Summary
Traditional approaches to maintaining consistency break down when confronted by the complexity of digital business. While DesignOps and related approaches such as DevOps can enhance speed and responsiveness, they risk generating their own kinds of silos, blockages, and breakdowns. This talk will present an agile governance model that scales without becoming brittle, slow, or invasive. It will describe principles and practices teams across-the design-operations spectrum can use to balance agility, coherency, and resilience.
Key Insights
-
•
Design ops and DevOps reflect a shift from an industrial, product-focused mindset to a service-oriented approach.
-
•
Complex systems in today's digital environment require an understanding of relationships and service delivery rather than just individual components.
-
•
Organizations benefit from treating their teams as mutual service providers focused on customer outcomes.
-
•
Continuous learning and adaptation are essential as systems cannot be fully controlled or understood as we traditionally view them.
-
•
Governance should be a supportive mechanism that aligns diverse parts of an organization rather than a rigid enforcement structure.
-
•
Smaller, more agile teams can enhance innovation and collaboration, aimed at delivering valuable services.
-
•
Failures in digital services often stem from a lack of user-centered design, highlighting the need for empathy in system design.
-
•
Urgent need to incorporate service design principles into both design and operations processes within organizations.
-
•
Organizations should prioritize building a culture around service and user-centered design to navigate complexities.
-
•
Designing for service requires recognizing that both the process of creation and end customer experience are interlinked.
Notable Quotes
"Design thinking and cloud computing profoundly changed my approach to work."
"Empathetic relationships are as crucial to service delivery as automation."
"We need to think about relationships, not just components."
"Complex systems behave differently than machines and can fail catastrophically due to interdependencies."
"The only way to know how a system will work is when people use it for real."
"Change can be harnessed to our advantage, rather than seen as a sign of weakness."
"Organizational components should treat each other as service providers."
"How you make a service is part of what you deliver to the customer."
"We must continuously improve our services, making the act of service a part of our everyday work."
"The most profound action is to embed user-centered design into the fabric of organizations."
More Videos
"We've learned a lot from the London team; how could we create a global communication matrix?"
Brennan HartichCommunicating and Establishing DesignOps as a New Function
November 7, 2018
"Being approachable encourages questions and boosts collaboration."
Michelle ChinThe DesignOps Starter Kit
September 29, 2021
"Market research is a hundred-year-old multidisciplinary field that can teach UX researchers how to support product development decisions."
Nicole Aleong Michaela Mora Prayag Narula Brianna SylverWhat UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 14, 2023
"Real users should validate any solution we think we already know."
Aditi Ruiz Christian Crumlish Farid SabitovA PM State of Mind: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 1
December 6, 2022
"The key is trust, but it's about genuine relationships."
Dorelle RabinowitzThe Magic Word is Trust
June 15, 2018
"The brain that lights up when we feel physical warmth is the same part that lights up for interpersonal warmth."
Daniel GloydDesigning Warmth
February 26, 2025
"Team dynamics and support are fundamental to the success of rapid research."
Feleesha SterlingBuilding a Rapid Research Program
May 18, 2023
"If you decide that this process doesn't need identity verification, think about all the money you've just saved your organization."
Samuel ProulxInvisible barriers: Why accessible service design can’t be an afterthought
December 3, 2024
"Different types of businesses have different needs when it comes to software."
Robert ReimannTaming Design Complexity with UX Models
June 8, 2017
