Flex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Verizon CX Ops transformed from a design ops team to a global CX operations team powering 300+ roles across the enterprise.
-
•
Super speed represents rapid onboarding and resource planning to match the right designers to priority projects quickly.
-
•
Telepathy is a metaphor for proactive and consistent communication, resource capacity planning, and recruitment process improvements.
-
•
Super gadgets include operational tools like Jira, Airtable, and dynamic reporting, critical for scaling CX operations.
-
•
Flight symbolizes adopting multiple frameworks (predictive, agile, hybrid) and flexible working at global scale.
-
•
Super intelligence is embodied by CX Ops acting as a knowledge hub, oversharing communications to avoid gaps.
-
•
Super strength is demonstrated by strong cross-team partnerships and repeatable scalable processes that enhance customer experience quality.
-
•
Capacity planning in uncertain environments relies heavily on design systems, iterative planning, and quarterly forecasts with business partners.
-
•
Defining and tracking anti-patterns helps identify inefficiencies, such as ineffective meetings or communication breakdowns, enabling quick corrective action.
-
•
Crypto nights like burnout, silos, and too many priorities are actively managed through transparency, communication, and team support.
Notable Quotes
"We are super ops — powering 300 plus designers, researchers, and strategists globally."
"One of our superpowers is super speed: moving at the speed of light almost in onboarding and resource planning."
"Telepathy means mind-reading—proactive solutions through expanded resource capacity planning and recruitment."
"Super gadgets are our operational tools that we get really geeky about, like Jira and Airtable."
"Flight means adopting multiple models—predictive, agile, hybrid—to empower design at global scale."
"As the keepers and gatherers of knowledge, we empower others by sharing and sometimes over-sharing communications."
"Our super strength comes from partnerships and scalable, repeatable processes."
"We have crypto nights like people pleasing, perfectionism, silos, and burnout—which we watch out for carefully."
"Capacity planning is always through ever-changing uncertainty, requiring quarterly resource planning and business partnership."
"Defining anti-patterns helps us quickly identify and remedy issues like ineffective meetings or misaligned priorities."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Researchers used to issue incentives manually, running on an honor system that was error-prone and inconsistent."
Sarah Sgarlato Pierini Kevin NewtonFrom Passion to Execution: A Story of Evolving Research Maturity at LinkedIn
September 9, 2022
"When you manage a team or become a director, you’re more like a small business owner than a creative."
Ryan RumseyBusiness Influence Without Losing Your Soul
January 14, 2021
"When ideas don't make it into the product, I do a post-mortem to share opportunities missed and improve the process."
Tricia WangSCALE: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"Observers interrupting sessions was a weird behavior we had to manage with clear rules."
Sarah RinkRemote User Research: Dos and Don'ts from the Virtual Field
June 11, 2020
"Every time we say, I would prefer not to, we reclaim a little bit of agency."
Jemma AhmedTheme 1 Intro
March 10, 2026
"Courage and curiosity together help lead with kindness and make a real impact."
Deanna Washington Tim Allen Jeff Courcelle John Maeda Matt Raw Erica TjaderScaling Success: Paving the Path from DesignOps to VP
October 4, 2023
"We have to think about who is our audience. That’s not going to change because of AI."
Tom Armitage Carla Diana Kanene Ayo HolderDay 2 Panel: Looking ahead: Designing with AI in 2026
June 11, 2025
"I do this in public, put this on a wall where you can test it so people can come and say, that is not right."
Holly ColeUnderstanding Experiences: When you have to do more than work
November 8, 2018
"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
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can designing social contracts from the perspective of aging improve societal policies?
How can talking about AI without using the term help uncover the real capabilities and risks of the technology?
In what ways does imagination distinguish human creativity from AI capabilities, according to Sarah?