Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Leading with Design Operations Past and Present (Videoconference)
Thursday, December 19, 2019 • DesignOps Community
Share the love for this talk
Leading with Design Operations Past and Present (Videoconference)
Speakers: Bob Baxley
Link:

Summary

In this conversation, Bob and community co-curator Alison Rand discuss why it’s so hard to hire designers and the criticality of advocacy for the profession in order to attract emerging talent, the myth of the unicorn designer, and in light of all of this why companies are wrong to fight back against the idea of remote design teams.

Key Insights

  • The design field suffers a top-of-the-funnel problem due to low awareness, affecting the hiring pipeline.

  • Engaging Gen Z and high school students early can broaden and diversify the future design talent pool.

  • Design is a recognized profession comparable to law or medicine but unlike those fields it has no rigid credentialing barriers.

  • Successful design hiring values both deep impact on niche user groups and scaling complex enterprise software, which attracts different designer profiles.

  • Junior designers benefit most from environments emphasizing learning and exposure to complex design challenges.

  • Traditional whiteboard interview challenges are less effective; portfolio reviews combined with live product critiques better reveal designers’ thinking.

  • Information architecture is a political and philosophical dimension often overlooked but central to system design.

  • Design operations act as a critical force multiplier by establishing rituals, infrastructure, and clarity that allow creative teams to focus on design.

  • Remote design work challenges include time zone coordination and cultural alignment; however, it enables inclusivity and access to global talent.

  • Design culture and process attract the right people and mindset, underscoring the importance of intentionally designing team workflows as much as products.

Notable Quotes

"We just have kind of a top of the funnel problem; not nearly enough people know design exists."

"Design is a bona fide profession but it’s not a credential profession—you can rise without formal credentials."

"There’s a political philosophy embedded in the objects in the UI tray, like how you classify things is never neutral."

"Design Ops is a massive force multiplier; hiring one Design Ops role can increase your team’s output by 25 to 30 percent."

"Designers were hired to sit at their desks and do creative work; everything else should be offloaded to others."

"Designers think differently—some think in words, some in pictures, some in motion. We need all those organic computers."

"Designers succeed when they manage their time and present their work effectively; it’s not just about skills but communication."

"I really don’t like having designers critique our product on the spot; it’s like a bad first date—no context, lots of landmines."

"Remote doesn’t mean less productive; for some designers it enables deep thinking away from constant interruptions."

"Culture and process attract the people you want; it’s not just about hiring good people but creating the right environment."

Ask the Rosenbot
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Kristen Honey
"Let’s Talk About Data and Crisis”: Public Digital Service Delivery = Open Data + Human Centered Design (Videoconference)
2021 • Civic Design Community
Taylor Jennings
Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Amahra Spence
Designing for Liberation, Rehearsing Freedom
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Dan Ward
Failure Friday #1 with Dan Ward
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Samuel Proulx
Designing beyond caricatures: Embracing real, diverse user needs
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Dave Hora
Advice for Establishing Research (Videoconference)
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Bria Alexander
Day 3 Welcome
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Adrian Howard
Sturgeon’s Biases
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Deirdre Hirschtritt
Research is Only as Good as the Relationships You Build
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Jaskiran Kang
Why Community is Key to Professionalizing Design (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community
Nalini P. Kotamraju
An Organizational Story: Salesforce Lightning Design System
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Holly Cole
Panel Discussion: Growing People and Teams
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Suzan Bednarz
AccessibilityOps for All
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold

More Videos

"Teaching product managers heuristics took 15 minutes, and now they use that shared language to articulate design."

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Simon Wardley

"The Red Queen effect means if others adapt, you must adapt or lose."

Simon Wardley

Maps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)

January 31, 2019

Sandra Camacho

"Many smartwatch designs assume male hands as default, excluding smaller wrists and diverse body types."

Sandra Camacho

Creating More Bias-Proof Designs

January 22, 2025

Darian Davis

"It takes at least one team member to choose to set healthy standards for collaboration."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Fisayo Osilaja

"Providing more holistic recommendations helped us gain more trust and buy-in from stakeholders, increasing UX maturity."

Fisayo Osilaja

[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist

June 4, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"How do you create a sense of craft in an environment fraught with ambiguity, complexity, and anxiety?"

Uday Gajendar

The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX

May 13, 2015

Davis Neable

"Trust is often underestimated but is critical when designers face public critique and feedback."

Davis Neable Guy Segal

How to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team

June 10, 2021

Eniola Oluwole

"Once cash prizes were gone, people stopped feeling ownership of the design system."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Aurobinda Pradhan

"Design producers love their creative tools and want to keep using them without multiple manual reporting steps."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022