindset gradually helps small experience teams evolve and gain organizational trust.
-
•
Establishing 'full kit teams' that include product owners, engineers, and designers improves product outcomes.
-
•
Saying no strategically is essential to protect team capacity and focus on high-value work.
-
•
User-centered design was initially new to the organization and needed to be proven through small wins.
-
•
Aligning design sprint cycles with engineering sprints creates a common language and better collaboration.
-
•
Centralizing operational functions (governance, tools, contracting) within design ops frees design teams to focus on creativity.
-
•
Creating transparent, collaborative intake and backlog prioritization processes builds credibility among stakeholders.
-
•
Balancing organizational timelines ('Wonderland time') with design needs requires incremental process improvements.
-
•
Proactive lead time planning allows design teams to adhere to user-centered design within Agile delivery constraints.
-
•
Continuous learning from internal partners and external design ops communities fuels meaningful evolution.
Notable Quotes
"A tea party of one can really be very lonely, so we decided to seek out some friends to make our tea party more fun."
"We really had to go into it with an adaptable mindset and know when to drink the potion or eat the cake to grow or shrink."
"When we started, user-centered design was a relatively new concept to the organization."
"The term full kit team was coined because you needed the full set of people to produce exceptional experiences."
"Say no — that was really hard, but when you say no, you’re saying yes to the right things."
"Design sprint 76 just kicked off yesterday, and the calendar lives on to align as best we can with software engineering."
"A lot of things we said yes to didn’t necessarily have value to the member or the company — we had to challenge that."
"We created a collaborative intake where we work together to understand what’s the most important thing."
"Our journey into Wonderland has been wild, wonderful, and requires constant reflection and looking outward for inspiration."
"Being small and not embedded into every team means we constantly have to remind partners of the space design needs to create exceptional experiences."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We had to kill the Ask Alexis product because the level of commitment needed couldn't happen with part-time consultants."
Steve Sanderson Alissa Briggs Jeff Gothelf Bill ScottDiscussion
May 14, 2015
"Directive Disruptors plow through organizations without listening, causing alienation and low morale."
Jason Mesut Martina Hodges-Schell Jose CoronadoUnmasking Design Leadership: Navigating leadership without neglecting ourselves
October 30, 2025
"The future should not be self-driving. It’s up to us, not the technology, to figure out the right way to use AI."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"Digital identity cards had a bad reputation, but when we explored further, we realized the card itself is a valuable existing asset."
Magdalena ZadaraZero Hour: How to Get Far Quickly When Starting Your Digital Service Unit Late
November 16, 2022
"Building influence has been such a challenging part of growing in my own career. It takes a lot of communication and understanding others’ goals."
Catt Small Micah Bennett Brian Carr Jessica HarlleeWhat's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
February 22, 2024
"There is no need for you to take notes because session notes, videos, and decks will be shared as soon as possible."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
November 17, 2022
"The DP&M tool has everything designers wish they could see from Jira and Figma, but often can’t because it’s either inappropriate or too hard to keep updated in those tools."
Ellie Krysl Jon FukudaPlanned Right. Managed Right. Designed Right.
June 6, 2023
"Measuring impact means linking research insights back to decisions and how they affect roadmaps and priorities."
Ned Dwyer Emily Stewart James WallisThe Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
September 24, 2024
"We began exploring the state of civic design across local, state, provincial, and national levels."
Sarah BrooksTheme 3 Intro
December 10, 2021
