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Summary
In this call we speak with our foremost DesignOps community experts Meredith Black and Elyse Hornbacher. Touching on their backgrounds and the creation of the DesignOps Assembly, trends we are seeing in the community and for DesignOps in general, future trends in 2021, and why we need community now more than ever.
Key Insights
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Design Ops professionals often come from varied, non-design backgrounds, which enables them to bridge design and business effectively.
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Design Ops Assembly began as a small meetup and grew into a global community of nearly 1,000 members focused on mutual learning and resource sharing.
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Empathy and building genuine relationships are critical to successful design Ops leadership and adoption across organizations.
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Common current challenges include remote onboarding and offboarding, adapting tooling like Figma, and managing team burnout.
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Psychological safety is essential in teams to allow vulnerability and honest communication, crucial for preventing burnout.
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The discipline of design Ops is maturing, prompting new focus on leadership development and supporting senior practitioners.
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Community building in a virtual world requires balancing large group momentum with small, meaningful breakout connections.
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Design Ops roles vary widely across organizations, from chief of staff functions to specialized operational teams.
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Maintaining open, recruiter-free community access encourages diverse voices and equity in design Ops knowledge sharing.
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Future goals include global expansion, better compensating contributors, integration with related disciplines, and increasing operational scalability for the community.
Notable Quotes
"I don’t come from a design background at all. It’s my dirty secret."
"We started as a meetup of maybe less than 10 people running small design Ops teams, and now we have almost 1,000 members."
"Don’t feel like you need to make it up or recreate the wheel. Somebody has an answer for you."
"Design Ops people are always kind of in the background, wanting to help and nurture others."
"You have to build relationships outside the design org to be an effective advocate for design work."
"Leading with research and insights will save you time and help make better product decisions."
"The relational aspect of design Ops is key — you’re like a hostage negotiator using tactical empathy."
"Psychological safety is huge: building teams where people feel safe to be vulnerable and honest."
"One big question is will design Ops ever have a cohesive definition or will it always be ambiguous?"
"We want to keep the community open and inclusive, no recruiters allowed, so every voice can contribute."
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