DesignOps Assembly Learning Labs - Fundamentals

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DesignOps Assembly LL - NTDO - Team of One - Summer Cohort - 2022

Class Notes
Class Notes

Session #1: Kick-off

Wednesday - June 8 2022

Intros and white-boarding our curriculum

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DesignOps Assembly Learning Labs Cohort⁠

Miro board / Session 1

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Screen Shot 2022-06-14 at 10.51.19 PM.png

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Session #2: Role of Design Ops in a Design Org + Different Types of Ops Roles

Week of Jun 20

Session #3: Ops Roles (continued) + Standing up a Design Ops Team

July 6 2022

Agenda:

:08 Intro + Intros (2 minutes each)

:20 Above the line | Below the line + Group Share: Homework Retro

The menu exercise didn’t apply to everyone’s current state, so the full cohort is asked to take another pass at what a fantasy / future state menu homework assignment might look like, using skills and interests and strengths.

How do you approach the role with no buy-in from PMs?

How do we combat imposter syndrome in the role?

How do we make our case for entering the field?

:10 Lightning Talk

See deck in the Slack thread:

https://designopsassembly.slack.com/archives/C03G1FCS7JP/p1657306843587239⁠

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:05 Homework Overview

Session #4: Standing Up the DesignOps Function + Measuring Success

Week of July 18: Cat, Eric, Jaime, John, Jaime, Nikki, Renata, Sylvie

Miro Board Link + PDF export (below card):

Loading miro.com⁠

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DesignOps Assembly Learning Labs Cohort - Session 4.pdf

8.8 MB

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Homework Retro:

Overall sentiment: We're already doing the work, how do we get recognition for that work and associate it with the DesignOps function and role / how do we grow into SMEs for the work we do?

How do we apply what we're learning to where we're at now, or to a new role?

Comments (paraphrased):

“How do we apply what we're learning to where we're at now, or to a new role?”

“Almost everything I do is applicable to DesignOps = exciting / but feel stagnant in where I'm at”

“Supported by boss, natural instincts are aligned / how do we execute and maintain the work done

“There’s a need for more active context to feel like what we’ve been talking about applies to my current job. I need to be able to see current situational opportunities to learn and build on.”

“When you’re a one-person-show, it’s hard to articulate what success look likes when there's no North Star.”

“We're doing the work already. How do we make the examples we have more concrete and relate to the company’s needs? How might we continue to talk about things in a way for others to understand, relate / see the value?”

“There’s no defined need for DesignOps where the company is right now.”

“How do we remind people what is available to them? It can be discouraging when people forget the resources available to them.”

“How do we determine our own growth path if there is no determined growth path?”

Lightning Talk:

Recap the DesignOps Menu, Competencies, Starting Lineups

Discuss Team Types, Ops Types, and Measuring Success (Where We’re At)

Presentation Deck:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KoBUcVsepDA-ew8DikSiLVPPQcRqEUuXbN0MeF5yM_E/edit?usp=sharing⁠

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Open Discussion:

Things we can / do measure:

Attrition

Positive / Negative Feedback

NPS, KPI’s, OKRs

Project to project definitions of success - informal is okay, as long as its documented and we show progress / correlations / relationships to the work being done on our end

Suggest holding retros for internal projects

Things we’re doing / have done:

Cat created an offboarding / Asana checklist and survey - feedback returned was that the org felt very silo’d so she proposed Monday lunch sessions with the VP. We discussed things that can be measured from those events, like attendance, post-event survey completion, satisfaction scores, repeat attendance

In previous work, considering ICs who are solo resources on teams, it’s helpful to define output + outcomes, process + progress; for example Eric uses Kanban boards to show the progress / work that is being done. Shows value that’s measurable.

