Summary
DesignOps teams are increasingly being leveraged to solve ambiguous organizational problems like career development, culture or belonging—they’re cornerstones for any successful team. Creating a measurable strategy for these problems is complex, and it can be hard to prove the value of dedicating full-time resources to maintain this work in the long-run. Based on our learnings at Pinterest, I’ll share tactical approaches you can take to craft programming for this problem space, define what ideal states look like and how you can measure and prove value.
Key Insights
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Design operations teams can effectively solve complex people and culture problems beyond traditional product focus.
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Design thinking methods adapted from product work can be used to prototype and iterate on people programs.
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Collecting real-time qualitative feedback through mixed methods builds empathy and more actionable insights than stale surveys.
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Defining problems with the right scope and clarity helps generate practical, testable solutions.
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Including a diverse mix of stakeholders and experts in ideation fosters ownership and buy-in.
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Establishing measurable objectives linked to concrete numbers enables tracking and proving program impact.
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Piloting ideas with small groups and embracing failure as learning accelerates refinement of solutions.
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Regular, transparent reporting to leadership creates trust and supports securing ongoing resources.
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Balancing long-term strategic bets with quick wins avoids overwhelm and sustains momentum.
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Even modest improvements in team health metrics can translate into meaningful gains in retention and morale.
Notable Quotes
"People problems find their way to design ops because we’re known problem solvers and people run to us when morale is low."
"What does ‘best work’ mean? It’s different for everyone, so our solutions have to be flexible and meaningful."
"Design thinking helped us empathize, define problems, co-create ideas, and then test them like products."
"Focus groups build empathy by letting team members share their experiences in real time."
"Our first problem statement was too big, so we refined it to something more doable and actionable."
"If you don’t have the support you need—budget, time, people—your program is at high risk of failure."
"Pilots don’t need to be perfect, they just need enough moving parts to gather useful feedback quickly."
"Failure isn’t discouraging; it’s an opportunity to learn and improve your approach."
"Reporting progress with data and stories opens up opportunities with stakeholders and builds credibility."
"Our team’s improvement wasn’t the final state—we set ambitious goals to be in the 80th to 90th percentile next year."
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