The DesignOps Summit 2022 by Rosenfeld Media was my first major interaction with the DesignOps industry and it has been a very welcoming one indeed! DesignOps being the emerging practice it is, the leaders in this space are learning with us and have some amazing wisdom to share!
The virtual summit held last week covered 4 major themes that touched upon:
- Growing Successful DesignOps Practices and Practitioners
- Scaling Design Organizations
- Building an Inclusive DesignOps Practice
- Future of Design Operations
This is how I understood the themes were divided into: While Day 1 was all about tangible takeaways for better processes & practices within Design & Design Ops, the 2nd day was all about reflecting on how might we remain inclusive and truly create a safe space for all of our designers.
The sessions were conducted by Design & DesignOps leaders from various teams and organizations such as Netflix, Adobe, IBM, Amplitude and many more and totally made it worth staying up in the wee hours of IST timezone!
I have summarized my key takeaways below (note: these are my takeaways from the summit, this is not an exhaustive list in anyway)
#1 The importance of psychological safety
The need to have that safe space for all our team members is imminent now more than ever and also because without safety our brains literally cannot function. The safer and inclusive we feel, the better is our openness to learn and grow. Effective collaboration is also another favorable outcome.
This also got me thinking — the power of psychological safety cannot be realized only by talking about it but truly embracing it in the little everyday things we do such as — empowering everyone to be able to say no to meeting with no / relevant agenda while not experiencing guilt or shame or celebrating mistakes or being able to express oneself freely without fear of judgment.
This is my #1 takeaway as it has truly struck me as the “secret weapon” to HAPPY and successful teams especially one with designers :)
#2 The When and How of Team Charters
It could be a collection of agreed upon values, best practices and other nuances (such as inclusivity) that is not led by any one specific person or a leader but is contributed by all members of the team. This can be applied to small, temporary project teams or large, permanent functional teams.
The examples of team charters or agreements were sighted by a number of leaders. It was inspiring to note how these agreements were put into practice and the consequent results that followed.
Upholding the team values and ethos through team agreements, being able to revisit them when there are contextual changes and referencing them in times of conflicts or creative blocks can easily help chart the path to success.
#3 Effective collaboration with our partner teams
I can sum this learning up in one sentence (heard in one of the sessions): “Relationships are your currency, the more you have the richer your career is”. These could be partnerships within the team, organization as well as within the industry you are a part of.
If you are an ops person then this is perhaps the pivotal aspect of every single project you take up! And even if not, without the relationships (including the one with ourselves!) in our lives, there truly is little meaning & joy in it!
“Seeking to understand before being understood” (again as heard at the Summit) being proactive in our approach to partnerships rather than focus only on fire fighting to save relationships is a great reminder indeed. Build a workable partnership model specific to the type of stakeholders you collaborate with and test it out before arriving at a permanent working model.
When can we consider our collaboration to be truly effective? When our stakeholders ask for our involvement in the capacity they have understood best. When our teams fall back on us when they feel stuck or even creatively blocked.
#4 DesignOps & Diversity
The most exciting time for DesignOps is NOW. This was literally the opening session of the summit and it truly set the stage for how DesignOps is this practice that borrows from so many other direct and in-direct functions such as design, content, research, program and product management.
Today’s DPMs come from various walks of life and have enriched the field with their diversity and added considerable value through their transferable skills.
Building a successful designops practice means, recognizing diversity as well harnessing the best of each of dominant skills exhibited. For example, it could be that some of us are interested in building a seamless onboarding experience while there may be some others who would be keen in building effective partnership frameworks and touching base with leadership.
Truly figuring out our niche and aligning it with the organization’s requirements often leads to the most effective designops practices.
#5 Future proofing
The cliche “Change is the only constant” rings true every single day — and ensuring we invest in the right talent by providing them the best tools, processes and systems is the only way to thrive as a community!
Empowering teams to introspect and identify the skill sets they currently possess will help in designing programs to upskill or re-skill wherever required. Building a sustainable design program to nurture young talents or improve accessibility by truly being inclusive when shortlisting research participants — all of these little habits can help in setting ALL of us for success!
Through the various presentations and sessions, there was another common and recurring theme — Everyone spoke about their “Superpower” — it could be that you are amazingly good at communicating or knowing whom to connect with for a specific project or just have that rare ability to simplify something complex into something easily understandable yet not by oversimplifying it! Figure out your “Superpower” and merely exercise it everyday!
Design@AppD is leading a transformation of AppDynamics into a user-centered enterprise product company. Interested in following along? Consider following us on Medium!
