Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Opening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs

Gold
Monday, November 6, 2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Share the love for this talk
Opening Keynote: Org Design for Design Orgs
Speakers: Kristin Skinner
Link:

Summary

As the move to establish in-house design teams accelerates, it turns out there’s very little common wisdom on what makes for a successful design organization. Books and presentations tend to focus on process, methods, and tools, leaving a gap of knowledge when it comes to organizational and operational matters. Kristin Skinner, Head of Design Management at Capital One and co-author of Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams, will shine a light on the unsung activities of actually running a design team, the operational challenges and considerations, and what works and what doesn’t. Drawing on her experience managing design teams and organizations at Microsoft’s Pioneer Studios, Adaptive Path, and Capital One, Kristin will discuss how what happens “behind the scenes” and how a focus on design management and operations can ultimately affect a design organization’s output, quality, and effectiveness.

Key Insights

  • Planning must be flexible and continuously updated at individual, team, and organizational levels.

  • Leadership style dramatically influences design team cohesion and success, as shown by the Golden State Warriors example.

  • Design operations is essential for enabling scalable, effective design organizations beyond just focusing on design craft.

  • A small, dedicated design ops team can have an outsized impact on coordination, prioritization, and quality standards in large organizations.

  • Design organizations evolve through stages where roles must diversify, including product designer, content strategist, design program manager, design ops, and creative director.

  • Fragmented decision-making severely hampers design team effectiveness; participatory leadership allowing teams to craft solutions yields best long-term outcomes.

  • Design ops roles relieve stress on heads of design by owning coordination, metrics, staffing balance, and cross-team collaboration.

  • Successful design ops teams must act as diplomats within their organizations, enabling others rather than enforcing rigid rules.

  • Hiring for design ops should balance design expertise with complementary business or technical skills tailored to organizational needs.

  • Regularly sharing learnings and iterating openly on design operations practices accelerates organizational maturity and impact.

Notable Quotes

"The plan always changes, but we need to be ready."

"Mark Jackson’s command and control style tore the Warriors apart; Steve Kerr’s inclusive leadership led them to a championship."

"It’s not just the design work you see; it’s the unseen operations behind the scenes that determine quality."

"Don’t go alone. The loneliness of the first UX designer is real."

"An effective design organization treats operations as seriously as the work products."

"Fragmented decision-making can have an outsized impact on an organization's success."

"There is no one size fits all. Go in, do your research, and find where the failure points are."

"Design managers make things go; they’re the GPS of the design organization."

"A small, dedicated design ops team has incredible leverage and impact."

"Be a diplomat. Help people do their jobs better and share what you learn generously."

Ask the Rosenbot
Deanna Washington
Connecting the Ops: Plenary Panel and Closing Circle
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Uday Gajendar
The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Megan Blocker
Theme 2 Intro
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Laura Weiss
There is No Playbook: Leader as Coach During Challenging Times
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Xenia Adjoubei
Empowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Tristin Oldani
Turning awareness into action with Climate UX
2025 • Climate UX Interest Group
Dr. Karl Jeffries
The Science of Creativity for DesignOps
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Marc Fonteijn
Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Uday Gajendar
Theme 1: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Briana Thomas
When Design Ops Comes in H.O.T. : A Tale of a Transformed Design Org
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Hands on AI #3: Claude Code for UX people
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Alana Washington
Theme 1: Introduction and Provocation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Sam Proulx
Designing For Screen Readers: Understanding the Mental Models and Techniques of Real Users
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Abbey Smalley
Today’s Design Ops and Programs Landscape & Career Paths
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Tutti Taygerly
Videconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
2020 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Taylor Jennings

"Short-term learnings kind of roll into long-term ones as you iterate and build on historical findings."

Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex Knoll

Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research

March 9, 2022

Nicole Aleong

"There are over 7 billion futures of right now."

Nicole Aleong

Future Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology

March 26, 2024

Jeff Gothelf

"These are all attempts by large companies to figure out new ways to deliver their products or services or to create new businesses outside of what they’re currently working on."

Jeff Gothelf

Innovation Studios: the Engines of Enterprise Experimentation

May 14, 2015

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Leadership needs to be just as behind accessibility as the designers and professionals doing the work."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

DesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility

May 26, 2022

Tess Dixon

"You can’t make your team happy, no one can ever make anyone else happy ever, ever."

Tess Dixon

C'mon Get Happy

September 29, 2021

Liam Thurston

"If your team sees a clear path of mastery in your organization, they’re much more likely to stay."

Liam Thurston

Why Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It

June 10, 2022

Ian Swinson

"Your career is a design project. It’s the only one you own, so own it like you would a product."

Ian Swinson

Designing and Driving UX Careers

June 8, 2016

Leisa Reichelt

"If you make rules, put numbers in them, and say them confidently, sometimes people actually do them."

Leisa Reichelt

Opening Keynote: Operating in Context

November 7, 2018

Rachael Greene

"Over-enforced design system adoption bred resentment and low morale, despite good adoption metrics."

Rachael Greene Alison Davis

Building a Design Ops Practice that Really Works (Most of the Time)

October 2, 2025