The DesignOps Starter Kit
Summary
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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Technology is a tool, not a solution in itself; it needs human input."
Ali Jeffery Sheri ChudowHow DesignOps Helped Enable Wall Street to Work Remotely
October 22, 2020
"Representation is key to avoiding harm and misinterpretation, especially when working with Indigenous and marginalized communities."
Tricia WangThe most popular design thinking strategy is BS
January 27, 2022
"There’s a huge opportunity in transitioning people from other disciplines into design roles."
Nick CochranGrowing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
June 3, 2019
"We’ve been dealing with assistance since spellcheckers in the 1970s evolved to grammar checkers and beyond."
Christopher NoesselAI of the now: Designing for Agents
July 31, 2024
"An organization’s appetite for research influences how ready it is to receive and consume findings."
Sarah Fathallah Alba VillamilBeyond insights: Rethinking the role of researchers as stewards of organizational wisdom
March 13, 2025
"Emergence is a property where individual independent actions create a collective behavior like a school of fish moving together."
Erin Hoffman-JohnThis Game is Never Done: Design Leadership Techniques from the Video Game World
November 6, 2017
"We do a lot of unstuck meetings—where anyone stuck can bring the problem and get brain help without judgment."
Tanya SnookDesigning the team experience: Building culture through onboarding
November 4, 2021
"Everyone wants to see themselves reflected in the research questions and findings."
Jerome “Axle” BrownHow to Use Self-Directed Learning to Ensure Your Research Insights are Heard and Acted Upon
March 11, 2021
"Difficult people need to sit and wallow in that difficult, messy middle with those difficult questions."
Jemma AhmedTheme 2 Intro
March 26, 2024
