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
"Government isn’t always trusted, so we worked with local partners to connect with underserved communities."
Aaron Stienstra Lashanda HodgeLeveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
December 8, 2021
"Starting from scratch is really hard, but also a cool opportunity to throw away painful patterns."
John DonmoyerShipping your code generation experiments to production
June 11, 2025
"Pilots and prototyping create evidence to inform decisions, making change more achievable and less risky."
Sheryl Cababa Alexis OhThinking in systems to address climate with Sheryl Cababa
June 12, 2024
"People didn’t understand the service end to end. They were experts at their piece."
Ariel KennanBuilding a Design Culture
June 9, 2017
"The career path shows when someone is ready for promotion, but additional training may be needed to support leadership transitions."
Ignacio MartinezFair and Effective Designer Evaluation
September 25, 2024
"Establishing research is years-long work, requiring coordinated action, self-awareness, rigor, and honest assessment."
Dave HoraAdvice for Establishing Research
December 8, 2022
"At the current rate, it will be 130 years before we reach global gender equality in political power."
Dr. Jamika D. Burge Mansi GuptaAdvancing the Inclusion of Womxn in Research Practices
September 15, 2022
"The phone itself is almost the center of the automotive ecosystem on the way to work."
James RamptonThe Basics of Automotive UX & Why Phones Are a Part of That Future
July 25, 2024
"We want to send fewer mailers but make them more impactful, using A/B testing to optimize open and click rates."
Kristin WisnewskiMeasuring What Matters
October 23, 2019
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
Why is it acceptable to prioritize empathy over methodological rigor in certain research contexts?
Why are some organizations moving away from third-party customer data platforms (CDPs)?
What are the benefits of linking AI-powered research repositories with tools like Slack for organizational adoption?