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
Himanshu Bharadwaj
If design had a heart
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Jeff Sussna
What DesignOps Can Learn From DevOps
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
How UX researchers can partner with (and not be replaced by) AI [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Peter Van Dijck
Hands-on AI #1: Let’s write your first AI eval
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Alnie Figueroa
The Future of Design Operations: Transforming Our Craft
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Mike Brzozowski
UX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Bria Alexander
Welcome
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Sarah Coyle
Design and Analytics with Sarah Coyle
2020 • DesignOps Community
David Conrad
The Feeling of Data
2023 • Enterprise Community
Amy Thibodeau
Opening Keynote: Process and Ambiguity
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Storytelling for DesignOps
2023 • DesignOps Community
Dave Gray
Liminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Meghan Hellstern
The Next 100 Years of Civic Design: How Might We Better Rise to Meet the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow?
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Trisha Causley
[Demo] Complexity in disguise: Crafting experiences for generative AI features
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Dan Willis
Enterprise Storytelling Sessions
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Heidi Trost
When AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Andrew Custage

"Aligning content to audience expectations requires understanding their intent through market research."

Andrew Custage Michael Mallett

The Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty

March 29, 2023

Max Gadney

"Go beyond climate, look at the personal systems you understand or want to solve to find your career motivation."

Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah Wickes

Assessing UX jobs for impact in climate

August 14, 2024

Feleesha Sterling

"Having a predictable cadence makes it way more useful for teams to contribute and benefit from rapid research."

Feleesha Sterling

Building a Rapid Research Program

May 18, 2023

Jemma Ahmed

"Combining primary and secondary knowledge builds powerful insight for stronger inclusivity of women."

Jemma Ahmed

Theme Three Intro

March 29, 2023

Sarah Alvarado

"UX researchers are really good at applying their methods to people outside the business but terrible at applying them to the leaders they work with."

Sarah Alvarado Nalini P. Kotamraju Anne Mamaghani Peter Merholz

How to make UX research leadership more effective [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]

October 26, 2023

Ariel Kennan

"Could the Civic Design Library offer electronic book checkouts like the Toronto Public Library does?"

Ariel Kennan

Civic Design in 2022

January 13, 2022

Mark Interrante

"You have to check the AI’s work and provide feedback—just like you would with a human assistant."

Mark Interrante Harry Max

AI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)

July 11, 2024

Kara Kane

"Openly sharing stories helps us learn from those who came before us and carve new paths."

Kara Kane

Theme One Intro

November 16, 2022

Amy Marquez

"You have to understand how the business actually makes money to align UX with it."

Amy Marquez

INVEST: Discussion

June 15, 2018