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.

Use These Words and Count These Things
Gold
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 • DesignOps 2024
Share the love for this talk
Use These Words and Count These Things
Speakers: Jules Monza
Link:

Summary

In this panel session, three seasoned DesignOps practitioners will rise to the challenge of creating a shared vocabulary for discussing impact and maturity—while avoiding the use of DesignOps buzzwords. Panelists, who have each grown and matured DesignOps as a function within their organization (past or present), will represent a mix of DesignOps archetypes outlined in the 2023 DesignOps Benchmarking report (agency, startup, scale-up, enterprise). The discussion will cover defining, measuring, and communicating DesignOps impact as a way to drive DesignOps maturity. The moderator will draw from some of the key findings from the 2023 DesignOps Benchmarking Report to frame the topics.

Key Insights

  • Measuring impact helps identify where design teams spend time and whether efforts target high-priority, high-impact projects.

  • Tracking design ops initiatives enables data-informed storytelling that resonates with business leadership.

  • A key mark of design ops maturity is being engaged early and specifically by function, showing recognition beyond generic project management.

  • Design ops involvement early in project scoping and problem definition signals a mature design culture.

  • Deciding what to measure should start with data already collected and align with executive leadership’s interests and business needs.

  • Changing metrics too frequently risks losing important trend data; changes should occur only when existing measures lose value or relevance.

  • Measuring too many things creates overhead, diverting focus from actual work; quality of metrics outweighs quantity.

  • Reporting on design program data requires consistency across teams and tailoring messages and frequency for different audiences.

  • Cultural indicators of maturity include product teams proactively engaging design early and design's presence at the C-suite level.

  • Common challenges on the path to maturity include unclear design ops roles and resistance from design leaders to delegate responsibilities.

Notable Quotes

"Measuring impact can really help you understand where your design team is spending the majority of their time."

"Tracking the results of design ops initiatives allows you to tell data-informed stories about the work that you’re doing."

"When design ops is asked for early on and by function, that’s when you know leaders recognize your importance."

"Are you called upon just to fight fires or are you involved from the start to define problems and scope approaches?"

"Start with what data is already available, what gets tracked anyway, and use that to your best abilities."

"If you go too quickly changing what you measure, you could be forever missing the important information that tells the story."

"If you spend so much time tracking, you’re actually not doing the work—that’s too much overhead."

"It needs to be consistent so that large organizations aren’t measuring the same thing in different ways."

"When product teams proactively engage design, instead of last minute, that indicates cultural maturity."

"Design leaders not willing to let go of responsibilities that belong with design ops is a common challenge."

Ask the Rosenbot
Jorge Arango
Exploding the Notebook: How to Unlock the Power of Linked Notes (2nd of 3 seminars) (Videoconference)
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Rich Mironov
How Can Product Managers and UXers Help Each Other (and Why are Product Folks so Annoying Sometimes)?
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Adam Cutler
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Samuel Proulx
Invisible barriers: Why accessible service design can’t be an afterthought
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
World Usability Day Panel Discussion (Videoconference)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Sheryl Cababa
Day 2 Panel
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme 3 Intro
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Robin Beers
Research as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
John Paul de Guzman
10k Screens Later: How We Became a Data-Driven Design Organization
2024 • DesignOps 2024
Gold
Mike Oren
Why Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Neil Barrie
Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Sam Ladner
Data Exhaust and Personal Data: Learning from Consumer Products to Enhance Enterprise UX
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Lisa Welchman
Cleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Sean Fitzell
Craft of User Research: Building Out Jobs to be Done Maps
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Cornelius Rachieru
Handling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Paula Bach
Improving Legacy Software: How Much Better Does it Have to Be?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold

More Videos

Angelos Arnis

"Collaboration should include stakeholders often not traditionally represented, like marketing, sales, and customer support."

Angelos Arnis

Navigating the Rapid Shifts in Tech's Turbulent Terrain

October 2, 2023

John Calhoun

"Design ops is about operationalizing, orchestrating, and optimizing people, process, and platform."

John Calhoun Rachel Posman

Bring your DesignOps Story to Life! The Definitive DesignOps Book Jam

October 3, 2023

Alfred Kahn

"If you don’t measure, it’s like a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it."

Alfred Kahn

A Seat at the Table: Making Your Team a Strategic Partner

November 29, 2023

Dan Willis

"No matter how good I think I am at my job, it doesn’t make me a good parent."

Dan Willis

Enterprise Storytelling Sessions

June 3, 2019

John Maeda

"Design is often subordinate to marketing and product management because those functions came first historically."

John Maeda Alison Rand

About Design Organizations (Videoconference)

May 13, 2019

Anat Fintzi

"We had four different supply chains fighting for priority, with different business teams and conflicting systems."

Anat Fintzi Rachel Minnicks

Delivering at Scale: Making Traction with Resistant Partners

June 9, 2022

Uday Gajendar

"Temporary, quick, and sometimes rough artifacts have a lifespan just long enough for the conversation they enable."

Uday Gajendar

The Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX

May 13, 2015

Kristin Skinner

"We were really forming a community of people who I like to call maybe design ops curious."

Kristin Skinner

Theme 1 Intro

September 29, 2021

Maish Nichani

"Singapore is a nation by design. Nothing we have today is natural or happened by itself—somebody thought about it and made it happen."

Maish Nichani

Sparking a Service Excellence Mindset at a Government Agency

December 9, 2021