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.

Teamwork: Strategies for Effective Collaboration with Other Program Management Teams
Gold
Thursday, September 8, 2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Share the love for this talk
Teamwork: Strategies for Effective Collaboration with Other Program Management Teams
Speakers: Alnie Figueroa
Link:

Summary

In an ideal world, Design Operations is one part of a larger team working toward a common goal. However, working with other program management teams - Product Operations, Technical Program Management and Content or Marketing Operations – can be a challenge due to overlap and other common pitfalls.  Alnie will discuss these challenges, and present strategies to better define expertise and charter for each program management team, resulting in more effective collaboration.

Key Insights

  • Design operations functions are often new and misunderstood, requiring clear communication of their mission and scope.

  • Creating a team or individual charter helps define and communicate design ops roles internally and with peers.

  • Managing ambiguity is a core skill for design ops, particularly in early, exploratory phases of product development.

  • Using tangible tools like prototypes can reduce meetings and align multiple stakeholders effectively.

  • Building a program management community of practice facilitates relationship-building and clarifies overlapping responsibilities.

  • Design ops should act as strategic operational leaders, bridging silos and connecting people, processes, and tools.

  • Successful collaboration is marked by understood expectations, clear swim lanes, healthy team cadence, and minimal friction.

  • Regular feedback loops, even informal ones, help surface operational gaps and mature partnerships.

  • Balancing where design ops sits organizationally—within design or cross-functional program management—affects proximity to teams and collaboration.

  • Engaging HR business partners is critical to resolving leveling and role recognition challenges within operations teams.

Notable Quotes

"Our job is really a lot of managing ambiguity and chaos; it's just par for course."

"A prototype is worth a thousand meetings to create alignment and reduce churn."

"Design ops are strategic operational leaders, not just connectors."

"Build relationships beyond design, including product partners, legal, communications—relationship is the currency of our craft."

"Expect confusion about design ops roles especially if the function is new; be ready to explain it often."

"Say yes or no to projects based on company priorities, user experience impact, and your ability to make a difference."

"Once people see design ops in action, they understand its value and start asking for investment."

"It's okay to evolve your charter; it should be a living document that reflects organizational maturity."

"Not everyone needs to be in every meeting; define clear touch points and handoffs to reduce friction."

"Community of practice meetings grow stronger when ownership is shared and rotating."

Ask the Rosenbot
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks Day 2
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Saara Kamppari-Miller
DesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility (Videoconference)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Robin Beers
Panel: Excellence in Communicating Insights
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Brennan Hartich
Communicating and Establishing DesignOps as a New Function
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Bob Baxley
Theme 4: Intro
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Devon Powers
Imagining Better Futures
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Gina Mendolia
Therapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Llewyn Paine
[Demo] Deploying AI doppelgangers to de-identify user research recordings
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
George Zhang
UX Research Excellence Framework
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jorge Arango
Scale Smart: AI-Powered Content Organization Strategies
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Bria Alexander
The Big Question about Resilience: A panel discussion
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Jennifer Fraser
What would Emmy Noether Do? Math, Models and Mulling in UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Crystal Yan
Building a Customer-Centric Culture
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
JD Buckley
Communicating the ROI of UX within a large enterprise and out on the streets
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Natalie M. Dunbar
DesignOps and Content Strategy: Envisioning the Future Together
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Bas Raijmakers, PhD (RCA)
What Design Research can Learn from Documentary Filmmaking
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

"You’re born on third base but think you hit a triple — that’s the enterprise software delusion."

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Simon Wardley

"If I don’t have a map, I can’t see patterns or apply context-specific gameplay."

Simon Wardley

Maps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)

January 31, 2019

Sandra Camacho

"Bias is a tendency, feeling or opinion for or against something without reason or evidence."

Sandra Camacho

Creating More Bias-Proof Designs

January 22, 2025

Darian Davis

"I felt on edge around Jeff and physically depleted after our interactions."

Darian Davis

Lessons from a Toxic Work Relationship

January 8, 2024

Fisayo Osilaja

"We mitigated data privacy risks by subscribing to the corporate plan for ChatGPT, which offers enhanced security."

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

"You won’t know what success looks like until you put something out there and see how it works in practice."

Eniola Oluwole

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

October 24, 2019

Aurobinda Pradhan

"Design Ops people want to standardize processes and reuse organizational knowledge for clarity and confidence."

Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank Deshpande

Introduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts

September 9, 2022