Establish Design Systems & Strategy at Scale: Fostering Innovation Amid Complexity
November 7-9, 2022
The Curtis Denver
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 | Main Conference Day 1
Breakfast & Check-In
8:00 AM MST
Main Stage
8:50 am - 9:00 am
Opening Remarks
9:00 am - 9:30 am
Designing Experiences for Designers: Is DesignOps Creative, Operational, or Both?
Claire Johnston -
Lead Design Operations Project Manager,
3M
As brands continue to transition further into a digital-first culture, there has been increased pressure on design teams to deliver while also being pulled in many different directions. Designers are often called upon to build budgets, timelines, schedules, and evaluate new tools or respond to proposals. However, in most instances, design processes, workflows, and team structures have not kept up with the pace.
DesignOps as a role manages everything that a designer does in a given day that is not design, from admin tasks, project coordination, and tool management to recruitment, onboarding, and cross-functional education and enablement. But does that mean a DesignOps team doesn't have to be creative? Join this session to dissect the ideal DesignOps archetype based on varying size, scale, and maturities of the design function.
9:30 am - 10:00 am
UX Roadmapping: A Guide to Creating UX-Led Quarterly Plans
Rebecca Shapiro -
Director of User Experience,
Indeed.com
Learn strategies for how UX practitioners can take control of their own workload, timelines, and prioritization decisions, using transparent, realistic, customer-focused methodologies. UX roadmapping empowers designers to advocate for their product ideas, ensure they have adequate time to do their projects justice, and prevent burnout. In this session, you will learn:
- Strategies for running quarterly planning sessions with cross-functional partners
- Methodologies for scoping project work
- Tips and tricks for navigating difficult conversations
10:00 am - 10:30 am
Create Operational Efficiencies at the Intersection of Design, Product, and Engineering
As an organization's maturity to design continues to grow, ecosystems tend to become much more complex in nature. One collaborative relationship that has remained a key tenet to overall success is found at the intersection of design, product, and engineering.
DesignOps as a function provides a dedicated resource to streamline and create efficiencies as it relates to those cross-functional relationships. But what does success look like here as it relates to organizational efficiencies? Is it employing design sprints? Agile? Waterfall? Join this session as we discuss the long-term transformation journey around cultivating cross-functional operational efficiencies and influencing positive mindset shifts in the process.
Networking Break
10:30 AM MST
Main Stage
11:00 am - 11:30 am
Garner DesignOps Buy-In: How to Identify & Break the Bad Habits
Fouad Jallouli -
Service Design Lead,
Kind Heart Ventures
For any growing business function, there are many unseen costs of working without the long-term efficiencies that an operations-focused role brings to the table. However, getting buy-in in any scenario comes down to showing not just why it makes the lives of the team easier, but illustrating how it will make an impact at every level of the organization.
For design specifically, garnering stakeholder and team buy-in through aligning business requirements, user needs, and the problem frame. This session will uncover best practices for getting DesignOps buy-in through evaluating current processes, workflows, and communication with a more heuristic, competitive, and data-driven analysis.
11:30 am - 12:15 pm
Cross-Industry Panel + Q&A | From 10 to 10,000: Building Out a DesignOps Practice & Culture
Alejandra Del Taylor -
Design Operations Program Manager,
H-E-B
Outside of industry, DesignOps as a role, and the design team as a whole, will look very different depending on size and scale of the team, along with design maturity within the team and across the organization. Due to those unique differences, the roles and responsibilities that a DesignOps role might take on can vary greatly from company to company. Join this interactive panel discussion as we talk through the path toward building out a strong design practice and culture, whether you have a team of 20 or 200.
Lunch
12:15 PM MST
Workshops: People, Collaboration, and Culture
1:15 pm - 3:15 pm Ask the Right Questions: Assessment Planning, Journey Mapping, & Project Management
1:15 pm - 3:15 pm Using the Psychology of Education to Alleviate Process, Development Lifecycle, & Workflow Bottlenecks Claire Johnston - Lead Design Operations Project Manager, 3M
In an increasingly remote workplace cross-functional teams face a lack of efficient transfers of information with meetings and emails often being the primary source of information sharing. As design operations leaders, understanding human psychology can help us create systems and processes that support both our cross-functional teams and our designers to decrease time spent in meetings and responding to emails and instead focusing on deep work that drives results. Join this interactive workshop lead by a former teacher as we discover the different frameworks and methods that design operations leaders should be addressing as it relates to alleviating inefficiencies.
Networking Break
3:15 PM MST
Workshops: People, Collaboration, and Culture (Continued)
3:45 pm - 5:45 pm Uncover the Role of DesignOps in Accessibility & Inclusive Design
Design culture is a big piece of the DesignOps domain, inclusive of aligned principles and objectives. As brands continue to prioritize accessibility, it is crucial that this is made a part of the design process, and not something that comes in as an afterthought after product development and research.
To make a successful impact in accessibility and inclusive design, this responsibility and mindset must be distributed across all cross-functional teams, ensuring it is effectively incorporated into what you do. This workshop will detail the ins-and-outs of implementing a strong accessibility and inclusive design strategy through a DesignOps lens.
3:45 pm - 5:45 pm DesignOps & Change Management: Establish Processes that Drive Effective Communication & Collaboration
Cultivating a culture of consistency will inevitably lead to some growing pains. As teams and organizations grow and change, the challenges and problems evolve, an advocate for change management is essential.
This workshop will consider the best practices for change management in a design role, and how to properly advocate for the shifts in mindset toward more effective and aligned processes.
Happy Hour!
5:45 PM MST
