Showing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
Summary
BBVA began 2019 with a full scale re-org based on agile principles, for the design team in Mexico that re-org included dismantling the 3 years old designOps team because it was considered redundant and a simple admin job that other teams could do. Regretfully it ended in a complete disaster and a steep decline in the quality of the design team with the following project problems and complaints of executives and stakeholders regarding the user experience. This was only stopped by rebuilding a more resilient and integral designOps team, revisiting shortcomings and failures of the Head of design and the team's effort to rebuild itself.
Key Insights
-
•
Design ops was initially embedded but undervalued and misunderstood at BBA Mexico, causing operational crises when removed.
-
•
The design team at BBA grew from 21 designers in 2016 to about 190 by the time of this talk, necessitating scalable ops support.
-
•
Splitting design teams into specialized groups by activity (discipline, pools, operations) without proper design ops support led to fragmentation and coordination failures.
-
•
Removing the design ops team caused designers to struggle with basic tasks like onboarding, printing, and project staffing.
-
•
Design leaders became overwhelmed trying to cover design ops responsibilities, detracting from their design focus.
-
•
Design ops functions include staffing, budgets, agency coordination, onboarding, career planning, and maintaining design practice standards.
-
•
Recognition among designers for design ops grew significantly once the team was absent, revealing their vital behind-the-scenes role.
-
•
Rebuilding design ops involved creating roles embedded directly with design heads to maintain alignment and responsiveness.
-
•
Ideal design ops ratio is around 1 manager per 14 designers, but practice often settles for less due to budget and project pressures.
-
•
Leadership found it difficult to communicate design ops’ strategic value to C-suite executives during organizational change, impacting support.
Notable Quotes
"It’s basically impossible for the design team to work without the design ops team."
"The designers started to send notes of thank you to the ex members of the design ops team for making their life easier."
"We didn’t explain the philosophy behind the design ops activities, so others didn’t understand why some activities couldn’t be done outside design."
"Losing design ops led to missed deadlines, bad experiences for customers, and overstretched design leaders."
"The design ops team helped designers print in BBA’s complicated systems, something they had to do alone after we lost the ops team."
"We didn’t have the maturity of the practice itself to specify the impacts of losing design ops until it happened."
"We realized that the extended design discipline needed to regain some design ops activities to function properly."
"For me, ideally one design ops manager per 14 designers is the ratio that works best."
"The C-suite often sees big change as resistance to change rather than needs for careful transition and impact understanding."
"We need to share the importance of design ops visibly so everyone understands their role in enabling design success."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Pat Helisco funds projects that have social impact and provides designers space to exhibit and connect with stakeholders."
Sofía Delsordo Kassim VeraPublic Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
December 8, 2021
"Good UX is good business."
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
December 6, 2022
"The biggest struggle was recruiting and scheduling participants, so we started a shared Google sheet."
Liza Pemstein Jane DavisScaling Research Via an Ops First Model at Clever
March 27, 2023
"It’s important to reflect on our work and careers to shape what comes next."
Kara KaneTheme One Intro
November 16, 2022
"Using a playbook helps codify domain knowledge and prioritization criteria for AI to apply."
Mark Interrante Harry MaxAI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
July 11, 2024
"The four Cs—consistency, convenience, confidence, and customizability—are not just good for accessibility, they make a great experience for everyone."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
October 3, 2023
"Executives don’t care about process or how we got there, they care about what happened and why it matters."
Rich MironovHow Can Product Managers and UXers Help Each Other (and Why are Product Folks so Annoying Sometimes)?
December 6, 2022
"If you get eight people who give a crap together, you can start a federal agency."
Juhan SoninDesign Now! The Agenda for Action
September 4, 2025
"Our methodologies today are prone to producing one-size-fits-men outcomes under the guise of being gender-neutral."
Mansi GuptaDrawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
September 9, 2022
