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.

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
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
Advancing the Inclusion of Womxn in Research Practices
2022 • Advancing Research Community
George Aye
That Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Jorge Arango
Meeting of the Waters: Designing for Successful Inorganic Growth
2021 • Enterprise Community
Alnie Figueroa
The Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
AI: Passionate defenses and reasoned critique [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Paul Pangaro, PhD
Systems Disciplines: Table Stakes for 21st Century Organizations
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Bianca Jefferson
From Sprints to Systems: Operationalizing Continuous Discovery Through DesignOps
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Michael Land
Establishing Design Operations in Government
2021 • DesignOps Community
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Leading through the long tail of trauma
2022 • Enterprise Community
Kate Koch
Flex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Robin Beers
How to create actionable insight in the face of politics and silos [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Ilana Lipsett
Anticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Patrick Boehler
Fishing for Real Needs: Reimagining Journalism Needs with AI
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Chloe Amos-Edkins
A Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Kritika Yadav
Optimizing AI Conversations: A Case Study on Personalized Shopping Assistance Frameworks
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Ryan Rumsey
Business Influence Without Losing Your Soul
2021 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Lavrans Løvlie

"Organizations say they want to break down silos but often create new ones in product teams; service design helps reconnect them."

Lavrans Løvlie Ben Reason

Ask me anything – Authors of Service Design: From Insight to Implementation

November 19, 2025

Bria Alexander

"We want you to leave feeling like all those missed Slack messages and emails are worth it."

Bria Alexander

Theme Two Intro

October 3, 2023

Shipra Kayan

"AI can act like a super eager intern who's very confident but sometimes gets things wrong."

Shipra Kayan Robert Kortenoeven Eileen Tang

Emerging principles for using AI in Design: What the product design team at Miro has learned from deeply integrating AI in their workflow

June 11, 2025

Kit Unger

"We can lead the change in culture we want for ourselves and our team."

Kit Unger

Theme 1 Intro

June 8, 2022

Dominique Ward

"If you extinguish 365 fires in a year, bravo, but what do you really have to show for it, and what’s next?"

Dominique Ward

The Most Exciting Time for DesignOps is Now

September 8, 2022

Gordon Ross

"A COVID dividend is the value we reap from reforms and innovations accelerated by the pandemic that deliver sustained improvements but are at risk when the pressure is removed."

Gordon Ross

12 Months of COVID-19 Design and Digital Response with the British Columbia Government

December 8, 2021

Jon Fukuda

"There’s a journey in growing successful design ops practice and practitioners that we’ll hear from in this theme."

Jon Fukuda

Theme One Intro

September 8, 2022

Anna Avrekh

"Research produces so much data, but synthesizing it and choosing what to act on is a real challenge."

Anna Avrekh

User Research, Design, and Product - A Love Story

March 11, 2021

Sam Proulx

"If you haven’t done accessibility work yet, it makes sense to get started on mobile because you already have the tools in your pocket."

Sam Proulx

Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World

November 17, 2022