Rosenverse
It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times.

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times.

Gold
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Share the love for this talk
It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times.
Speakers: Brendan Jarvis
Link:

Summary

In this provocative talk, Brendan encourages us to stop worrying about the future, recognize that we have what it takes to overcome any challenge, and work together to create a future that our field is worthy of. He shares three stories to illustrate these points, taking inspiration from science fiction, Japanese samurai, and the enduring impression of his late Grandfather. If you want to worry less about your career, see situations more clearly, and discover the most important question for DesignOps professionals to ask themselves today - don't miss this presentation.

Key Insights

  • AI is already reshaping design craft and design operations, forcing professionals to redefine their roles and identities.

  • Fear and resistance to AI can lead to professional obsolescence, while proactive adaptation fosters relevance and innovation.

  • The samurai Miyamoto Musashi’s philosophy teaches the value of using both an observing eye (objective facts) and perceiving eye (context and meaning) to fully understand complex situations.

  • Separating what happens from what it means helps design professionals make better-informed, less reactive decisions.

  • Many factors impacting design careers, like company layoffs or economic shifts, are outside individual control, but responses remain within personal agency.

  • Regular critical self-reflection (the 'cognitive couch') is vital when experiencing career uncertainty or external stressors.

  • Design ops professionals must cultivate resilience and courage to persist and innovate amid adversity.

  • Historical and personal narratives provide powerful frameworks to understand modern challenges and foster optimism.

  • A clear, evolving understanding of what it means to be a design ops person is essential for strategic positioning and relevance.

  • Connection and sharing perspectives (such as on Slack) help expand understanding and avoid isolated reactions to industry fear or change.

Notable Quotes

"Fear is in the air as AI seems to be coming for our jobs, but fear doesn’t suit us—we are too optimistic, too creative, and too valuable."

"Fair is a choice, and we have better ones to make if we bring them into focus to build a better future."

"What does it mean to be a design ops person? That question matters and we must revisit it often."

"The observing eye sees things as they are; the perceiving eye looks beneath the surface to understand significance."

"Before responding to pushback or doom, separate what is happening from what you think it means—get the whole picture."

"Some things are up to us and some things are not. How we choose to respond is always within our control."

"Adversity is part of the human condition—what matters is how we face it, because that gives life greater meaning."

"The challenges we face are real, but so is our capacity to respond creatively and courageously."

"Being here alive at this moment is a statistical miracle—we must make the most of it."

"Our careers in design that aren’t regularly examined are unlikely to last."

Ask the Rosenbot
Carl Turner
You Can Do This: Understand and Solve Organizational Problems to Jumpstart a Dead Project
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Mac Smith
Measuring Up: Using Product Research for Organizational Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Dave Malouf
The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 2)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Sean Fitzell
Craft of User Research: Building Out Jobs to be Done Maps
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Mujtaba Hameed
The new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
George Aye
That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Saara Kamppari-Miller
Theme Three Intro
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Adam Cutler
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Wendy Johansson
An Education on Design Education for Orgs
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Ashley Sewall
Exit Interview #5: Designing My Life After Tech
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Megan Campos
What Did I Miss? The Hidden Costs of Deprioritizing Diversity in User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
John Cutler
Oxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Shivanjali M.
From Fragmented to Fluent: The Linguistic Approach to Research Knowledge
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Alexia Cohen
Increasing Health Equity and Improving the Service Experience for Under-Served Latine Communities in Arizona
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Steve Portigal
Looking Back…to Look Ahead
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Joseph Williams
Unlocking impact and influence through inclusive hiring in research
2021 • Advancing Research Community

More Videos

Mark Templeton

"Legacy is a gift: gifts of insight, leadership, experience that last long beyond anyone remembering who gave them."

Mark Templeton

Creating a Legacy: the ultimate experience

June 9, 2017

Dagmara Kukawka

"We do research not just to generate insights but to embed empathy across the organization."

Dagmara Kukawka

Tiny team, moonshot impact: Democratizing research across continents

March 10, 2026

Leah Buley

"If a client isn’t in the room when UX work happens, they don’t see the value and don’t understand it."

Leah Buley Joe Natoli

Ask Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)

October 8, 2024

Gregg Bernstein

"You have to go to the mountain; the mountain won’t come to you."

Gregg Bernstein

Opportunistic Research with Gregg Bernstein

July 11, 2019

Sarah Williams

"Our CMO was developing a brand strategy at the same time and organically integrated our experience principles into it, which was huge for us."

Sarah Williams

Verizon_A Framework for CX Transformation

January 8, 2024

Ebru Namaldi

"Design ops is a way to care for the people who design."

Ebru Namaldi

Designing the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps

September 11, 2025

Joshua Graves

"The best solutions come from good questions and sitting with the problem, not rushing to fix."

Joshua Graves

We Need To Talk: Addressing Unmet Expectations (Part 2 of 3)

April 28, 2025

Renee Reid

"If you make a pretty page, that’s great. But if the users can’t actually use the page or they’re frustrated, you just have a pretty page."

Renee Reid

Becoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)

June 3, 2019

Marc Fonteijn

"We have over a thousand participants from 61 countries, but remember this is only a sliver of the broader service design community."

Marc Fonteijn

First Insights from the 2025 Service Design Salary(+) Report

December 4, 2024