Summary
We’ll identify the big challenges that DesignOps people face—and begin working on addressing them together in this collaborative activity. We’ll work together in small teams to design the ultimate Design Operations organization, capture learnings, and share them with each other. Facilitated by Dave Gray and the XPLANE team.
Key Insights
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The design canvas serves as a self-facilitating tool that simplifies structured conversations about organizational design.
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Culture and communication are critical factors to address when considering design operations.
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The canvas is in beta and open to iteration based on user feedback, which engages the audience in the development process.
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Teams should be encouraged to share experiences and insights to collectively enhance organizational design.
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Defining terminologies within the canvas is crucial to avoid misunderstandings during discussions.
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Organizations benefit from having a common communication platform to improve collaboration across teams.
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Participants stressed the importance of maintaining a balance between creative freedom and necessary consistency in design practices.
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Leadership buy-in is essential for achieving successful design integration into overall operations.
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Regularly mapping the current state can help teams identify areas for improvement and streamline processes.
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Establishing metrics to measure success is key for demonstrating the value of design efforts to stakeholders.
Notable Quotes
"We gotta sit through two hours a day of gray; the answer is no, you don't have to sit through two hours."
"Design canvases sort of almost self-facilitate because it's a design concept that tries to embed some of the facilitation into the tool."
"There are a lot of badly designed canvases out there, and I do intend to write a blog post about what it takes to do a good one."
"Once you get into the conversation, things are going to occur to you."
"We don't know what else is important, but we certainly expect that there will be other things that will come up as you talk about it."
"When you have the same conversation in meetings over and over, a canvas can help keep that conversation moving forward."
"When we talk about success, we're not necessarily defining it; it’s often the businesses that don’t."
"In organizations, the people are at the center of everything we're trying to evolve."
"Design tools aren't people; be careful that your tools don't replace relationships that are necessary."
"We're all figuring it out together, making it up as we go along."
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