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
Megan Blocker
A Selectively Scrappy Approach to ResearchOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Shreya Dhawan
Making service tangible: the fastest path to higher performance
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Conference
Jorge Arango
The Best of Both Worlds: How to Integrate Paper and Digital Notes (1st of 3 seminars)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Anupama Dhareshwar
From blueprint to bot: Designing resilient AI-powered services
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Conference
Ellen Chisa
The Values of Design
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
World Usability Day Panel Discussion
2022 • DesignOps Community
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
The Future of Research: Bridging the Gaps
2021 • Advancing Research Community
Louis Rosenfeld
Founder’s Welcome
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Angy Peterson
More Than Technology: Personalized Public Sector Experiences
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Michelle Morrison
Practice What You Preach
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Kyle Godbey
Non-linear service design for complex adaptive systems
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA)
What Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Lily Aduana
5 Reasons to Bring Your Recruiting in-House (and How To Do It)
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Clara Kliman-Silver
UX Futures: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Design
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Ovetta Sampson
Research in the Automated Future
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

John Paul de Guzman

"We replaced the exhausting time estimation game with data-driven models that give us more reliable results."

John Paul de Guzman

10k Screens Later: How We Became a Data-Driven Design Organization

September 24, 2024

Meaghan Waters

"If everyone’s looking at different versions of the plan, you get frustration and confusion."

Meaghan Waters Fotina Koutropoulous

Lack of Product Thinking will Doom Your Legacy Modernization

June 9, 2021

Mark Templeton

"You can leave a legacy in three minutes by giving a connection or sharing an insight—it doesn’t have to be grand."

Mark Templeton

Creating a Legacy: the ultimate experience

June 9, 2017

Amy Parness

"Commercial buyers evaluate products primarily on needs first; certifications like Energy Star are bonuses."

Amy Parness

Scaling Sustainability: Complementary strategies that drive long-term success

May 29, 2025

George Abraham

"You end up with something which I call Franken design because it’s kind of a mix and match of many different things, but it’s anything but a real design system."

George Abraham Stefan Ivanov

Design Systems To-Go: Introducing a Starter Design System, and Indigo.Design Overview (Part 1)

September 30, 2021

Sheri Byrne-Haber

"Employees are now suing employers for inaccessible tools, with million-dollar verdicts even in conservative courts."

Sheri Byrne-Haber

The Importance of Accessible Design Systems

January 8, 2024

Andrew Custage

"Digital channels now have higher standards—customers expect personalization at all times."

Andrew Custage Michael Mallett

The Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty

March 29, 2023

Steve Chaparro

"Don’t tell government teams you’re using design thinking—use their language and let them experience it first."

Steve Chaparro

Bringing Into Alignment Brand, Culture and Space

August 13, 2020

Samuel Proulx

"Ideally it should say about collapsed and then you press enter and it says expanded, so you know more options are available."

Samuel Proulx Laur Baek

Inclusive Research: Debunking Myths and Getting Started

March 12, 2025