How do we associate how things we're contributing add to the organization / facilitate, and speak of those contributions from the standpoint of the value they bring

Fears:

We’re expected to have finished products / things wrapped up in a bow - this can contribute to imposter syndrome; stress and pressure

Helpful to switch our mindset to the idea that “everything is a prototype”. The work we’re doing in DesignOps should be considered as iterative development and continuous improvement. Use HCD as a way to continue to improve the work we’re doing for our teams.

Versioning our projects, programs / position as releases

Homework

Writing

In the slack thread, share:

Identify 3-5 key metrics that your team can start to track now. Determine how often you’ll track these, how you’ll measure them, and how they will guide your decision making for the programs and processes you put into practice for your team.

Reading

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Measuring DesignOps⁠

(Dave M.)

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DOps Program Management Playbook⁠

(Jacqui Frey)

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Calculating ROI for Design Projects in 4 Steps⁠

(Kate Moran)

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Measuring, Defining and Improving Productivity: The Design Productivity Blueprint⁠

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Thinking (share your thoughts/answers in slack)

Watch & Think:

Measuring DesignOps’ Impact, webinar⁠

(Patrizia Bertini)Session #5: Programs, Portfolio, Projects, and Operations

Session #5: Listening Tour Readout

Overview of the DesignOps Shareout:

Frances shared her 3month design ops listening tour for $research that she provided to her team on what design ops is and what it supports.

A key factor to creating a roadmap for a design ops group is to have goals set in place with set expectations for the team.

Frances shared a video with the Cohort of her DesignOps share out in her design organization:

What is design ops

Discovery process

People + culture highlights

Insights / recommendations

Focus areas and partnership

Next steps

The share included Coforma entire design teams.

France's approach was to send out a SWOT survey to the entire org and received over 40 (design + content teams) responses that allowed her to gather positive quotes focused on team culture.

She obtained eight areas to focus on and prioritize for the first year for Coforma:

Onboarding and communication

Management and leadership development

Supporting practice and project leads

Skills definitions and expansion

Learning and development

Process and practices

Team tooling, training, documentation

Remote work and connection

Recommendations for these eight areas were divided into four major categories.

DesignOps and PeopleOps

DesignOps and Practice leadership

DesignOps

DesignOps / PMO / OKRs

A RACI for ownership and support matrix

The final part of the presentation was focused on the next steps and broken up into 2 Groups to provide deliveries and continue support.

A survey was also requested at the end to gather folks’ feedback from the big readout.

Open Discussion

A point identified from the share-out from Coforma is that no matter the organization's size, the themes or concerns for improvement are the same people, process, and practice.

Homework:

Post any essential items on slack that you would like to see in a design ops template, if it was items covered in what Frances showed or if there is anything specific that you would like to see. The goal is to have a copy and paste template that any design ops team can utilize when establishing their steps.

Session #6: Priority + Roadmaps + Projects + Portfolios

Warm Up + Share:

How do you prioritize your personal goals?

Use a planner for to-dos, i'm not great at prioritizing long term goals, but i'm working on it!

making list and following up

Smaller tasks / action items towards a larger goal

Separate personal goal calendar / planner

(analog) or native trackers (like Duolingo's streak)

Keep a task list on my phone

Complexity of the task and time available

How do you prioritize your work tasks?

list and taks and follow up constantly

calendaring

Work calendar / planner (analog)

Trello board

I keep a to do list, and at the end/start of each day try to map out my day. i do so the same with my week. I like to leave time at the end of the week more open for things that come up.

Kanban Board

Deadline, importance in production process (waterfall vs. agile)

Due date, impact and project size

How do you prioritize your career goals?

I try to look at my goals every 6 months or so, and in the past have liked to keep it on my running agenda with my supervisor

learning and studying to keep improving

OKRs in Notion

We use Leapsome to track career goals

Collect resources & constant learning/reading

Keep a notebook that constantly gets updated and changes

Save it for the last minute or just put it off (unfortunately)

Session #7: Managing Change + Wrap up

Week of Aug 7 or 14

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DOA LL NTDO - Summer 22 - Miro Boards.pdf

8.9 MB

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