Rosenverse
The DesignOps Starter Kit

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.

The DesignOps Starter Kit

Gold
Wednesday, September 29, 2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Share the love for this talk
The DesignOps Starter Kit
Speakers: Michelle Chin
Link:

Summary

Starting DesignOps at an org feels exciting and daunting at the same time. People who’ve given you the green light are as excited as you - so there’s a bit of pressure to make this work well! In this talk, Michelle will provide a “starter kit” of 10 tips for beginning a DesignOps program—the 10 foundational things she's learned from establishing DesignOps at her org. Michelle includes how to prepare the program, manage expectations, ensure your success, and keep things sustainable for the long term.

Key Insights

  • Centralizing design ops responsibilities can alleviate decision fatigue among design managers and increase focus on operational initiatives.

  • Explicitly defining who makes decisions and who provides feedback prevents unclear expectations and supports smoother project execution.

  • Communicating design ops work frequently and across varied formats builds understanding and trust in an often ambiguous practice.

  • Starting with small pilots before scaling allows room for iteration and reduces risk when introducing new processes org-wide.

  • Maintaining a public and collaboratively editable backlog helps manage expectations, prioritize effectively, and capture emergent ideas.

  • Creating reusable templates and frameworks accelerates workflows and standardizes communication of complex operational concepts.

  • Regular one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders foster open communication lines critical for driving horizontal change.

  • Balancing urgent ad hoc work with longer-term goals requires careful prioritization techniques like story pointing and breaking tasks down.

  • Design ops responsibilities typically cover horizontal initiatives affecting multiple teams, while design managers handle team-specific operations.

  • Celebrating team wins strengthens relationships and encourages adoption of new processes during times of frequent organizational change.

Notable Quotes

"Everyone was doing a little bit of design ops here and there, which created a lot of gray area around decision making."

"Organic decision making doesn’t always work for high stakes efforts because design ops initiatives are often horizontal and require alignment."

"Communicate as much as possible and in different formats, because different formats resonate differently with people."

"Pilots give you flexibility to mess up and figure out answers as you go, instead of needing all answers upfront."

"A backlog helps pace and define the design ops practice, managing what’s in scope and what’s aspirational."

"Templates don’t have to be masterpieces; even simple reusable checklists and diagrams can save time and effort."

"As a design ops manager, I try to alleviate decision fatigue for design managers so they can focus on the decisions that need their input."

"I’ve found that being approachable and providing space for Q&A helps build trust and confidence in the design ops practice."

"Design ops is a lot of change management, and asking people to change again requires appreciation and celebrating wins."

"My prior experience as a tour manager helped me operationalize and mobilize teams, anticipating risks and preparing for everything."

Ask the Rosenbot
Sam Ladner
How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Dantley Davis
Leadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis
2020 • Enterprise Community
Dawn Ressel
Full-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Phil Hesketh
Designing Accessible Research Workflows
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Prerna Makanawala
Achieving Balanced Design Consistency
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Ron Bronson
Design, Consequences & Everyday Life
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Clara Kliman-Silver
UX Futures: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Design
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Andreas Huebner
What Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Alastair Simpson
Debunking the Myths of Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Nora Tejeda
Scaling Design Capabilities at BBVA Through a Self-service Design Model
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sarah Williams
Verizon_A Framework for CX Transformation
2024 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Laura Smith
Embedding Service Design and Agile Practice within UK Planning Teams to Create Services that Last
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Rachel Radway
The Many Paths Of Design Operations
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Sarah Brooks
Theme 3 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jilanna Wilson
Distributed Design Operations Management
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold

More Videos

Amy Thibodeau

"Many culture-building moments at Shopify happen because individual contributors see opportunity and take action."

Amy Thibodeau

Opening Keynote: Process and Ambiguity

October 23, 2019

Erin May

"75% of democratized studies don’t see full reporting mostly because stakeholders don’t have time for the analysis."

Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke Hinton

Distributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org

March 10, 2022

Dr. Jamika D. Burge

"The pandemic is a message from the universe to pause and rethink who we hire and how we train."

Dr. Jamika D. Burge Steve Portigal Alba Villamil Sam Ladner

The Future of Research: Bridging the Gaps

July 29, 2021

Bram Wessel

"The first stage we see is the accidental stage with silos and no consistent information across the organization."

Bram Wessel

Enterprise Information Architecture

January 10, 2020

Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA)

"We answer questions differently when we’re living life and doing activities than when we’re sitting down facing the camera."

Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA) Charley Scull Prabhas Pokharel

What Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking

March 11, 2022

Briana Thomas

"We decided not to chase shiny objects because we wanted to stay true to our mission."

Briana Thomas

The Quiet Force: Uncovering Hidden Leadership in High-Impact Design Teams

September 24, 2024

Neil Barrie

"A company needs a triple win cultural role speaking to its commitment, user needs, and wider cultural tension."

Neil Barrie

Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture

March 25, 2024

Laura Schaefer

"It helps to find shared goals, areas that both groups feel passionate about and where they can make a big difference."

Laura Schaefer

DesignOps: A Conduit for Inclusion

September 9, 2022

Deanna Smith

"Processes are never perfect, but thoughtful testing limits disruption for your team."

Deanna Smith

Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process

September 23, 2024