Theme 3 Intro
Summary
Day three of the Design Ops Summit centered on exploring the future of design operations, guided by community input highlighting excitement around shaping this future collaboratively. Anglos presented the State of Design Ops report, establishing the current landscape and forecasting trends. A panel including Tim Gilligan, Meredith Blackbrand, and Bria Alexander discussed emerging themes from the community and the report, deepening the dialogue around future challenges and opportunities. Natalie Dunbar explored the convergence of content strategy and design ops, providing actionable strategies for aligning these disciplines. Benjamin Rial shared a compelling narrative about wayfinding and navigating the path forward, while John Calhoun used mountain climbing metaphors to reflect on reaching peaks and plotting next goals. Lastly, April led an interactive session helping attendees define where they want to go post-summit through reflective provocations. Throughout, sponsor sessions reinforced themes with practical tools, supporting attendees in engaging hands-on with evolving design ops practices.
Key Insights
-
•
The Design Ops community is eager to collectively shape the future direction of the discipline.
-
•
Anglos' State of Design Ops report provides a critical baseline and forecasts trends shaping the field.
-
•
Panelists Tim Gilligan, Meredith Blackbrand, and Bria Alexander emphasize integrating community insights with expert perspectives to chart future paths.
-
•
Content strategy and design operations are increasingly converging, offering tactical synergy as highlighted by Natalie Dunbar.
-
•
Wayfinding, as described by Benjamin Rial, is a valuable metaphor for navigating design ops futures.
-
•
John Calhoun's use of mountain climbing metaphors illustrates the importance of recognizing milestones and setting new goals in design ops evolution.
-
•
Interactive provocations led by April encourage practitioners to actively map personal and organizational futures post-conference.
-
•
Sponsor sessions integrate tooling experiences that support the themes of future-focused design operations.
-
•
Community surveys are instrumental for steering summit content and ensuring relevance to practitioner needs.
-
•
Collaboration and shared storytelling are foundational for advancing the design ops discipline.
Notable Quotes
"One theme was very clear and that was around the future."
"You are all very excited about the future of design ops because you are charting the course together."
"Anglos' State of Design Ops report is a really incredible baseline about where we are today."
"We’ve got Tim Gilligan, Meredith Blackbrand, and Bria Alexander on a panel about the future of design ops."
"Natalie Dunbar will talk about the convergence of content strategy and design operations and charting a course together."
"Benjamin Rial is going to tell a really awesome story about wayfinding and future wayfinding."
"John Calhoun is going to talk to us about reaching our peak and figuring out if we’ve reached our peak and how to find the next one."
"April will lead us through provocations and thoughts about where we want to be once we leave here."
"Sponsor sessions support the theme and allow you to play around with awesome tools."
"We heard from the community through surveys which helped us understand what you hope to see at this year's Design Ops Summit."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Research is not just delivering insights out there in a transactional model, but in a dialogic model."
Robin BeersBeyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts
March 25, 2024
"Relentless oversharing of research in Slack channels builds awareness and invites collaboration."
Gregg BernsteinOpportunistic Research with Gregg Bernstein
July 11, 2019
"You can capture deep insights by looking at how users’ experiences change as they become familiar with a tool over time."
Tony TurnerCapturing Deep Insights
September 30, 2021
"Brian Chesky does what Brian Chesky wants — he tweeted our blueprint, and we had nothing to do with that."
Rebecca GimenezWork in Progress: Service Design at Airbnb
December 3, 2024
"Digitizing doesn’t mean removing your frontline; frontline workers must be empowered to assist less digital citizens."
Yalenka Mariën Marie MervaillieDesigning for Digital Inclusion in the Belgian Government
December 8, 2021
"Don't be precious but don't be reckless either when opening research access to others."
Janelle EstesUX Research Trends
January 28, 2021
"Our communications is all over the map — email, Slack, Hangouts, face-to-face, GitHub — it surfaced some gaps we didn’t fully appreciate before."
Dave GrayGroup Activity: Making Sense of DesignOps
November 7, 2017
"Concept testing is almost like a mini workshop focusing on the value and benefits of that method."
Theme 3 Intro
March 11, 2022
"Working in agile keeps our teams nimble and able to adapt to frequent reevaluations and shifting priorities."
Laureen Kattan Julie KimCentering Patients and Clinicians in a Complex Government Ecosystem
November 29, 2023
