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
Emily Danielson
“I mean, I can lift a shovel”: Design Skills in Disaster Response
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Ana Ferreira
Designing Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Prabhas Pokharel
Order and Chaos: New Ways of Collaborating on Synthesis and Storytelling
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme 3 Intro
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Nicole Umphress
Delivering Design Education During a Global Pandemic: Lessons Learned
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
How to use the Rosenbot
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Fisayo Osilaja
[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Catherine Courage
The Enterprise UX Journey: Lessons From the Voyage & The Opportunity Ahead
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Billy Carlson
Pro-level UI Tips for Beginners
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Sam Proulx
SUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Ana Maria Montero Barrantes
The Authentic UX Talent Show
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Andy Warr
Under My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility and You
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Nidhi Singh Rathore
Embracing participation to unlock deeper truths in commercial research
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Sam Proulx
Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Bria Alexander
Day 1 Panel: Up to the Minute: The latest in AI’s impact on UX
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold

More Videos

Gabriela Barneva

"Accessibility often happens too late, as an afterthought, making updates costly and disconnected from lived experience."

Gabriela Barneva

Operationalizing Inclusive Design in Design Ops

September 11, 2025

Jenny Price

"Transformation isn't just about ideas, it's about infrastructure."

Jenny Price

From Tradition to Transformation: Unlocking Startup Agility in a Legacy Enterprise

September 10, 2025

Amber Knabl

"It’s way more cost effective to catch accessibility issues during the design phase than after shipping a product."

Amber Knabl

Empowering innovation: The critical role of inclusive product development in the AI era

June 4, 2024

Louis Rosenfeld

"This is not a pay for play conference in any stretch — sponsors understand the importance of curation and merit."

Louis Rosenfeld

Founder’s Welcome

December 6, 2022

Dave Malouf

"Streamlining and integrating our tools is vital to reduce fatigue and maximize team effectiveness."

Dave Malouf Adrienne Allnutt Jon Fukuda Dominique Ward

The Future of DesignOps

January 8, 2024

Kaaren Hanson

"Companies with strong user experiences had twice as many designers as product managers, often with senior design strategists."

Kaaren Hanson

Stop Talking, Start Doing

June 9, 2017

Jason Mesut

"Mask Manipulators appear caring but use guilt and emotional pressure, killing trust and psychological safety."

Jason Mesut Martina Hodges-Schell Jose Coronado

Unmasking Design Leadership: Navigating leadership without neglecting ourselves

October 30, 2025

Bria Alexander

"Please put your questions inside of the thread associated with the talk."

Bria Alexander

Day 2 Welcome

September 24, 2024

Niko Laitinen

"Nobody really knew what we should be reaching for because the vision was outdated."

Niko Laitinen

Adaptable Org Design for Resilient Times

June 10, 2021