Rosenverse

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
Nicole Wright
Democratizing Research at HoneyBook
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Dianne Que
Real Talk: Proving Value through a Scrappy Playbook
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Shawna Hein
Create a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Rachel Posman
A Closer Look at Team Ops and Product Ops (Two Sides of the DesignOps Coin)
2020 • DesignOps Community
Alla Weinberg
People Are Sick of Change: Psychological Safety is the Cure
2023 • DesignOps Community
Alla Weinberg
Cross-Functional Relationship Design
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Alnie Figueroa
Teamwork: Strategies for Effective Collaboration with Other Program Management Teams
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Deirdre Hirschtritt
Research is Only as Good as the Relationships You Build
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Catt Small
What's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Sharon Banh
Reimagining research: What does the field need to grow? [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Llewyn Paine
Coexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Robert Fabricant
Industry junctures: Paths forwards for UXR and the critical decisions that get us there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Eniola Oluwole
Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Carol Smith
Operationalizing Responsible, Human-Centered AI
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Erin Weigel
UX Lessons from running more than 1,200 A/B Tests
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Marieke McCloskey
User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Melissa Schmidt

"The secret ingredient to making this work and scale has been identifying and empowering track leads."

Melissa Schmidt Adam Menter

How UX Research Hit It Big in Las Vegas

June 4, 2019

Max Gadney

"You can look at a company’s impact reports and funding sources to sniff out if something feels too good to be true."

Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah Wickes

Assessing UX jobs for impact in climate

August 14, 2024

Maria Skaaden

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

Maria Skaaden

Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments

November 8, 2018

George Abraham

"Sometimes different teams use different tools, so you may need a design system for Sketch for one team but then for XD for another."

George Abraham Stefan Ivanov

Design Systems To-Go: Introducing a Starter Design System, and Indigo.Design Overview (Part 1)

September 30, 2021

Rachael Dietkus, LCSW

"Moving fast isn’t just breaking things, it’s actually breaking people."

Rachael Dietkus, LCSW

The power to heal and harm

March 13, 2025

Peter Levin

"Be a narrative interpreter of your organization’s experience—understand its origin story, DNA, and what leadership cares about."

Peter Levin

Solve a Problem Here, Transform a Strategy There: Research as an Occasion for Expanding Organizational Possibility

March 25, 2024

Louis Rosenfeld

"There is no need to take notes over the next few days. We have dedicated sketch notes and session resources."

Louis Rosenfeld Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

March 27, 2023

Andrea Gallagher

"We still do a lot of coding transcripts by hand, and I’m not sure where the ideal digital intersection is."

Andrea Gallagher

The Problem Space

May 16, 2019

Steve Sanderson

"We had to kill the Ask Alexis product because the level of commitment needed couldn't happen with part-time consultants."

Steve Sanderson Alissa Briggs Jeff Gothelf Bill Scott

Discussion

May 14, 2015