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
Jaskiran Kang
Why Community is Key to Professionalizing Design
2022 • Civic Design Community
John Cutler
Oxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Dem Gerolemou
Climate technology fundamentals
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Amy Bucher
Harnessing behavioral science to uncover deeper truths
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Bria Alexander
OKRs—Helpful or Harmful?
2022 • DesignOps Community
Aditi Ruiz
Pulse Check: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 2
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Jen Briselli
Learning is the north star: service design for adaptive capacity
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Vanessa Varin
Feedback: The Other F-Word
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Jane Davis
Strategic Shifts and Innovations in User Research: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Ariel Kennan
Civic Design in 2022
2022 • Civic Design Community
Tamara Hale
War Stories LIVE! Tamara Hale
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Tricia Wang
From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Dave Malouf
The Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 1)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Patrizia Bertini
Pushing DesignOps’ Influence into New Global Markets
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Abbey Smalley
Scaling UX Past the Size of Your Team
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Angelos Arnis
State of DesignOps: Learnings from the 2021 Global Report
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold

More Videos

Helen Armstrong

"Working with AI is a lot less like working with another human and more like working with some weird force of nature."

Helen Armstrong

Augment the Human. Interrogate the System.

June 7, 2023

Steve Portigal

"Someone who thinks a study will run perfectly every time probably isn’t very experienced or realistic."

Steve Portigal Susan Simon-Daniels Tamara Hale Randolph Duke II

War Stories LIVE! Q&A-Discussion

March 30, 2020

Aiyana Bodi

"Every job is a climate job. Every job has to be a climate job."

Aiyana Bodi James Christie Marc O'Brien Louis Rosenfeld

Three Key Climate Initiatives and How You Can Help

September 11, 2024

Adam Cutler

"The studio is designed for whole teams to work together, not just the design team alone."

Adam Cutler

People + Places + Practices = Outcomes

June 8, 2016

Dolly Parikh

"Instead of spending eight hours job searching, cut it by half and spend the rest solving problems with the skills you have."

Dolly Parikh

Exit Interview #7: Journey of a Social Entrepreneur

May 21, 2026

Ovetta Sampson

"Think of UX influence as risk mitigation, not a zero-sum game."

Ovetta Sampson

Turning UX Passion into Real Product Influence

June 7, 2023

Sheryl Cababa

"Stakeholder mapping surfaces voices and incentives that were previously unknown to teams."

Sheryl Cababa

Integrating Systems Thinking Into Your Practice as a Designer

October 1, 2025

Lavy Kumar

"Roles are evolving with automation, but the shift toward skills is what will define future jobs."

Lavy Kumar Kat Temple Shan Sebastian Tara Jensen Jenn Chou

Future of Work

June 9, 2021

Sam Proulx

"I don’t know anyone who uses the configuration out of the box without customizing it heavily and extensively."

Sam Proulx

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Screen Readers

June 11, 2021