Frequently Asked Questions
These common questions and their short answers are taken from Rachel Postman and John Calhoun’s book The Design Conductors: Your Essential Guide to Design Operations. You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.
- What is the most important lesson in this book?
The lesson is easy to summarize but complicated to explain. Hence, we wrote this book to help readers of all backgrounds understand that “DesignOps is design.” - What’s the difference between Design Operations and design program management?
We generally use the term Design Operations (commonly shortened to DesignOps) as the highest-order label to refer to this practice. The name is inclusive of many aspects of design, such as user experience design, content design, and research; we acknowledge variations and subtleties in this label in Chapter 1, “The First Note.” Our position is that the work of design program management is just one component of DesignOps. That said, the role and title of design program manager (commonly shortened to DPM) is the best descriptor of someone who practices Design Operations, regardless of their skill, level, or day-to-day job responsibilities. - Is this the first book on DesignOps?
Yes! But also—sort of? This is the first book entirely devoted to DesignOps. In recent years, product and design books have started to describe Design Operations in the context of their practices. Some authors have dedicated sections and even whole chapters to the topic! But as leaders in this field, we felt it was important to have a book about DesignOps written and informed by those who practice it daily. We know that there is a risk to Design Operations of being defined by other disciplines (which we cover throughout Chapters 8–10) and wanted to provide readers with our definitive viewpoint of the practice. - How do I build myself up to become a DesignOps practitioner? How do I build upva DesignOps practice?
This book is ideal for individuals and businesses alike who are “DesignOps curious.” We define core career competencies (and mindsets) in Chapter 4, “It’s All About Practice,” which can be used by prospective DesignOps candidates to focus on areas to skill up or promote on a résumé. Similarly, businesses can use these competencies to articulate career ladders and levels, which we cover in Chapter 5, “Composing Your Career.” As far as building out the practice, our journey map of Design Operations teams from small to medium to large (and their relationship to the design maturity or their partner design orgs) is covered exhaustively in Chapter 11, “Ready to Take up the Baton,” and Chapter 12, “Maintaining Your Rhythm.” - Will AI take over DesignOps jobs?
Our book does not explore too deeply the topic of generative AI and its impact on Design Operations. We share our point of view in the Epilogue and acknowledge that this is a hot topic that (unfortunately) doesn’t have a lot of definitive answers. At the time of this writing, we maintain that AI will be an important and valuable partner in the design process—one that enhances creative thinking and streamlines workflows. AI, in our view, will be less disruptive to DesignOps and will mostly replace the rote aspects of the role that can and should be delegated anyway.
