Designing the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps
Summary
DesignOps isn’t just about scaling teams—it’s about scaling experiences too. This talk explores how we designed an intentional, end-to-end designer journey that helped our design org grow fast without sacrificing culture, clarity, or connection. 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
"You can’t fail 90 times out of 10 without laughing at yourself to keep going."
Erin WeigelUX Lessons from running more than 1,200 A/B Tests
July 10, 2024
"Position your discovery work as de-risking investments rather than just fuel for innovation or empathy building."
Mike OrenWhy Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
March 28, 2023
"Being fluent in multiple data languages and understanding behavioral and attitudinal data will be essential."
Lija Hogan Milan Mijatovic Sam Proulx Louis RosenfeldThree Years Out: Perspectives on the Near-Term Future of User Research
March 15, 2024
"Alice often perceives Charlie as just another barrage of alerts filled with jargon she doesn't understand."
Heidi TrostWhen AI Becomes the User’s Point Person—and Point of Failure
August 7, 2025
"Design thinking at IBM is not just for designers; it’s how we want all 380,000 people to think about problems."
Adam CutlerPeople + Places + Practices = Outcomes
June 8, 2016
"Buttons should be sized 48 pixels and above to avoid fat finger errors for seniors."
Rittika BasuAge and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
February 23, 2023
"Meeting designers where they spend their time, like integrating accessibility plugins into Figma, is the most effective way to make progress."
Saara Kamppari-MillerDesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility
May 26, 2022
"This conference is the opportunity I saw to design an experience that felt personal to our community."
Bria AlexanderTheme Two Intro
October 3, 2023
"Building a network early can create amazing opportunities further along the career path."
Laine Riley Prokay Lisa GordonCarving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners
September 9, 2022
