Summary
The hustle of “Uber 1.0” (moving fast and breaking things) is still remnant in parts of Uber's culture today. As a DesignOps team of two to start, Maggie had to break through many barriers to help quickly and effectively implement a new practice. Within one year, the team grew to 14 Design Program Managers working across 6 global, distributed design studios. How does a team scale and find their voice amidst many cultural challenges, negative news cycles, and multiple rounds of layoffs? This talk will explore how DesignOps can remain a constant pillar of reliability when the structures around a Design team are constantly evolving.
Key Insights
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Uber's design ops team grew from 2 to 15 practitioners in under three years, supporting seven global studios.
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Shifting responsibilities off individuals was resisted initially but critical for scaling design ops at Uber.
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Implementing structured processes like launch characterization enabled clear visibility and prioritization of design work.
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Design ops operationalized quality programs such as 'Ship Magic' that fix 10-15 designer-identified bugs monthly.
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Design teams' passion for social responsibility can be activated through structured sprints like the 'design for good' hackathon.
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Clearly defined engagement levels replaced complex resource allocation models to help teams prioritize work and avoid burnout.
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Building a self-service UX research hub empowered cross-functional teammates to conduct research independently.
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Establishing internal rules and frameworks for budgeting, headcount, and policies brought calm to teams amid external chaos.
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"Structured flexibility" allowed Uber’s design ops team to dynamically move people across projects responding to shifting business needs.
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Layoffs and constrained resources forced the team to say no to low-impact work, which improved focus and morale.
Notable Quotes
"Working at Uber requires grit."
"Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."
"If you’re going to push through change, you have to create consistency across your teams."
"We acted like a startup still – moving fast and in prove-it mode constantly."
"Reviews might seem simple, but building that cadence with senior stakeholders was a muscle many hadn’t built."
"Our designers deeply care about quality but usually have no time to prioritize fixing bugs after launch."
"The power to say no has been the blessing in disguise from layoffs, allowing us to refocus on high priority work."
"We had to partner with skeptics deeply on things they cared about to prove the value of design ops."
"When the world outside feels crazy, make sure your team knows you’ve got internal order and the DPMs have their back."
"Structured flexibility means being dynamic and agile because you cannot predict what’s going to happen next week or month."
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