Designing the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps
Summary
Over the past few years, we faced the intense challenge of adapting to aggressive, continuous scaling. As our design org at Commencis grew rapidly—from a humble team to over 70 Designers and Researchers—it became clear that headcount and tooling alone weren’t enough. So I collaborated with lots of stakeholders to produce our process diagrams, templates, artifacts for our design org, as well as frameworks, guidelines, and rituals. And right now, we have a sane leadership, nearly happy team members, and again nearly well-organized processes and documentation.
You’ll hear real-life examples—from co-created processes to meaningful rituals and systems that helped us scale fast and stay human. This talk is for DesignOps leaders, team builders, and anyone designing for sustainable org growth in a remote-first world.
Key Insights
-
•
Design ops centers on caring for designers through intentional systems rather than just fixing immediate problems.
-
•
Rapid post-pandemic scaling exposed the need to redesign onboarding, hiring, and connection mechanisms to prevent burnout and cultural drift.
-
•
Mapping the designer’s entire journey helps reveal operational needs and highlights moments requiring empathy and support.
-
•
A well-structured candidate experience with clear guidance and transparent feedback increases talent attraction and retention.
-
•
Collaborative design roundtables and co-creation with leads improved onboarding clarity and fostered shared ownership.
-
•
Competency mapping combined with individual and team growth plans guides development and hiring decisions effectively.
-
•
Creating team rituals and social sessions sustains belonging and recognition, vital for culture through rapid growth.
-
•
Integrating AI competency as a 'patch' into existing skill matrices prepares designers to embrace technological disruption.
-
•
Designers are innovating by building no-code AI tools and plugins, showing how new tech democratizes design workflows.
-
•
Design ops must continuously foresee future challenges and create environments that keep teams adaptable, human, and resilient.
Notable Quotes
"Design ops is a way to care for the people who design."
"We must not only fix today’s problem but also foresee what the future holds to build the best playground for our teams."
"How might we scale fast without losing our culture, our clarity and stay human?"
"Designers should not be left to figure things out alone as we grow faster."
"Sustainable teams require visible shared growth paths; designers’ growth should be supported, not accidental."
"Many times when planning to hire, we first assess our team competencies to identify the necessary talent."
"Designers should have a sense of belonging too. They should be having fun while learning and working."
"Artificial intelligence is reshaping our workflows. Our roles are shifting."
"We created AI OKRs allowing our team members to experiment and then share their findings with the team."
"Tomorrow of design ops belongs to those who lead with foresight into designs and designers future, to stay human and resilient."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Many organizations silo data inputs and prioritize within categories before combining results."
Mark Interrante Harry MaxAI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
July 11, 2024
"Ethics is fantastic, but for the business, the right thing sometimes is revenue."
Patrizia BertiniThe (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG
September 11, 2025
"Sometimes you have to insist on the correct terms that are widely recognized and consistently used."
Shan ShenTranslating UX Terms into Business Contexts
November 29, 2023
"60 to 90% of our ideas do not improve the metrics they were intended to improve."
Adam ThomasSurvival Metrics – Making Change in a Fast, Data-Informed, and Politically Safe Way
December 6, 2022
"In the application process for merchant services, underwriting’s risk-first mindset conflicted with customer needs, causing friction."
Robin BeersResearch as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
March 12, 2021
"Getting something accessible is a straight line; keeping something accessible requires process change."
Sheri Byrne-HaberAccessibility at Scale
June 9, 2021
"Designers are uniquely entitled to critique—it’s a privilege to rigorously improve craft while others might envy that process."
Joseph MeersmanSweating the Pixel: Scaling Quality through Critique
June 10, 2021
"You gotta write that charter to get clarity with your team."
Deanna Washington Bria Alexander Jon Fukuda Saara Kamppari-Miller Farid SabitovConnecting the Ops: Plenary Panel and Closing Circle
September 9, 2022
"Customer experience cannot truly be good if some are left out or excluded, either intentionally or unintentionally."
Aaron Stienstra Lashanda HodgeLeveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
December 8, 2021
