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
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Design ops can effectively support large, multi-disciplinary teams by managing non-design tasks to free creative focus.
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Traditional external signs of happiness like laughing or smiling are poor indicators of genuine team morale.
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Small teams can conduct regular, informal happiness checks easily, while larger teams benefit from tools like OfficeVibe or Slack bots for sentiment capture.
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Remote design teams benefit from creative, asynchronous, and synchronous activities like Miro boards to build connection.
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Incorporating playful, low-pressure activities such as building a snowman or fantasy pet sketches stimulates creativity without forcing participation.
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Personal connections in remote teams are best supported through dedicated, recurring meeting time focused solely on people rather than work.
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Pushback against team-building activities often signals a desire for alternative approaches, which can be addressed by encouraging ownership and volunteer leadership.
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Anonymized feedback tools provide valuable insights but require managers to follow up personally for effective resolution and trust-building.
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Honest communication about issues that can’t be fixed immediately reassures team members and strengthens relationships.
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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."
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