Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
DesignOps–Leading the Path to Parity
Summary
Why and how are creative agency leaders and traditional graphic designers finding their way into DesignOps? What is the future of DesignOps within traditional design agencies? Most who are looking into the DesignOps space know it for its focus on the Ps: People, Process, Practice — mostly for technology, and mostly for Product design.
Key Insights
-
•
Design ops in agencies must expand beyond technology focus to include people, process, and practice to foster parity and inclusion.
-
•
Francis Iana was hired directly as the first design ops lead at co forma, highlighting the growing strategic value of design ops in agency leadership.
-
•
Historically, creative agencies operated with competitive, gender-imbalanced leadership, but fears around job security have intensified since the pandemic.
-
•
Operationalizing equity through tools like career leveling spreadsheets, skills matrices, and onboarding checklists promotes transparency and reduces bias.
-
•
The concept of 'office housework' represents important but undervalued work crucial for leveling the playing field in agencies.
-
•
Creative agencies are best described as 'project pioneers' needing flexibility and support rather than rigid hierarchical control.
-
•
Resistance to change is common, but design ops practitioners should persist and iterate to embed lasting cultural transformation.
-
•
Intentional leadership to nurture and retain women and underrepresented designers is crucial to advancing agency parity.
-
•
Design ops practices, including equitable user research and fostering diverse team communication, help embed inclusion into workflows.
-
•
Hope and creative optimism are essential mindsets for design ops leaders driving systemic positive change in uncertain environments.
Notable Quotes
"Design ops in all we do at co forma is purpose-driven, intentional, fair, and openly equitable."
"Winning my next client, my next project, my next design award was once all I cared about. Now, it’s about building equity and shared success."
"Office housework is everything from administrative tasks to employee engagement; it’s undervalued but essential for team success."
"Project pioneer organizations resist top-down control, needing design ops to provide tools allowing creative teams to pivot and adapt."
"If you’re standing for something, you have to stand for the thing, even if it’s a hard fight."
"When you don’t see yourself in leadership, you don’t go there. Representation matters deeply in agency culture."
"Keep trying and iterating your design ops initiatives even if stakeholders resist at first."
"Artists are messengers of the ideal. That’s why design ops can make those ideals more palpable in agencies."
"Hope locates itself in the spaciousness of uncertainty and the belief that what we do matters even if outcomes are unknown."
"If we’re in a position to keep the gate, we don’t just keep it open, we tear it down."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Setting up a repository as a team of one or two is actually the prime time to establish processes like that."
Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex KnollRepository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
March 9, 2022
"Anticipation involves preparatory actions to manage uncertainty about future conditions."
Nicole AleongFuture Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology
March 26, 2024
"Adobe’s Kickbox is a fantastic professional development tool, but it doesn’t drive new lines of business."
Jeff GothelfInnovation Studios: the Engines of Enterprise Experimentation
May 14, 2015
"Leadership needs to be just as behind accessibility as the designers and professionals doing the work."
Saara Kamppari-MillerDesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility
May 26, 2022
"You can’t make your team happy, no one can ever make anyone else happy ever, ever."
Tess DixonC'mon Get Happy
September 29, 2021
"Soft skills often are a multiplier on your hard skills—they’re just as valuable, if not more so."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"Why don’t we do what we do for users but apply it to our own careers? Absolutely nutty, right? So we did."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"Choosing the right hill to die on is so important and so hard; the problems that matter come around again and again."
Leisa ReicheltOpening Keynote: Operating in Context
November 7, 2018
"Over-enforced design system adoption bred resentment and low morale, despite good adoption metrics."
Rachael Greene Alison DavisBuilding a Design Ops Practice that Really Works (Most of the Time)
October 2, 2025
