Valuing Design & DesignOps Practices - Dave Malouf

Valuing Design &
DesignOps Practices
Dave Malouf
@daveixd
#designOps
2019

1. What is the value
of design?
2. How can we appreciate
that value?
3. How are we
losing design value?
4. How does
DesignOps help?

1. What is the value of design?

Would a Sprint Zero help us
create more value?

If we used their tools, would our
designs be better?

Where is […] ?
Reflection
Empathy
Synthesis
Vision
Exploration

We know great design when we see it.

It’s not design without post-its, right?

You’re not a designer unless you can draw.

Design has to be collaborative.

Better designs come
from better designing.

We know how to measure designs.

But how do we measure designing?

How do we scale quality?
How do we transform
from a silo to a partner?

How do we do this
without reducing
our value?

Design’s value is in these 4 activities
• Driving Understanding & Empathy
• Creating Clarity & Behavioral Fit
• Exploring the possible & desirable
• Envisioning experiences

Understanding &
Empathy
Observing, interviewing, & learning
with the people for whom we will be
designing.
Synthesizing actionable insights to
direct teams to design the right things.

Clarity &
Behavioral Fit
Providing the right structures to help
people achieve value.
Present words & images to maximize
efficient communication of meaning &
possibility.
Fit the behavior of the system(s) to the
behaviors of the humans who use them.

Exploring the
Possible & Desirable
Validation is not an end point,
but a beginning point.
Association of a multiplicity of
ideas is at the heart of
creativity.

Envisioning Ideas
& Experiences
Tell stories with words &
images to convey insights.
Using narratives to express
the human possibilities of a
design direction.

Some skills to create that value
• Storytelling
• Visual Thinking
• Information Structure, Navigation,  
& Presentation
• Activity sequencing and modeling
• Workshop Facilitation
• Prototyping/Simulations

2. How can we appreciate
that value?

Different types of metrics
Types
•Quantitative data
•Qualitative data, quantified.
Collection Methods
•Self reported
•Gathered through automated instrumentation

Duration Variable
• Moment in time
• Comparative
• Trend

Cascading use of data
Metric What is available to measure that relates to our hypothesis?
Correlation
If we compare the original metric to another metric can
that help understand the original hypothesis?
Interpretation
What does the correlation tell us?
Which directions make the desired effect?
Threshold
What measure of the metric will tell us we reached an
otherwise qualitative goal?
Trend
How do the prime metric and correlated metric compare over time?

How strong of a correlation in the trend would be significant? (differential)
Milestone
What can we map against a timeline to help us understand and interpret
possible moments of cause and effect? (such as releases, ship dates)
Baseline
The value of a metric or the combination of metrics at
beginning of any initiative.
Hypothesis What we want to learn from our data?

Setting up your measurement*
*extrapolated from a case study by Intuit
Data Type: Quantitative 
Time Designing
Collected by: Self-reporting 
Using tool such as Harvest
Desired Outcome 
Increase design quality &/or
designer engagement
Hypothesis: 
Increasing time designing will
increase design quality &/or
designer engagement
Measuring Desired Outcomes: 
NPS, Heuristics, Usability
Testing, Customer
Satisfaction, etc.

Correlations are not answers.
They are signals.

For Correlations to work …
… The two metrics need to be plotted on the
same ratio.
… The correlation itself needs to be along a
continuous and steep grade.
… Major exceptions to the correlation over
time need to be followed up on thoroughly.

How can you assess quality?
Is the product organization aligned in their understanding of the
value of you design(ing) to the business & their customers? 2
1. There is no alignment across the product organization.
2. There have been gains in alignment seen by open trials of design and
research activities and processes.
3. Alignment is growing, as seen by more non-designers participating in design
activities.
4. Design value is well understood and consistently articulated across the
product organization.

Monitoring the
DesignOps Practice.
Vital Signs

Vital Signs
for DesignOps
Top 3-5 metrics that tell you
something might be wrong,
or everything is ok.
Possible Examples
• Number of UX stories
that started in a sprint’s
backlog, but didn’t get
deployed to prouction.
• Attrition rate within a
design team compared to
the whole organization.
• Time spent designing/
researching.

Requires regular
periodic evaluations

Examples Questions
of DesignOps Value

People
•Is recruitment leading to
best in class talent hired?
•Is the team engaged and
growing professionally?
•Are the values being upheld?
•Are diversity & inclusion
upheld as important values?

Workflow
• Teams are meeting the needs of
stakeholders?
• How much of the total design process are
team members being encouraged &/or
allowed to do?
• Are designs regularly being included in
shipped goods?

Communications
• Does the team have line of sight into the
team & business?
• Is the signal:noise ratio being managed?
• Is tribal knowledge available easily?

Tools
•Is the team able to get the
tools they need to be
successful & productive?
•Are tools easily integrated
to each other, and to the
broader set of
stakeholders (where
appropriate)?

Governance
• Are the mission & vision in place and well
understood?
• Are the team’s principles being used to
evaluate the quality of design work?
• Are decision making processes better
understood, and acted upon?

Business Ops
• Is the DesignOps team creating and
maintaining relationships with key
BusinessOps teams to ensure DxD smooth
functioning?

How do you know if you are
measuring the right things?

Gather, monitor, compare, share

Measuring is a
strategic activity.
Be strategic about it.

3. How are we losing
design value?

If a designer is not
designing, they are
doing operations.
- Meredith Black

The Right
Activities
The ones that create value

The Right
Activities
The ones that create value
Empathy Clarity Vision

Serendipity by
Design
The Studio as Culture

Studio Culture
• Externalized work
• Empower interruption
• Sharing/critiquing WIP
• Associative processing
• Abductive thinking
• Exploratory >
Deconstructive >
Reconstructive

Culture of
Learning
Lean UX, Balanced Teams
and Modern Agile
• Self-organizing
• Respect skills
• Autonomy &
Accountability
• Empowerment
• Coaching
• Protect Flow
• Constructive >
Incremental Iteration

Resistance is
Futile
Agile is reality in one form
or another. Good, Bad, and
Damn!!!!! You Ugly.

Studio Culture
Deconstructive
Problem Understanding
Getting to the right design
Imagining possible futures
Modern Agile
Constructive
Solution Engineering
Getting the design right
Risk mitigation

Impact of Agile
• Research, interpretations, synthesis, insights,
empathy are not part of most agile processes.
• Deliverable as “working software” doesn’t
encourage exploring and creating in the abstract.
• Single cadence for entire team doesn’t consider
that design & research practices works differently
than development.

Culture eats [Ops]
for breakfast —
and pretty much every other
part of your business.

Uniformity over
appropriateness

Handing over the
wall, instead of
collaborating

Better hiring &
Professional Development

Better tools,
and more
flexible
procurement
to get them.

Principles & Values
to guide with.

Design Operations
Amplifying the value
of design

Design Operations
Amplifying the value
of design
me@davemalouf.com
@daveixd
http://medium.com/amplify_design

Thank You
Dave Malouf
Email: me@davemalouf.com
Twitter: @daveixd
http://medium.com/amplify_design

Valuing Design & DesignOps Practices - Dave Malouf

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