DesignOps is a mindset for any Designer
How I’ve been using Design Operation with my small team
While working in a design team I could understand the DesignOps mindset, and I’m happy to say that every team can do the same thing, regardless of the size of the company you have been working for. To share my experience, I’ll show you how I used DesignOps while running a Design Thinking project.
First of all, let’s understand what this trend methodology called DesignOps is.
As you can check out at Nielsen Norman Group website, DesignOps refers to the orchestration and optimisation of people, processes, and craft in order to amplify design’s value and impact at scale.
I like to say that DesignOps enables the designer to focus on what matters: designing and researching.
Of course, it’s much more than that, but know that the team are doing what they should to is plenty of for me.
Over the project, I follow the DesignOps menu, which consists of three main areas, as you can see below:
So, I’ve interpreted and applied these processes in this way.
How we work together
Organise
Everyone had a clear role in the project.
Collaborate
We had a two weekly meeting to share experiences, ideas, opportunities and help to each other.
Humanise
As was a project, I assumed it as a way to treat everyone in the team as a human, helping then to see over each step and keeping them always motivated.
How we get our work done
Standardise
We have used the same technologies to facilitate the design processes such as Zoom, Miro, Mural, Trello, Slack, Canva, Marvel, and Figma, also the same tools to record and validate each part of the process before moving forward to the next step, for example, desk research, persona, blueprints, customer journey, ideation, challenge, prioritisation matrix, prototype definitions, and others.
Harmonise
Everything was built based on documentation and only after reaching the knowledge equalised among members of the team. Which means that everyone was able to do the job, and even if they had any doubts, they could access the data which was saved in a public place such as Google Drive.
Prioritise
As we were running a single project, we use this part of the process prioritising the activities we should’ve done. To do that, we’ve used agile techniques for our sprints, focused on estimate the effort and impact for each task.
How Our Work Creates Impact
Measure
For this project, we have considered SMART and HEART tools to help us to measure the success of the solution at the end of the journey. Also, we’ve estimated and measured our sprints based on the deliverables we have to be done and the design quality.
Socialise
At the end of the project, we had our retrospective of the journey when we could recognise people who made a difference while applying the design practices.
Enable
We had a moment to listen from our client how they learnt about design mindset over the journey and how they intend to promote changes in their company based on that. Of course, now we are planning to run a workshop with an extended team.
Conclusion
I’d like to share with you guys that although DesignOps is a process to help companies to scale design team, we can use the mindset and methods to enhance our projects, regardless of the size it is.
I hope you have enjoyed it. If you have any questions about the journey, let me know. See you soon!
I’m a Brazilian Service/UX Designer and entrepreneur who believes that we can connect people around the world to solve real challenges out there.
If you want to connect with me, check out my Linkedin.
