Amplifying the value of design

My journey in DesignOps began as a "natural calling" when I recognized an unaddressed layer of work that was critical to design teams' success but was falling between the cracks of conventional leadership roles. DesignOps, as pioneered by practitioners like Meredith Black and Dave Malouf, provides a framework for what Rachel Posman aptly calls "the experience of making." This perspective resonated deeply with me, as I saw DesignOps as Service Design specifically tailored for designers, focusing on understanding and optimizing the designer experience to ultimately improve their output and impact.

Problems

Through systematic research, I identified several recurring challenges facing design teams. At each company (Elisa, Posti, and Smartly), I began with comprehensive research, conducting one-on-one interviews with designers, product managers, and engineers to identify collaboration pain points. Using affinity mapping, I created themes that informed my backlog of future work. Designers were often spending excessive time in meetings rather than doing actual design work, limiting their creative output and satisfaction. They frequently worked in isolation, unable to support one another effectively or leverage collective knowledge.

Research activities were disconnected from the design process, preventing insights from properly informing design decisions. Designers were treated like "feature factories," focusing primarily on production rather than exploration and strategic thinking. There was a lack of defined designer roles, responsibilities, and growth paths, leading to confusion and limited professional development. Suboptimal tools and inconsistent processes created unnecessary friction in designers' daily work.

Methodology

My approach to implementing DesignOps across organizations followed a consistent pattern. At Elisa, where I had to prove the value of DesignOps, I began with a pilot team of five designers. This approach allowed me to test methods and demonstrate tangible value.

I have used various research methods to understand designers' needs and pain points, including one-on-one interviews, skills mapping workshops, journey mapping designers' workflows, process visualization exercises, and tool effectiveness assessments.

Based on research findings, I developed and implemented:

• Design process documentation and templates
• Role clarification and diversification frameworks
• Skill development programs and resources
• Tool evaluation and migration strategies
• Cross-functional collaboration models

Recognizing that designers' success depends on their interactions with product managers and developers, I facilitated cross-functional workshops, created shared project templates for alignment, developed common languages for collaboration, and established design thinking workshops for non-designers. I tracked both quantitative and qualitative metrics to demonstrate value, including designer time allocation, team velocity and output quality, cross-functional collaboration satisfaction, and designer retention and professional growth.

Case Studies

Elisa: Establishing the DesignOps foundations

At Elisa, I initiated workshops covering team vision definition, role and responsibility clarification, skills mapping, tool evaluation, and design process visualization. This work expanded to include redefining designer role classifications with HR, curating professional development resources, building a design library, leading tooling transitions, organizing industry events like DSCONF and Joint Futures, and conducting design thinking workshops for non-designers. The impact was significant but often invisible until years later when designers still referenced "the ghost of Angelos" in recognition workshops, confirming the lasting value of operational improvements.

Posti: Scaling DesignOps during digital transformation

At Posti, a 380-year-old organization undergoing digital transformation, my work had three main focus areas: building a scalable design system with a centralized team, implementing DesignOps as a mindset and structural framework, and leading the product design team through a major rebrand. Key initiatives included establishing a design system team, leading workshops on skills mapping and journey visualization, creating project templates that brought designers into early decision-making, developing a virtual design leadership group, implementing OKRs aligned with corporate objectives, and streamlining the hiring and onboarding process for designers.

Research revealed that designers were primarily focused on delivery rather than exploration. This led to creating project templates that ensured designers had a voice in defining what gets built and why, shifting their role from executors to strategic partners. By the end of my tenure, 34 teams were using the design system, and designers were consistently involved earlier in product development processes.

Smartly: Maturing DesignOps practices

At Smartly, I developed a comprehensive leveling framework for designers and implemented skills mapping processes, establishing clear career progression paths and identifying areas for team growth. I built processes to integrate design work into Jira, improving capacity monitoring and work scope transparency. By utilizing tools like Swarmia, we tracked open versus closed design issues, creating better visibility into the design team's workflow and productivity.

I expanded the design organization by hiring the first researcher and visual designer as part of a design excellence team that supported designers across the company. This team provided a holistic view of design challenges and needs throughout the organization. Working closely with product and engineering operations, I created a unified product development process based on artifacts and collaboration, ensuring the product trio (PM, Design, Engineering) had stronger collaboration and each professional's voice was heard at the start of new projects.

For better alignment with product teams, I created Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) for designers to work with product managers and engineers, helping them track success metrics for their features. Recognizing the strategic importance of consistency, I researched and quantified the cost impact of not having a design system, securing buy-in to form a dedicated team and begin building one. This business-focused approach demonstrated how DesignOps could directly address organizational inefficiencies with measurable outcomes.

Results and Impact

The implementation of DesignOps across these three organizations yielded significant benefits for both designers and organizations. Designers gained more time for actual design work and creative thinking, clearer career progression paths and skill development opportunities, better tools and processes for effective collaboration, stronger voice in strategic decisions, and enhanced professional growth and satisfaction. Organizations benefited from more cohesive and consistent user experiences, improved cross-functional collaboration, scalable design practices supporting business growth, enhanced accessibility, and more efficient resource utilization.

Though much of this work happens behind the scenes and can seem invisible since it's not at the "producing level" of design, its impact was evident in how teams transformed their ways of working and in the sustainability and efficiency of their design practices. The focus on measuring and demonstrating value - from tracking efficiency gains to documenting improved collaboration patterns - helped designers feel supported while creating tangible business benefits. These efforts ultimately transformed how teams work together while creating more sustainable and efficient design practices.

Key Takeaways

1. Research is Fundamental: Deep understanding of designers' needs and workflows is essential for effective DesignOps. I consistently used research methodologies to identify pain points and opportunities across organizations.
2. Start Small and Demonstrate Value: Beginning with a pilot team allows you to refine approaches and demonstrate tangible benefits before scaling, building credibility for larger initiatives.
3. Make Allies Beyond Design: DesignOps succeeds when it builds bridges with product, engineering, and leadership. Making allies is fundamental for this type of work and any work as a person who leads projects and people.
4. Focus on Systemic Change: The systems aspect of DesignOps work can be ambiguous initially, but once momentum builds, the change becomes self-sustaining and difficult to reverse.
5. Ensure Voice and Visibility: For both DesignOps practitioners and designers, being heard is critical. Creating structures that amplify design's voice in the organization ensures lasting impact and recognition.