Systems Thinking is a holistic critical thinking approach that focuses on the analysis of the relationships between the system’s parts to fully assess the context (more here). By understanding how every part of the system is interconnected to the others and by evaluating how a change to one part affects the dynamics and relationships of the whole system, System Thinking becomes a powerful approach to decision making and change management to maximise impact and minimise risks.

System Thinking sees the organisation as an integrated, complex composition of many interconnected systems, both human and non-human: all these components need to work…

A successful DesignOps initiative is a transformational act that delivers value to the teams, the leaders, and the organisation by optimising and improving processes, ways of working, engagement models, and tools ecosystems.
As a process and inward-looking discipline (see here) DesignOps works on the core operational structures that enable relationships, workflows, optimisations, and efficiencies. And to achieve the expected results, DesignOps needs to effectively orchestrate actions across all cross functional and design teams and this is why DesignOps’ success heavily depends on how well the change and the transformation are managed.

Design Thinking as DesignOps’ foundational approach

DesignOps is a discipline that builds and benefits from…

While Design teams have been growing and scaling fast in the past few years, the growth of the design teams has also seen an increase in the number of design-related roles and growth in the number of operational models applied to run the Design function (NN/g 2021).

In this complex and fragmented scenario, it can be confusing to implement the right structures and processes: the speed at which design teams are growing requires clarity over the needs, the priorities, and the skillsets. …

Design has gone a long way in the past 10 years thanks to the rise and impact of Design Thinking and to the impact design has had on businesses. There are a number of studies reporting how companies with Design teams have higher profits, such as McKinsey 2018, John Maeda’s Design in Tech Reports, The Forrester Report 2020.

Yet, many design leaders still complain about the role and positioning of Design within their organisation, claiming that their team is unable to influence conversations and that Design is still expected to execute briefs and deliver pixel-perfect prototypes or designs. But that…

DesignOps’ goal is to maximise value generation for both the business, the design teams, and the design leaders through the creation of efficiencies and the optimisation of end-to-end design processes. If its goals were important in the pre-pandemic world, the pandemic has hugely increased organisations’ need for flexibility and agility to effectively cope with the new WFH (Woking From Home) situation.

The sudden disruption in teams’ operations and ways of working have been a major challenge for most organisations, with the exception of those companies which implemented a successful DesignOps function before the pandemic hit: organisations with mature and ready…

Yes, DesignOps is a thing. And it is growing fast, establishing itself as an emerging function that actively supports teams and organisations to scale through the design of efficient Design teams.

DesignOps’ focus is to increase operational and spending efficiencies by understanding, analysing, and optimising the E2E design processes to deliver value to the design teams, the design leaders, and the business.

Value of course is different for each of these stakeholders and this is where strategic thinking and the ability to assess impact and weighting opportunities becomes essential.

It’s known that knowledge workers may spend up to 60% of…

PART 2

DesignOps relies on ongoing performance assessments to constantly evaluate what can be done better to impact positively the business metrics. Yes, DesignOps’ impact is quantifiable.

The application of a system thinking business mindset relies on DesignOps leaders ability to apply a solid analytical approach to quantify impact and inefficiencies and to focus on aspects that can bring more value to the organisation as a whole.

To do so DesignOps has a very specific set of KPIs, that are unique to its domain and which complement the Chief Design Officer’s performance indicators.

Design Leaders assesses the value of Design through metrics…

What is DesignOps and where does it come from?

Design has become a central function in most businesses: in the past 10 years, due to the emergence of design thinking and its impact on business performance, many organisations invested in design and have embedded design in the production cycle (McKinsey 2015).

This new positioning of Design has led many organisations to acquire or invest in Design teams, and over time, these design units have become organisations within the organisation.

As Design teams grow within organisations, both in terms of teams’ size and number of teams, the need of harmonising design workflows and coordinating efforts and processes has led to…