Summary
Building a DesignOps practice from the ground up is not an easy feat especially for a large bank. Everyone looks at DesignOps as the silver bullet. Expectations, right sizing commitments, hiring diverse skills and setting goals and priorities. We started from 2 to 4 then 8 and now 16. Our growth has not been easy. I will share stories and anecdotes how the team has evolved and created visible impact in the organization. The audience will take away key lessons learned and strategies they can apply in their own organizations. We all can become heroes of our own DesignOps story. Takeaways: How to create a visible impact in your organization. How to hire for diverse skills How to set reasonable expectations and priorities
Key Insights
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Design operations emerged from design leaders historically managing broad team and process responsibilities before the role was formally defined.
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Engaging design teams starts with understanding team structure, distribution, and pain points, then prioritizing initiatives based on research and observation.
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Overcommitting leads to failure; right-sizing commitments improves delivery success, as Jose experienced during his first year at a bank.
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Onboarding is a critical pain point that benefits from structured, high-touch programs adaptable from in-person to remote formats.
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There is a severe shortage of true junior design roles due to inflated experience requirements, risking loss of emerging talent.
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Dual career pathways (individual contributor and management tracks) are necessary to retain talent and provide growth without forcing managerial transitions.
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Recognition must be tailored to individuals’ languages of appreciation, including words, autonomy, visibility, or tangible rewards.
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Amplifying design impact hinges on building cross-functional strategic relationships and making design’s business value visible to senior leadership.
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Effective storytelling and concise executive summaries are essential for communicating design operations impact to busy executives.
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Saying no and prioritizing relentlessly is key for design operations teams to avoid burnout and deliver meaningful outcomes.
Notable Quotes
"Before design operations was a thing, design leaders were basically doing design operations without calling it that."
"Results don’t speak, we have to speak for our results or else someone else will frame the narrative for us."
"We all have the superpowers of engaging, growing, and amplifying our design teams’ impact."
"If you commit to too much, you say yes to too many things, you’re going to fail at what you do."
"We refer to all of us as designers with a capital D. We are all designers, we’re all in this together."
"We’re not creating enough junior roles; many 'junior' jobs actually require five years experience, which is not junior."
"Dual career tracks allow people to grow as leaders without having to become managers if they don’t want to."
"Understanding the language of recognition is key: some need words, others need visibility, others need autonomy."
"Measuring the impact of design and design operations helps us identify if we’re successful or not."
"McKinsey came late to talking about design’s business value, but instead of rejecting it, we should leverage it to amplify our voice."
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