From Design Systems to DesignOps: Establishing DesignOps at your org

I recently presented at Into Design Systems about starting DesignOps at your org. I was incredibly excited to share my story because many people find their way into DesignOps via design systems. I was one of them!

How do you know if DesignOps might be a good fit for you?

Participating in design systems work is a great way to get a taste of DesignOps. You’re organizing things to create operational efficiencies for your team with design systems. DesignOps is similar – you’re creating processes and systems to ensure design teams can do their best.

You might want to consider DesignOps if you:

• Like operationalizing systems and building efficiencies, it’s like the design systems work you did, but for other areas to support the team.
• Like seeing your teammates succeed. You might find this more rewarding than doing product design work.
• Like the idea of your customers being your teammates, I knew I was making an impact creating designs to help our customers, but it felt too far removed for me. In DesignOps, you directly see the impact you’re making daily.
• Want to try a different type of “design” – while you won’t be in design tools like Figma all day, you’ll still be doing design. It’s just a different kind of design. It’s more service design.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, I encourage you to talk to your manager to see what opportunities you might have to try it out or fully transition to a DesignOps role.

Lessons learned in my first year starting DesignOps

If you decide to go down that path, definitely flip through my slide deck. In 2021, I established the DesignOps practice at Citrix as a team of one. I cover three things I wish I had done differently–so you don’t make the same mistakes! I also go over five things I did well in my first year. I include tips to make sure you’re ready for your first year.

Questions and answers recap

After the talk, I received several great questions. Here are some highlights.

How did you convince leadership?
I get this question a lot. My manager and I didn’t immediately get the green light to establish this role. While it made sense, our leadership was concerned about the gap created when I left my current position. As you work with your leadership team to carve out DesignOps, make sure you plan for any gaps that may arise as you transition.

How do you measure the accomplishments of DesignOps?
Measurements and metrics can get tricky, and I’m not the best at this, but I can recommend a few things. Similar to how Jared Spool advocates for the UX outcomes in products, think about the experience outcomes of your design team and find ways to measure that.

Some aspects will be more challenging to measure than others. DesignOps should be making things easier for the design team, so measuring happiness might not feel tangible. Sometimes the things DesignOps puts in place will take a longer time to measure. For example, when we tried to reduce UI bugs related to localization, we trained the design team on best practices. But it would take a while before we saw their design get implemented and measure any decline in bug fixes.

When in doubt, lean on your user research team, and they can help brainstorm ways to measure.

When’s the right team size to establish DesignOps?
When to establish DesignOps will depend from team to team. But it’s important to consider that someone is always doing DesignOps. For example, if you’re a small team of five, your design manager might be handling all the operational aspects (e.g., ordering software, creating processes, etc.). Your team might need a dedicated DesignOps person if the one or two people managing operations can’t continue to juggle that and all their other responsibilities like design strategy and people management.

Do you still do product design work to keep up with the craft?
Yes, but it’s more of a hobby. Since it’s not part of my daily work routine, I work on side projects to keep my skills sharp. It’s allowed me to be more creative since I’m doing things for fun instead of for work.

Can you recommend some reading materials for learning more about DesignOps?
One book I enjoyed was Org Design for Design Orgs by Kristin Skinner and Peter Merholz. It’s focused more on running teams and organizational structures, which is helpful for any DesignOps practitioner. Because the field is so new, it’s constantly changing. I tend to search Medium to see if anyone’s written any recent articles on DesignOps. There’s also the DesignOps Summit conference that Rosenfeld Media hosts. And lastly, I recommend the DesignOps Assembly Slack community – everyone is great, and there’s a lot you can learn from reading messages. I also wrote an article, The DesignOps Starter Kit, which includes ten things to consider when starting DesignOps at your org.

More questions?

If you have any questions or want to talk more about DesignOps, feel free to reach out.  You can find me on LinkedIn or the zeroheight Slack community.