Rosenverse
Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps

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.

Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps

Gold
Wednesday, November 7, 2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Share the love for this talk
Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps
Speakers: Jacqui Frey and Dan Willis
Link:

Summary

In this panel-style discussion, Dan, Jackie, and Ornima share their experiences and insights on growing design and UX teams and embedding design practices in large organizations. Dan highlights the challenges of delivering UX in federal agencies, noting the need for patience and anecdotal evidence of success rather than ideal solutions. He stresses the importance of flexibility when selling design processes, advocating for listening carefully to stakeholders and adapting instead of rigidly pushing pre-conceived solutions. Jackie discusses scaling design ops teams from 1 to 9 and planning to grow further, explaining how their organizational model addresses friction and broadening responsibilities beyond visual design toward experience design. Jackie also shares how a new VP of design (Gene Lee) championed the inclusion of design ops in broader business strategy, enabling a smooth business case. Ornima recounts the challenge of scaling Shopify’s UX research team from a small group to over 50, emphasizing the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration and demonstrating impact on product outcomes over time. Both Jackie and Ornima underscore the necessity of educating other teams unfamiliar with design’s role and building trust through well-prepared documentation and consistent collaboration. The speakers repeatedly stress patience, collective consciousness, embracing conflict and friction as natural steps toward progress, and recognizing organizational maturity to time initiatives properly.

Key Insights

  • Great UX delivery in government and complex organizations is often imperfect and requires patience and anecdotal wins rather than perfect solutions.

  • Selling design processes requires flexibility and listening; imposing rigid solutions often fails.

  • Scaling design ops teams hinges on recognizing patterns of friction and expanding responsively rather than scaling for its own sake.

  • Experience design is a broader scope than UI or visual, requiring more hands and diverse partnerships including agencies.

  • A supportive leadership figure like Gene Lee can significantly accelerate design ops adoption through integrating it into business plans.

  • Cross-functional collaboration, such as pairing UX researchers with support, data science, and marketing, helps embed design thinking across organizations.

  • Building trust with other teams unfamiliar with design requires clear communication, well-designed documentation, and delivering value over time.

  • Patience and acceptance of organizational maturity cycles are essential; not every good idea can or should be implemented immediately.

  • Conflict and friction within teams or organizations are necessary flashpoints that enable growth and collective understanding.

  • Design ops and UX functions evolve with organization size, requiring new strategies and team structuring to maintain velocity and impact.

Notable Quotes

"Listen hard, change fast."

"I would in no way describe what we did as great UX, but constantly beating them over the head with UX solutions, they can’t unsee it."

"If you hear what I’m saying and you’re uncomfortable, and I say I’ll do it your way, now you’re connected and you’ll back me until you can’t anymore."

"We love small teams because we move fast and break things and figure things out on the fly."

"Scaling is not for the sake of scaling, but scaling over time."

"They had no idea who we were or what value we provided, so first was hello, we exist."

"We’re humans having human experiences and remembering that is key."

"Collective consciousness cannot be asked to happen overnight; it’s a game of patience."

"Sometimes you have all the best ideas, but it’s not the right time, and that’s OK."

"Part of our job is just to have an opinion right now, not necessarily to solve everything immediately."

Ask the Rosenbot
Nova Wehman-Brown
We've Never Done This Before
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Nick Fine
How UX researchers can partner with (and not be replaced by) AI [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Elizabeth Sklar
Co-creating research enablement with your tech org: a case study
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Chris Geison
What's Next for Research?
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Daniel J. Rosenberg
Digital Medicine Design
2019 • Enterprise Community
Jaskiran Kang
Why Community is Key to Professionalizing Design
2022 • Civic Design Community
Scott Stephens
The Next Generation in DesignOps Toolsets
2022 • DesignOps Community
Matt LeMay
You Don’t “Get” Anyone to Do Anything
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Alexandra Schmidt
Why Ethics Can't Save Tech
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Heidi Trost
When AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
JD Buckley
COMMUNICATE: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Ari Zelmanow
Dark Side of Democratization
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Maria Giudice
Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Cheryl Platz
Embrace Your Fun Factor: Game Development Best Practices for Product Design
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Meghan Bausone
Systems Thinking and Design Innovation: Working with Leverage Points in Rural Maternal Health Systems
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Ryan Matthew
Bridging Design and Code: AI-Powered Design System Integration
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold

More Videos

Victor Udoewa

"Colonial ways of being, knowing, and valuing will never produce emancipatory methodologies."

Victor Udoewa

Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion

March 26, 2024

Bill Scott

"I started thinking of the UI layer as the experimentation layer."

Bill Scott

Lean Engineering: Engineering for Learning and Experimentation in the Enterprise

May 14, 2015

Lija Hogan

"Nonprofits often treat communities served as stakeholders, which drives authentic inclusion in design."

Lija Hogan

Contexts of Use: A Framework for Connection

December 9, 2021

Aurobinda Pradhan

"We don’t want anyone to change their favorite tools; we build plugins to share wireframes or prototypes directly."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022

Jilanna Wilson

"We act as the connective tissue that runs in our teams and help them run more efficiently."

Jilanna Wilson

Distributed DesignOps Management

February 26, 2019

Peter Van Dijck

"An agent is a model using tools in a loop, making plans, reasoning, and calling tools until it’s done."

Peter Van Dijck

Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 3: Understand AI architectures: RAG, Agents, Oh My!

July 30, 2025

Nicole Aleong

"Our deepest fear is not that we’re inadequate, but that we’re powerful beyond measure."

Nicole Aleong Michaela Mora Prayag Narula Brianna Sylver

What UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

September 14, 2023

Beth Chappell

"What AI is asking out of every individual contributor is to take on the skill set of a manager."

Beth Chappell

Leading through ambiguity: Supporting a design team relearning their craft

June 9, 2026

Llewyn Paine

"It’s been a really challenging year for the design profession with layoffs continuing in 2025."

Llewyn Paine

Day 1 Using AI in UX with Impact

June 10, 2025