Summary
Most DesignOps practices, whether new or established, tackle a handful of common areas: hiring, workflows & process, culture & morale, among others. While you can find plenty of tools and best practices for these areas on- and offline, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Every company, team, toolset, and timeline is different, and the road to solutions is often, if not always, messy. Based on my experiences co-building DesignOps and Design Management practices at Pandora and Capital One, this talk will pull back the curtain on common problems we’ve been asked to solve and the scrappy, yet effective ways we’ve delivered early solutions, value, and measurable outcomes.
Key Insights
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Design teams often face ambiguity and uncertainty after organizational changes, like mergers or acquisitions.
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Creating a playbook can provide clarity around roles, responsibilities, and processes within a design team.
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Using frameworks like Hackman’s Five Factor Model can structure the playbook for clarity and effectiveness.
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A collaborative tool like Google Slides is effective for creating accessible and shareable resources.
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The process of building a playbook can improve team morale by providing much-needed clarity and structure.
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Incorporating vocabulary that resonates with the team and aligns with their projects can facilitate better communication.
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Intentionally measuring clarity can quantify the impact of design operations interventions.
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Getting scrappy and prioritizing progress over perfection can drive better results in dynamic environments.
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The content of a playbook can be repurposed for various team needs, enhancing its value across the organization.
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Design operations must continuously evolve, adapting resources like playbooks to remain relevant in a changing structure.
Notable Quotes
"I joined the team just about six months ago and in preparation for this talk, I've been jamming to a lot of Lizzo."
"Our chief product officer likes us to introduce ourselves by telling everybody what we're jamming to."
"The state of things when I first joined Pandora was compounded by a recent acquisition by Sirius XM."
"Creating the playbook was really an opportunity for our leadership to define and redefine and evolve what our goals and principles were."
"We knew that the team needed to feel a little bit more grounded in a common sense of greater vision and purpose."
"Without clarity, some of the smallest bumps in the road were becoming harder and harder to overcome."
"This makes me realize how much I take for granted. It's so useful to have a source of truth for all of this stuff."
"You illustrated it in a way that's easy to digest and understand."
"With the playbook, we were at a place where we didn't need to sell value to our leadership."
"Perfection is often a waste of time, so don't be afraid to get scrappy."
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