Summary
Tess has been building design teams with a relentless focus on team culture. Join us for a fast paced Q&A where she will share stories and actual Miro boards that she has used to facilitate team engagement at Condé Nast. We will dig deeper into her re-framing of "team happiness", and what she has learned from her tactics and experiments to cultivate this. If you attended her talk on Wednesday, this is a chance to ask your follow up questions in an intimate setting. This Q&A will be hosted by Shipra Kayan, a design leader at Miro who has over a decade of experience building distributed design teams.
Key Insights
-
•
Design ops can effectively support large, multi-disciplinary teams by managing non-design tasks to free creative focus.
-
•
Traditional external signs of happiness like laughing or smiling are poor indicators of genuine team morale.
-
•
Small teams can conduct regular, informal happiness checks easily, while larger teams benefit from tools like OfficeVibe or Slack bots for sentiment capture.
-
•
Remote design teams benefit from creative, asynchronous, and synchronous activities like Miro boards to build connection.
-
•
Incorporating playful, low-pressure activities such as building a snowman or fantasy pet sketches stimulates creativity without forcing participation.
-
•
Personal connections in remote teams are best supported through dedicated, recurring meeting time focused solely on people rather than work.
-
•
Pushback against team-building activities often signals a desire for alternative approaches, which can be addressed by encouraging ownership and volunteer leadership.
-
•
Anonymized feedback tools provide valuable insights but require managers to follow up personally for effective resolution and trust-building.
-
•
Honest communication about issues that can’t be fixed immediately reassures team members and strengthens relationships.
-
•
Integrating emotional check-ins into existing meetings minimizes Zoom fatigue and increases participation without adding extra time commitments.
Notable Quotes
"Most leaders measure team happiness by how much people are smiling or laughing, but that’s really a poor metric."
"When I’m inspired in a meeting, I sometimes have a concerned look because I’m deeply focused, not unhappy."
"For larger teams, tools like OfficeVibe gift-wrap people’s feelings into easy-to-digest data."
"Getting weird in Miro lets people play and connect remotely without pressure to prepare or present."
"We pivoted big parts of our weekly all-hands to just personal connection because work stuff can happen anytime."
"If someone says they don’t want to do this team activity, I say great, you should lead the next one with your idea."
"Anonymity in feedback is good, but makes follow-up tricky—managers have to use personal relationships to bridge that gap."
"If I can’t fix a problem someone brings up, I tell them honestly and promise to support them however I can."
"People crave real connection, but not forced fun or extra Zooms—so we embed play into existing meetings."
"The key to managing a design team is to not just ignore problems but keep talking about them, even if there’s no quick fix."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"People who experience trauma often feel powerless; trauma-informed design should empower and give voice and choice instead."
Carol Scott Melissa EgglestonAvoid Harming Your Team and Users: Promoting Care and Brand Reputation with Trauma-Informed UX Practices
February 5, 2025
"Mixed methods researchers will need to trust AI for base-level synthesis but still bring human meaning making."
Lija Hogan Milan Mijatovic Sam Proulx Louis RosenfeldThree Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research
March 15, 2024
"Mobile screen readers can confirm basic accessibility but desktop testing is still needed due to differences across tools."
Sam ProulxMobile Accessibility and You
June 9, 2022
"We evaluate the work and not the amount of hours."
Ana FerreiraDesigning Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries
January 8, 2024
"The best way to understand these technologies is to learn them hands-on, especially if your work involves language or taxonomies."
Jorge ArangoScale Smart: AI-Powered Content Organization Strategies
September 24, 2024
"We’re exploring if design ops should host a cross-product scrum team focused on visionary redesigns to have bigger impact."
Chris MosesStretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
November 7, 2018
"Tones need to be distinct enough so that merchants can spot the tone that best fits their brand."
Trisha Causley[Demo] Complexity in disguise: Crafting experiences for generative AI features
June 5, 2024
"Novice users can try things out thanks to automation, but experts can focus on the challenging and creative pieces."
Clara Kliman-SilverUX Futures: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Design
June 7, 2023
"Single sign-on was going to be really important because I didn’t want any barrier entry for people."
Michael PolivkaScaling Design through Relationship Maps
November 7, 2017
