Operation DesignOps

The designer’s growth is in taking up more responsibilities at organization level. This means, looking beyond one’s individual output. To begin with, e.g. — you may start contributing to recruitment, building design language system, workflow, patterns or simply scoping projects better.

Yes, essentially operationalizing is identifying opportunities for improvement, building better efficiencies in all those pieces that contribute to the betterment of your department. There are hundreds if not thousands of pieces that go in making design operate better. So where do you begin?

Each organization, firm or company has its own goals and mission to fulfil. Begin by aligning your responsibilities to those. In other words, carve out your own DesignOps goals.

DNA of DesignOps

If design is different than engineering or technology then the processes and way of doing things should not be the same! This being true, we still see thousands of designers within the gigantic tech premises barely having a say to what design is and HOW it is carried out.

Design is deeper than a creative department with colorful walls and bean bags thrown in to make up a studio. It has its lifestyle driven by a certain DNA. There are 3 main pillars of the DNA if one broadly sees it.

- People: It’s always people first because without talent no design be crafted to achieve the desired results.

- Processes: Design is science and arts both, hence being methodical and systematic becomes important.

- Design management: When multiple people carry out multiple projects, applying varied processes, wanting to achieve varied goals then they need the power of management.

These 3, look simple on the outside but zoom into the details of its DNA strand and you will see a complex interplay of things to be effective, efficient, displaying the business value. In my subsequent write-ups, we will take the detailed journey to dig deep, one step at a time.

People make design happen

People are critical to any organization — they are individuals who are part of teams that contribute to business growth. The demand for design has surged in recent times and will continue to grow. This will definitely have an impact on design management.

In the industry, we see many designers scattered in a variety of team structures without a centralized design system lead by seasoned leaders. This leads to a lack of communication, strategy, knowledge building, direction, and processes that could hold the design practice together. In other words, a system that enables people to be aligned in the direction for growth.

Businesses need to articulate their vision and set clear goals. These organizations along with designers should then define objectives that could lead them to achieve that goal. The objectives can further be broken down into priorities, decisions, and actions that will create a roadmap for structuring their operations. If businesses are ignorant — it’s time for design to go up to the businesses and demand a growth vision.

Power of processes

Processes focus on things we do often, how we carry those out, and specifically those that are detrimental to the existence, value, and profits. They represent paths of tried and tested methods, approaches, and techniques. The more efficient they are, the more success teams share.

For design organizations, optimized processes mean correct and faster decision making while giving ‘time’ to problem-solving and creative thinking. Some of the processes most organizations focus on are resource planning, capacity, productivity, turnaround time, profitability, quality, and ROI.

To increase process efficiency, map out your existing processes — put them on paper. Identifying those steps that are unclear. Attempt to make processes robust — all equations thought through. Document every bit and once ready share it with everybody. Doing this will give everybody the clarity of what to focus on and what to avoid. In other words, you will never be responsible for inefficient processes that typically lead to frustration, missed deadlines, and financial loss.

If you can offer your services faster or at a lower price, with the same or better quality — then your company can meet higher demand and/or increase customer delight. Even better, you will highlight your value adding a competitive edge.