Summary
Your DesignOps journey is a story of ups and downs, lessons learned, and victories won. Join new and veteran DPMs alike in shaping the forthcoming Rosenfeld book, The Design Conductors: Your Essential Guide to Design Operations. Authors Rachel Posman and John Calhoun will guide you through an interactive session to collect the burning questions, inspiring successes, and real-world examples of how DesignOps is practiced in real life by our amazing community, including: Getting into DesignOps The skills and competencies of a DPM DesignOps in the context of your team and organization The tools in your DesignOps toolkit DesignOps case studies you most want to see Join us on this journey and make your mark on the future of DesignOps!
Key Insights
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Design operations encompass three core areas: people, process, and platform, focusing on operationalizing, orchestrating, and optimizing work.
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There are eight key design ops competencies, including trusted relationships, program management, leadership, communication, business acumen, and culture.
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Design ops often requires clear differentiation from design leadership and design management roles to avoid confusion and overlap.
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Measuring the value of design ops involves both quantitative metrics like delivery dates and business use cases, and qualitative aspects such as impact and complexity.
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Design ops practitioners come from varied backgrounds, and many seek guidance on transitioning from adjacent careers like design or program management.
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Toolkits in design ops cover planning, problem-solving frameworks, scaling mechanisms, and ways to measure success, with spreadsheets often being underestimated but highly effective tools.
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Organizational maturity in design ops is integral; design ops capabilities must grow in tandem with the design organization to avoid mismatches.
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A common challenge in design ops is prioritizing work amidst competing demands and limited resources, especially in cross-functional and distributed teams.
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Community involvement and storytelling are critical to capturing the diverse realities of design ops and enriching published frameworks and guides.
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Practical guidance for interviewing and assessing design ops candidates is a frequent request, highlighting the uniqueness of the role’s competencies and expectations.
Notable Quotes
"We are writing the definitive guide because there is no single book dedicated entirely to design ops."
"Design ops is about operationalizing, orchestrating, and optimizing people, process, and platform."
"How do you measure the value of design ops? That’s a meaty question we’ll dig into."
"It’s important to distinguish design ops from design leadership and design management to clarify roles and handoffs."
"The eight competencies in design ops include trusted relationships, program management, leadership, communication, and business acumen."
"Spreadsheets might just be the best tool for everything in design ops."
"You have to grow design ops capabilities in tandem with the design team to avoid organizational mismatches."
"Prioritizing design ops work is tough amid competing priorities and limited time and budget."
"We want this book to include many voices and practical stories from across the design ops community."
"Interviewing for design ops needs a special toolkit that shows how to present your skills and prepare effectively."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
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