Showing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team

Key Insights

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  Design ops was initially embedded but undervalued and misunderstood at BBA Mexico, causing operational crises when removed.

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  The design team at BBA grew from 21 designers in 2016 to about 190 by the time of this talk, necessitating scalable ops support.

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  Splitting design teams into specialized groups by activity (discipline, pools, operations) without proper design ops support led to fragmentation and coordination failures.

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  Removing the design ops team caused designers to struggle with basic tasks like onboarding, printing, and project staffing.

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  Design leaders became overwhelmed trying to cover design ops responsibilities, detracting from their design focus.

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  Design ops functions include staffing, budgets, agency coordination, onboarding, career planning, and maintaining design practice standards.

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  Recognition among designers for design ops grew significantly once the team was absent, revealing their vital behind-the-scenes role.

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  Rebuilding design ops involved creating roles embedded directly with design heads to maintain alignment and responsiveness.

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  Ideal design ops ratio is around 1 manager per 14 designers, but practice often settles for less due to budget and project pressures.

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  Leadership found it difficult to communicate design ops’ strategic value to C-suite executives during organizational change, impacting support.

Notable Quotes