Design Ops: Enabling design team scaling and consistency
My Philosophy
I want to enable the design team to work as efficiently as possible so that they are spending their time creating and adding value.
The key areas I have focused on that have the greatest impact are:
Streamlining and documenting common processes
Creating a library of our common design and research methods for reference
Facilitating a culture of continual learning and improvement within the team
Hiring in an efficient way that allows us to evaluate for the best fit
Creating a clear cascade of company, team and personal goals that are relevant
Processes – Document how the team creates and delivers value in the most optimal way
Project hub – a resource for the project lead to reference at every stage of a project from Team communication styles to Design deliverable status
Estimation guide – this spreadsheet and how to guide creates a standard way to estimate a project
Accessibility checklists – this resource documents all of the stages of a project from discovery through QA and gives clear direction on how to positively impact the design by considering a range of abilities.
Design method index - Document the methods the team uses on a consistent basis
Who are our SMEs for a particular method or artifact creation?
What templates exists?
What resources can we share with others to ramp up their ability to practice this method?
Do we have examples we can share – low and high fidelity?
continuous learning and knowledge sharing
Document what methods we commonly use on projects
Assess where there may be gaps in knowledge on the team
Create a plan for how we close the gaps through teaching each other, taking classes together or bringing in outside sources to close gaps
Teach in a way that is engaging
Below is an example of a Miro board where the design leads taught our design team how to conduct workshops. We split the time between instruction and activity that culminated in the team planning and leading 3 activities in a remote environment.
HIRING GREAT TEAMS
Document all of the stages of the hiring process from job descriptions, screening questions, note taking guides, question banks, design process work session, and evaluation of candidates.
team Growth - Create team goals that are cascaded down to the team
Create clear design team goals so that we are collectively working towards the same yearly goals
Create individual goals that ladder up to the team and company goals
Show how individual goals are integrated into each designer’s career path
