Summary
Starting DesignOps at an org feels exciting and daunting at the same time. People who’ve given you the green light are as excited as you - so there’s a bit of pressure to make this work well! In this talk, Michelle will provide a “starter kit” of 10 tips for beginning a DesignOps program—the 10 foundational things she's learned from establishing DesignOps at her org. Michelle includes how to prepare the program, manage expectations, ensure your success, and keep things sustainable for the long term.
Key Insights
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Consolidating design ops responsibilities into a single role helps focus and progress operational initiatives more effectively than when spread across design managers.
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Explicitly defining decision-making responsibilities and feedback loops reduces confusion and decision fatigue in design ops efforts.
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Communication must be frequent, varied in format, and include opportunities for Q&A to build trust in a new design ops practice.
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Starting with small pilots allows experimentation and iteration before scaling design ops initiatives organization-wide.
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Maintaining a transparent, shareable backlog helps manage stakeholder expectations and prioritize design ops projects throughout the year.
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Creating reusable templates, playbooks, and frameworks streamlines communication and implementation in design ops.
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Balancing ad hoc urgent requests with strategic goals requires story pointing and capacity management techniques.
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Design ops scope often includes horizontal, organization-wide initiatives, while design managers handle team-specific ops tasks.
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Frequent, biweekly one-on-ones with directors and discipline leads maintain alignment and support for design ops.
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Celebrating team wins reinforces confidence in design ops and eases organizational change fatigue.
Notable Quotes
"Our team was really great and able to make decisions fairly easily, but organic decision making doesn't always work for high stakes efforts."
"Communicate as much as possible and in different formats because different formats resonate well with different people."
"I have become the spokesperson for design ops and it’s my charter to build trust and confidence in the practice."
"Starting with small pilots gives you flexibility to mess up and figure out answers before scaling to the whole org."
"A backlog helps others see what’s in progress, what’s done, and gauge project sizes, plus they can add ideas for consideration."
"Focus on your goals for the year and don’t take on too much or you risk burnout and not delivering what matters."
"Templates don’t have to be masterpieces—they just need to work now and be reusable to save time later."
"Being approachable and having office hours or Q&A sessions makes it easier for people to come with questions and build trust."
"As a tour manager, I was always predicting where things could go wrong and making sure everyone had what they needed; that really helps in design ops."
"Celebrating team wins really helps confirm trust and confidence in design ops, especially when change is hard."
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