Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Charting the future of DesignOps: A community workshop
Bria Alexander
DesignOps Curator
Patrizia Bertini
Managing Partner, Euler Associates Ltd.
Peter Boersma
DesignOps Consultant
Jon Fukuda
Co-founder, Limina.co
Dave Malouf
Consultant, Coach, Teacher
Theresa Slate
Design Operations Lead, Northern Trust
Changying (Z) Zheng
Head of Product Experience Operations, Cloudflare
Summary
Each year brings new advancements, challenges, and opportunities to the DesignOps community, but this time seems much different—for DesignOps people and the design profession in general. It may be high time to reexamine and re-map DesignOps’ context, framing, and direction. We’re convening some of the leading DesignOps minds to reflect on the current state of our practice and its context and value in digital product and service organizations—and we want you to be a part of it. Watch the recording of this interactive moderated session with David Malouf, Patrizia Bertini, Peter Boersma, Theresa Slate, Z Zheng, Jon Fukuda, and Bria Alexander. Together we set the roadmap and framed our goals—both for the next DesignOps Summit and, more importantly, for the future of the DesignOps craft. We spent time together mapping out new scenarios for DesignOps in Figjam, and we opened up the DesignOps Summit’s Call for Participation during the session.
Key Insights
-
•
Design operations works best when positioned as a strategic leadership role applying design thinking across whole product organizations, not just as tactical support.
-
•
Many design ops practitioners work as 'team of one,' highlighting the emerging and undefined nature of the discipline.
-
•
Strong partnerships between design ops, product, engineering, and other stakeholders are critical for success and mutual advocacy.
-
•
Funding and recognition remain major challenges, with design ops often seen as optional or invisible until problems arise.
-
•
There is a shortage of clearly defined job titles and responsibilities in design ops, contributing to confusion and role overlap with design program managers.
-
•
Design ops must balance delivery pressures with quality of practice to avoid becoming merely another 'feature factory'.
-
•
Standardized metrics targeting designer happiness, onboarding efficiency, and quality of work are key to demonstrating design ops impact.
-
•
Design ops benefits from system thinking to ensure alignment beyond design teams to product marketing, engineering, and executive levels.
-
•
Collaboration between design ops and design managers is necessary to avoid role conflict and improve organizational support for designers.
-
•
The community actively seeks case studies, role definitions, and shared resources to mature the field and clarify design ops value.
Notable Quotes
"Design ops is not execution or tactical, it’s a leadership role that brings design thinking to the whole organization - Patrizia."
"Design ops is like when everything's working well, nobody notices it; when things break down, everyone misses it - Theresa citing Camden Moore."
"The answer to what design ops does is always it depends because the field is still emerging - Zi."
"The pressure in design ops is often delivery-first mindset instead of quality and strategic impact - Dave Malu."
"We need standardized role definitions, not everyone is a manager just because they manage initiatives - Peter Bosma."
"Design ops should coordinate initiatives, measure impact, and advocate for designer happiness as a business metric - Peter Bosma."
"If design ops only serves designers, it risks silos; instead it must apply design thinking across R&D and product teams - Patrizia."
"Operations is the de-risking activity that creates scalable processes for better outcomes - Theresa."
"Trust is fragile with designers; without clear communication, metrics can feel like micromanagement - Dave Malu."
"Design ops is still defining its service offering and must articulate value both internally and to business partners - Zi."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Users creatively circumvent broken enterprise systems, which traditional metrics often miss."
Alexandra SchmidtEnterprise UX Playbook
December 1, 2022
"Embrace diversity and create belonging means everyone feels they truly belong, not just fit in."
Jen Crim Jess Quittner Saritha Kattekola Alex Karr Gurbani PahwaCulture, DIBS & Recruiting
June 11, 2021
"Critique sessions work best when the topic is shaped so answers are relevant and help the process, especially by including business goals."
Christian CrumlishAMA with Christian Crumlish, author of Product Management for UX People
March 24, 2022
"We turned design thinking on ourselves to tackle our own hiring challenges—applying tools meant for customers to our own processes."
Libby MaurerTreating Diversity & Inclusion in Hiring as a Design Problem
December 5, 2019
"When we engage people in the planning process, they take ownership of their city."
Ali Jeffery Sheri ChudowHow DesignOps Helped Enable Wall Street to Work Remotely
October 22, 2020
"We all say empathy is foundational for good design, yet contemporary research often remains oddly distant from real human experience."
Daniel GloydDesigning From the Inside Out: How Method Acting Can Inspire Design Research
February 12, 2026
"The future of education lies in collaboration and adaptation."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"Insights are unexpected discoveries about how things work and how to make them work better - Gary Klein."
Johanna KollmannInsights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count
December 6, 2022
"The interface you’ve designed is like a landscape shaping the flow of user behavior as water flows through a stream."
David SternbergUncovering the hidden forces shaping user behavior
July 17, 2025
