Summary
The speaker, the rookie curator from the Roosevelt team, opens day two of a design operations conference centered on the evolution and impact of design ops teams at scale. They reflect on how the design ops field has matured from sparse, one-person efforts in 2019-2020 to well-established teams by 2021. Drawing on community input, the day covers critical topics such as staffing models, metrics, career ladders, and cultural impacts. Speakers like Christopher Valerie and Brianna discuss role definitions and effective team rituals; Lane explores inclusive career ladders; Christian Tiger provides detailed design ops metrics; Tony dives into knowledge repositories and tagging; and Susan Sogato shares insights on culture from the hospitality sector. The curator stresses the importance of vulnerability and sharing not just successes but failures—real-world lessons essential for community craft and mastery. The event encourages participants to engage deeply with speakers, ask tactical questions, and exchange practical knowledge, reinforcing a supportive, honest design ops community.
Key Insights
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Design ops teams have rapidly matured from rare, small groups to established, scaled functions by 2021.
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Community feedback guided the conference to focus on staffing models, metrics, career ladders, and culture.
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Vulnerability and honest sharing of failures are crucial to advancing the craft of design operations.
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Christopher Valerie and Brianna present strategies for defining roles and improving team rituals.
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Lane focuses on building inclusive and goal-oriented career ladders in design ops.
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Christian Tiger shares granular design ops metrics that bring transparency and actionable insights.
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Tony introduces advanced knowledge repositories with effective tagging to boost team intelligence.
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Staffing models vary among agency, dedicated, and hybrid approaches, each with pros and cons.
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Culture is identified as a key driver of user success and operational effectiveness, illustrated by Susan Sogato’s hospitality industry insights.
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Real community engagement with speakers through tactical questions enriches learning and fosters collective growth.
Notable Quotes
"Day two is all about design ops at scale or the maturing of the design ops team and its impact in the full organization."
"In 2019 and 2020 having an established design ops team was incredibly rare; in 2021 that’s the number one response."
"We asked for real stories of change, struggle, success, and failure—not just best practices but bruises and lessons learned."
"Vulnerability and honesty are the foundation of craft; all our speakers are all in on that vulnerability."
"This is all wheat, no shafts—lessons drenched in hard work and experience, the real design ops where the rubber meets the road."
"Christopher Valerie and Brianna will share how they define roles and improve a key team ritual."
"Christian Tiger will show individual rows in a spreadsheet, which might not sound crazy but is amazing at this level of detail."
"We’ll be comparing staffing models including agency, dedicated, and hybrid—there’s a lot to learn there."
"Susan Sogato studied strong cultures in restaurants like Union Square Cafe, linking culture to user success and operations."
"Celebrate your vulnerability—it’s a huge deal to share not just success but what was hard and challenging to get things done."
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