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.
Establishing Design Operations in Government
Summary
Join us for a discussion about Michael's path into the federal government, working to solve problems and design better products and services for the American public and attempting to establish design operations at a government agency and across government.
Key Insights
-
•
Design in government is nascent and misunderstood, often seven or more years behind private industry.
-
•
Design efforts in agencies like USCIS tend to be fragmented, resembling mushroom patches without coordination.
-
•
Most government designers are contractors with limited voice and influence over processes and tooling.
-
•
Government hiring categories lack modern roles for designers, making federal design career paths nearly nonexistent.
-
•
The US Digital Service uses a 'tour of duty' model, akin to Peace Corps for nerds, bringing rotating experts for impactful projects.
-
•
Building design operations requires diplomacy and relationship management across multiple teams and leadership levels.
-
•
COVID-19 and budget constraints have posed significant challenges to building design teams and conducting in-person collaboration.
-
•
A centralized design system and research operations are critical to unify dispersed design efforts and share learnings.
-
•
Service design is largely undeveloped in government but essential for improving the delivery of public services beyond digital aspects.
-
•
Bureaucracy hacking and adaptability are vital skills for advancing design functions within the complexities of government processes.
Notable Quotes
"It's kind of Peace Corps for nerds – people come in for a tour and try to have impact at scale."
"Government is seven plus years behind industry – not bleeding edge, more like the dull butter knife edge."
"There are lots of little mushroom patches of design sprouting up, but they're disconnected and not sharing."
"Most of our designers are contractors; they have limited voice because they’re bound by contracts."
"In government, the org chart really matters – it influences who talks to whom and who gets to interface."
"You don’t want so much governance that people can’t be creative, but you need just enough to help their process."
"Hiring specs for federal designers don’t exist as we expect—jobs are often classified as public affairs or other unrelated titles."
"We’re trying to build a design operations role that balances top-down governance with bottom-up community building."
"The biggest bottleneck is the bureaucracy, like the Paperwork Reduction Act, we have to creatively navigate that."
"Design Ops in government requires a lot of diplomacy – it’s about managing relationships and stakeholder expectations."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Instead of measuring productivity by hours or busyness, focus on quality of work."
Lavy Kumar Kat Temple Shan Sebastian Tara Jensen Jenn ChouFuture of Work
June 9, 2021
"The complexity of automating marketing content for agents varies because some want hyper-personalized brand content while others prefer general automation."
Andreas Huebner Amy Takata Craig BrookesWhat Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?
March 11, 2021
"Cluster analysis will definitely replace personas, the fictional personas of course."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025
"Satya Nadella’s leadership feels authentic—he puts empathy at the center of everything he does."
Monty HammontreeThe Future of UX Research
December 3, 2020
"The design ops team helped designers print in BBA’s complicated systems, something they had to do alone after we lost the ops team."
Benjamin RealShowing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
October 21, 2020
"Adoption is crucial; build your community early by involving them in co-design and pilots."
Kate TowseyAsk Me Anything (AMA) with Kate Towsey
April 2, 2025
"Visualizing data in a way executives can interpret is key to shifting from I think to I know."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"Accessible foundations are built by involving voices of people with disabilities from ideation to prototyping to launch."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
March 28, 2023
"Most of the work on accessible prototyping for screen readers is still in early or mid research stages but is improving rapidly."
Sam ProulxPrototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
October 1, 2021
