Summary
Building a Design Ops team means having a long-term vision and thinking about future growth from the very beginning. DesignOps team members can become key problem solvers bringing value to your company—or can hit professional dead end without leveraging their true strengths. As a new discipline, how you plan to build strong culture and meaningful growth paths will provide ongoing value to your company. Courtney Kaplan will talk about how you can define opportunities for your team, find the right challenges for talent, and provide support in creating an impactful discipline.
Key Insights
-
•
Design program management grew from a 2-person team to over 300 in Facebook's ads design group in five years.
-
•
Building design ops requires moving through four phases: triaging, discovering, emerging, and strategizing.
-
•
Initial hiring should focus on clear prioritization and a vision to attract long-term, motivated talent.
-
•
Early DPMs often become overwhelmed by requests; managers must protect their focus and support growth.
-
•
It's crucial to understand DPMs' unique passions and strengths, not just their skills, for sustainable growth.
-
•
Without thoughtful growth, DPMs risk becoming overwhelmed coordinators or burnt-out super producers.
-
•
Creating community and mentorship among DPMs reduces the loneliness of being the sole ops person on a team.
-
•
As DPMs mature, they identify complex organizational problems and develop scalable solutions like onboarding camps.
-
•
Successful design ops teams share best practices broadly and build cross-functional partnerships beyond design.
-
•
Strategic design ops partners influence company success by proactively shaping plans alongside leadership.
Notable Quotes
"I was much more interested in talking to clients, understanding the scope, and translating that into what designers would build."
"We grew from two designers to 50 in four months, then over 300 in five years in just the ads design org."
"Start with making a big list of all the things breaking within design and bucket them to prioritize."
"Those first hires establish the tone of the entire design ops discipline moving forward."
"DPMs can get overwhelmed quickly because they want to say yes to everything; managers must help say no."
"Helping your team take risks and stretch is critical even though design ops tend to be risk averse by nature."
"My team felt lonely—like lone wolves being the only one of their kind on their teams."
"No one else knows what you know as a DPM. You have to coach and help them frame up problems."
"We created onboarding camps that helped new hires become impactful faster and packaged that across teams."
"The ultimate place for a design ops team is to be strategic partners driving company success."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
More Videos
"Carol was really grateful for our conversation."
Randolph Duke IIWar Stories LIVE! Randy Duke II
March 30, 2020
"Don’t force yourself into a job you know isn’t right just because you’re unemployed."
Corey Nelson Amy SanteeLayoffs
November 15, 2022
"Statistical significance tells you if a change is likely not random, but it does not tell you if the change matters to your business."
Landon BarnesAre My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?
March 10, 2022
"Self-report is not the end all; people often don’t know why they behave certain ways, especially regarding automatic motivations like deeply ingrained mental models."
Amy BucherHarnessing behavioral science to uncover deeper truths
March 12, 2025
"Every piece of product can be described using components like intent, viscosity, and flow—making UX a physics problem."
David SternbergUncovering the hidden forces shaping user behavior
July 17, 2025
"Assessing feedback urgency means understanding if the issue blocks critical work or if there are workarounds."
Deanna SmithLeading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process
September 23, 2024
"Designers have power. We get to decide who gets heard, who gets included, who gets excluded."
Jennifer StricklandAdopting a "Design By" Method
December 9, 2021
"Around 14 to 20 designers is usually the tipping point where having a dedicated design ops person starts to make sense."
Rachel Posman John CalhounA Closer Look at Team Ops and Product Ops (Two Sides of the DesignOps Coin)
November 19, 2020
"Provoking and reframing perspective helps teams get unstuck by thinking in new and surprising ways."
Gina MendoliaTherapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
December 3, 2024
