Summary
How do you establish a thriving UX organization in a century-old company? Our opening presentation is a tale of two organizations and two different UX leaders. They followed very different paths and come from different industries, yet their stories of success and lessons for others have a lot in common. Rob Mitzel spent his entire career at Ford, starting from a Safety Engineer and changing roles to evolve into a Design Ops Manager, as the company evolved. Sébastien Malo parachuted to CN (Canadian National Railway) only a couple of years ago, but has already changed the course of his organization. Rob and Sebastien compare and contrast stories of how UX adapted and iterated their teams, skills and service to meet the needs of an evolving enterprise IT organization and the business at large.
Key Insights
-
•
At Ford, shifting from protecting UX turf to a culture of sharing and collaboration was key to UX team growth and success.
-
•
Creating and sharing usability patterns internally can increase UX advocacy even among non-UX staff.
-
•
Establishing a UX Club and informal meetups helps build internal UX networks and culture.
-
•
Building a component library aligned with usability patterns paved the way for a design system before that term was widely used.
-
•
Filling unaddressed enterprise needs proactively can lead to new service areas and team spin-offs.
-
•
Letting go of tasks like front-end coding allowed CN’s UX team to focus on core design and strategy.
-
•
A clear UX vision must be sold internally and then demonstrated through results to gain broader organizational buy-in.
-
•
Managing up and across by building networks is crucial to identify UX opportunities beyond the team’s immediate scope.
-
•
User story mapping and journey workshops can transform waterfall requirements into agile backlogs and broaden UX impact.
-
•
Expanding leadership roles beyond UX (e.g., business analysis) can amplify the influence of UX in an enterprise.
Notable Quotes
"My job was to insulate my team from the pressures and not let anyone else do UX work. That was wrong."
"It was like publishing the family secret recipe, but sharing usability patterns was crucial for advocacy."
"We created a UX Club to talk shop, share struggles, and build ideas across teams."
"We didn’t know what a design system was, but by combining component libraries and usability patterns, we built one."
"Sometimes you have to fill a need even if there’s no formal name or structure for it yet."
"UX must operate beyond the pixel to have real impact in enterprise transformation."
"Be an expert but act as a collaborator. It’s a team sport."
"Managing up and across started with lots of coffees and questions to build a mental model of the organization."
"The team brought structure and clarity by mapping requirements into user journeys and stories."
"You owe it to your organization and your team to grow the practice while staying true to your vision."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If you’re doing research with people with disabilities, consider using the Accessible Usability Scale to get more accurate insights."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
December 9, 2021
"We’re trying to build a design operations role that balances top-down governance with bottom-up community building."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"I spent too much time trying to change company culture and should have focused more on just getting things done."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"Your career is a design project. It’s the only one you own, so own it like you would a product."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"The persona of a goalkeeper is helping to triage and prioritize strategy and work for the executive."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
"Async communications helped us reduce emails and meetings, improving overall efficiency."
Amy EvansHow to Create Change
September 25, 2024
"Design ops is undergoing a transformation into a CX focused team with a refined mission to drive efficiency and customer experience excellence."
Kate Koch Prateek KalliFlex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
September 30, 2021
"It’s impossible to be angry with a warm cup of tea in your hand."
Dave GrayLiminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
May 14, 2015
"What if the atomic unit of research wasn’t the reports, but it was the insight within those reports?"
Matt DuignanAtomizing Research: Trend or Trap
March 30, 2020
