DesignOps at Getty Images
DesignOps is a fairly new term within our industry, with more and more companies introducing a DesignOps function or team within their design org. Here’s what DesignOps means to us, at Getty Images.
What is DesignOps at Getty Images?
DesignOps is a team within Product Design at Getty Images that is dedicated to helping accelerate our product development process. This operationally-focused team is empowered to implement centralized tools, systems, and approaches with the goal of enhancing our broader design team’s speed, quality and agility.
Tools — Identify the design tools we use and invest in to amplify our designers and bridge disciplines. Some of the tools we use include: Trello, InVision, Sketch, Plant and Principle.
Systems — Ensure our design is executed to the highest quality by investing in the creation and ongoing evolution of our design systems. This includes our tone of voice, copy guidelines, component library and partnering with development on our online living style guide. These systems serve our broader ecosystem.
Approaches — Drive our operational strategy and define broad design processes. Defined approaches like crits and the Double Diamond pair with a flexible playbook of strategies and activities that adapt to different situations. Together they complement and integrate seamlessly into our larger product development process.
Training — Provide ongoing support and training for our tools, systems and approaches.
In addition to our high-level tools, systems and approaches, our DesignOps team also defines and standardizes the smaller things that help us work more efficiently, like: comp guidelines, file nomenclature and folder structure.
Note: It’s important to note that while DesignOps is responsible for providing direction and support for our tools, systems, approaches and training, the expectation is that our DesignOps team engages and involves designers across our full org on all of the above. Every member on our team is responsible for crafting our culture and that includes defining who we are and how we work.
Design Ops has become critical for medium and large product companies. But every kind of organization benefits from a horizontal role, specifically managing tools, workflows, processes, governance, critique and collaboration, end-to-end employee experience, cultural and inspirational activities, and much more. DesignOps is contextual work that improves aesthetic work, with the ultimate goal of making the business more efficient.
— Josh Silverman, DesignOps at Twitter
How does our DesignOps tem work with designers on cross-functional teams?
DesignOps benefits everyone, not just designers, helping us accelerate our product development process. Our DesignOps team supports all designers at Getty Images, helping us improve our collaboration and ability to design at scale. In turn, our DesignOps team benefits from the deep understanding that our designers within cross-functional teams bring from their area of focus. Both groups work closely in partnership to support each other, and rely on a feedback loop that helps evolve both individual designs and our broader design ecosystem.
Designers within cross-functional teams are focused on specific customer problems and opportunities. As professional designers, we expect designers to go beyond designing screens to play a facilitation, coordination and connective role within their cross-functional teams.
Design strategy and exploration
As part of defining the design activities within a cross-functional team, designers lean on DesignOps-supported processes like the Double Diamond and our larger design playbook.
To kick-off their work, designers seek to gain a complete perspective of the problem in front of them, looking beyond their immediate team to connect and engage people and groups across our business. When beginning to explore options, designers lean on our established design system, using existing components and styles to rough out ideas rather than starting with high-level wireframes or detailed comps. Throughout their exploration, designers embrace a culture of feedback, sharing early and often. They solicit and consider feedback from many inputs, including: customers, stakeholders, SMEs, their cross-functional team, design leadership and other designers, including members of the DesignOps team. When it’s time to make decisions, designers present distinct options and clearly articulate the pros/cons along with their preference and why. They facilitate a debate and discussion within their cross-functional team to narrow in on the strongest option, or options, to move forward with.
Aligning and refining
Once a cross-functional team has aligned on a direction together, designers continue to iterate and refine while still leveraging our design system. If a designer learns that existing components won’t work within their context, they engage DesignOps to discuss. Depending on their needs, we may choose to evolve an existing component, create and add a new component to our system or identify a one-off solution that exists outside of our system. The important part is that this is a purposeful and intentional decision.
Just enough design
When crafting detailed design, designers focus on broad, high-level flows along with key screens and animations.
Our design system includes an online living style guide of components with details and specs already defined and built, so there’s no need for designs to include every state or detailed specs. Because we’re partnering closely alongside development, we’re identifying and defining distinct scenarios and in between states, like the responsiveness of the page, together.
A helpful way to think about a designer’s engagement within a cross-functional product team is that designers are 80% focused on how to solve a problem and just 20% on the design problem of what it looks like.
Got a DesignOps team at your company? Would love to hear about your approach in the comments below!
