Rosenverse
Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments

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: Methodologies and Work Environments

Gold
Thursday, November 8, 2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Share the love for this talk
Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments
Speakers: Maria Skaaden
Link:

Summary

In this engaging session, Maria, Megan, and Hannah share their experiences applying UX and change management methodologies within complex organizations like McKinsey, rail transit systems, and tech-driven environments. Maria highlights the value of user empathy and evolving goals in large projects, like the rail system redevelopment, emphasizing intuition and user connection beyond just end customers. Megan discusses the importance of building open, editable playbooks that evolve through team contribution, stressing the need for balancing following rules and embracing scrappy innovation. Hannah introduces the concept of positive deviants, people who naturally exhibit better behaviors on the margins, and explains the importance of leveraging community and social proof to scale those behaviors rather than imposing top-down change. Together, they explore managing designer burnout through diverse challenges, work-life balance, and experiential learning such as field trips. The panelists also address maintaining optimism amid messy change by focusing on advocates and achievable impact areas rather than forcing universal adoption. They share tactical insights on setting flexible timelines within agile frameworks and choosing when to persist or pivot in organizational battles, weighing impact against effort. Their perspectives offer practical guidance on sustaining momentum, fostering inclusive culture, and evolving UX practices in fast-paced, mission-critical environments.

Key Insights

  • Open, editable playbooks encourage continuous improvement and team ownership.

  • Positive deviants provide powerful, community-driven models for scalable change.

  • Change is more successful when it leverages existing behaviors rather than imposing new ones.

  • Avoiding designer burnout requires variety in work and strong emphasis on work-life balance.

  • Physical user engagement, like field trips, recharges designers and grounds empathy.

  • Choosing the right 'hill to die on' depends on an impact versus effort analysis.

  • Success metrics vary widely between organizations, making adaptable frameworks essential.

  • Focusing on advocates accelerates adoption even when others remain skeptical.

  • Deadlines should be ambitious but flexible, acknowledging discovery and learning.

  • Building change from within the community fosters social proof and sustains adoption.

Notable Quotes

"If I can't make the actual playbook available, I'm very happy to talk about what it consists of and how we did it."

"It's all of our job to question why we’re doing what we’re doing and how we’re doing it."

"We keep our playbook in a place where anyone can edit it from the team."

"Positive deviants operate on the fringes and get the best results by doing things differently."

"Change has to come from within, social proof is key."

"Sometimes you just need to do something completely different than what you’re working on."

"We pick our battles and show what a great party it is without worrying about pulling everyone in."

"I am uncomfortable too. Change is uncomfortable, exhausting, but it can also be fun and exciting."

"It’s not a fight; it’s about finding that soft spot where people are already trying to do something."

"We set deadlines but accept that we don’t always make them, and that’s okay."

Ask the Rosenbot
Llewyn Paine
[Demo] Deploying AI doppelgangers to de-identify user research recordings
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Alexandra Schmidt
Why Ethics Can't Save Tech
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 3: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sara Asche Anderson
Not Your Ordinary Re-Brand: Design's Path to Driving Customer Obsession at Best Buy
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Cheryl Platz
Collaborative Creativity through Improv
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Bria Alexander
Day 3 Welcome
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Mansi Gupta
Drawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Lisa Gironda
Opener: Chief of Staff–An unexpected journey
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Chelsea Mauldin
Let's Talk About Money
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Julie Gitlin
Design as an Agent of Digital Transformation at JPMC
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Yulya Besplemennova
[Demo] Stress-testing GenAI in user research synthesis
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Failure Friday #4: Invisible Work: How I Stalled My Career by Not Showing My Work
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Peter Merholz
The Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX
2023 • Enterprise Community
John Calhoun
Bring your DesignOps Story to Life! The Definitive DesignOps Book Jam
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes
The Authentic UX Talent Show
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Erin Weigel
Real-world lessons to improve your conversion rates
2024 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Catherine Blizzard

"The team can now tell the World Service what to do, not just what the audience thinks."

Catherine Blizzard

Using Integrated Insight to Drive Growth

March 10, 2022

Jennifer Kanyamibwa

"Telling your team's story goes beyond the walls. It's also about understanding your place within the team."

Jennifer Kanyamibwa

Creating the Blueprint: Growing and Building Design Teams

November 8, 2018

Michelle Morrison

"Investing in individual pet projects really can take so many amazing shapes and cost the company very little."

Michelle Morrison

Culture Design

May 21, 2020

Jackie Ajoux

"It’s important to create a clear value proposition that ties your work to the larger organizational mission."

Jackie Ajoux

Leveling-Up: A Single-Player’s Guide to the DesignOps Team-of-One

January 8, 2024

Yulya Besplemennova

"I wouldn’t leave AI tools to juniors because it’s crucial to have your own experience to evaluate outputs."

Yulya Besplemennova

[Demo] Stress-testing GenAI in user research synthesis

June 4, 2024

Michelle Bejian Lotia

"We wanted people to get value from day one so they could see how much more they would get from all insights centralized."

Michelle Bejian Lotia Anne-Marie Morell

Rolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization

March 28, 2023

Helen Armstrong

"Working with AI is a lot less like working with another human and more like working with some weird force of nature."

Helen Armstrong

Augment the Human. Interrogate the System.

June 7, 2023

Meghan Hellstern

"Zane’s team works life-centered, collaborating with plants, animals, and ecosystems, expanding Civic design beyond human systems."

Meghan Hellstern Joanne Dong

The Next 100 Years of Civic Design: How Might We Better Rise to Meet the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow?

December 10, 2021

Alba Villamil

"Culture is the means by which people understand or make sense of the world around them."

Alba Villamil

Stereotyped by Design: Pitfalls in Cross-Cultural User Research

March 30, 2020