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
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Toby Haug
Discussion
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Corey Long
Hiring in DesignOps: A Critical Study on How to Hire and Get Hired
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Jim Kalbach
Jazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Stefanie Owens
Optimizing for Outcomes: Transformation Design in Systems at Scale
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Stephen Anderson
Puzzled? How to Coordinate Humans for Complex Challenges
2021 • Enterprise Community
Dave Hora
Advice for Establishing Research
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Daniel Korczynski
Why AI Is Bad at Research (and how to make it actually useful)
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
JD Buckley
COMMUNICATE: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Adam Cutler
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Opening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Shan Shen
Translating UX Terms into Business Contexts
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Sam Yen
Driving Organizational Change Through Design? Do more of this and less of that
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Michal Anne Rogondino
Saving Outer Space: The First UX Design System for Our Nation’s Satellites
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Do you want to work on climate? (Climate UX Discussion Series)
2023 • Climate UX Interest Group
David Sternberg
Uncovering the hidden forces shaping user behavior
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Lisanne Norman

"Startups promised limitless growth but often had cultures of microaggressions, isolation, and favoritism."

Lisanne Norman

Why I Left Research

March 27, 2023

Robert Schwartz

"It’s all about being subversive with goodness in your heart."

Robert Schwartz

We're Here for the Humans

June 9, 2017

Jon Temple

"Total cost of ownership includes integration, customization, support, and ongoing operational effort that can be easily overlooked."

Jon Temple Kalee Dankner Bruce Falk Lauren Galanter

Panel: Stacks, Security, and Stakeholders: The Hidden Work of UXR Tool Procurement

March 12, 2026

Deanna Smith

"Piloting your ideas before committing helps prevent disruption and saves energy in the long run."

Deanna Smith

Leading Change with Confidence: Strategies for Optimizing Your Process

September 23, 2024

Melinda Belcher

"If you don’t get good guidance and feedback from your enterprise partner, you’re not going to do the best work possible."

Melinda Belcher

Bridging the Gap: Making the Most of the Differences Between Agency and Enterprise

January 8, 2024

Darian Davis

"It takes at least one member of a team to choose to set healthy standards for collaboration."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Patrizia Bertini

"Storytelling drives outcomes. Build your good story."

Patrizia Bertini

The (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG

September 11, 2025

Todd Healy

"Design Quality Scores look at all touchpoints, emotional interactions, and the cognitive journey to fine-tune product adoption."

Todd Healy Jess Greco

Driving Change with CX Metrics

June 7, 2023

Vincent Brathwaite

"The future of medicine will be written in algorithms if we let it."

Vincent Brathwaite

Opener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams

October 22, 2020