DesignOps
Organizes and improves a design team’s people, processes and tools so its work has more impact at scale.
What problem it addresses
When a design team grows, time goes into coordinating, hunting for files and duplicating work.
Principles
People
Hiring, training and organizing the team.
Processes
How people collaborate and make decisions.
Tools and standards
Shared design systems, files and metrics.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Start with whatever wastes the team’s time the most.
Avoid
Adding processes that only produce reports.
Don’t fall for it
DesignOps serves the team: if nobody notices the improvement, rethink it.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2019
Kate Kaplan
Defined DesignOps as coordinating and improving people, processes and craft to amplify the value of design.
- 2016
Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner
Explained how to build and lead in-house design teams as they grow.
Sources
Original sources
- Merholz, P., & Skinner, K. (2016). Org design for design orgs: Building and managing in-house design teams. O'Reilly Media. View source: Merholz, P., & Skinner, K. (2016)
Secondary sources
- Kaplan, K. (2019, November 10). DesignOps FAQ: 6 common questions about design operations. Nielsen Norman Group. View source: Kaplan, K. (2019, November 10)
- Kaplan, K. (2019, July 21). DesignOps 101. Nielsen Norman Group. View source: Kaplan, K. (2019, July 21)
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