Rolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization
Join us as Zapier’s Senior Insights Program Manager, Michelle Bejian Lotia, shares her research repository journey. With insights coming from all directions at Zapier, important research was often lost in the fray, resulting in repeated projects and siloed efforts.
By consolidating insights into a repository that all stakeholders could access and contribute to, Michelle is looking to compound Zapier’s research efforts and drive insight-led decision-making across the organization.
Come along and hear firsthand the challenges and triumphs of rolling out a research repository in a growing, fully remote organization.
Understanding the past to prepare for the future
Interaction designer and educator, Erin Malone, takes a look back to the days of the emergent graphical user interface in her new book In Through the Side Door, Fifty Years of Women in Interaction Design. While discussing the new personal computer and some of the women involved in defining these new experiences, she recalls the disruption this new tool made to the world of graphic design and publishing with tools like the Macintosh, Adobe Photoshop, Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator. It was a time of existential change to an industry. Not unlike what we are experiencing today with the emergence of AI in all our tools. What lessons might be learned from the past as we look to the future? How might we future-proof ourselves in this new world? Join a lively discussion reflecting on the past to shape our future.
Bringing Voices to the Table for DesignOps with Jay Bustamante
Jay Bustamante has always been about conserving time and resources by building tight processes to create efficiencies in his life and work. In all the jobs and positions he’s held, he would notice gaps, consult with stakeholders, find solutions, and fill those gaps. Eventually he learned there is a name for this type of work: DesignOps. Today Jay is a DesignOps leader and an experienced strategist at VMware. And he’ll be a speaker at the October 2023 DesignOps Summit.
When it comes to streamlining and building efficiencies, AI seems like a no-brainer, right? Not so fast. AI brings big expectations and can result in a lot of frustration if proper groundwork isn’t laid. DesignOps teams that proactively facilitate collaboration between engineers, business teams, end users, and other stakeholders can save time, money, and greatly increase the likelihood of a successful product that will reflect the company’s values.
In this episode, Jay and Lou explore the following concerning AI:
• Good data makes all the difference
• Why AI can easily reinforce existing biases
• Why case studies and knowing the most impactful need are crucial
• Setting proper expectations
• Why Design’s role is to slow things down and to make sure that the right people are invited to the conversation, that the right questions are asked, and that all voices are heard early in the process.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
• How Jay got where he is today
• How to slow down the development of AI solutions to avoid ethical and technical snafus
• Which voices need to be at the planning table
• How DesignOps can steer the design boat and keep everyone on the same page with the same goals
• How companies (even big ones like Amazon) can get tripped up when AI reinforces biases
Quick Reference Guide
[0:00:25] Introduction of Jay and the October 2-4 Design Ops Summit
[0:02:11] Jay’s professional journey into design ops
[0:05:36] Jay joined VMware to do strategy work and ended up doing design ops work
[0:07:35] AI in a design ops context
[0:10:32] An example from Amazon of AI-aided hiring gone wrong
[0:15:39] Design Ops Summit – October 2-4, 2023
[0:17:01] On being proactive with use cases and identifying red flags and slowing down
[0:22:13] On being careful with data
[0:25:43] On bringing voices together and being a facilitator
[0:28:09] Jay’s gift to listeners
Beyond Tools: The Messy Business of Implementing Research Repositories
In this talk, Sofia Quintero – founder at EnjoyHQ [recently acquired by UserZoom] – shares her experience helping teams implement effective research repositories across companies of all sizes. You will learn a variety of change management protocols and best practices in knowledge management to make sure you build a strong foundation regardless of the tool you end up buying.
Amplify, Not Optimize: Dave Malouf Returns to Rosenfeld Review
Our closing keynoter at DesignOps 2019, Dave Malouf a veteran design leader, strategist, facilitator, researcher, and educator who has worked with some of the largest and fastest growing organizations globally. He was also one of the creators of the very first DesignOps Summit in 2017. Hear from him about the evolution of DesignOps, and his belief that we need a new framework that emphasizes the topline—the creation of value—over bottomline fixation on resource optimization. This new framing is at the root of DesignOps framework that Dave Malouf will share in his closing keynote. Get a taste of what’s in store for Dave’s keynote “Amplify, Not Optimize” at this year’s DesignOps Summit in New York City, October 23-25.
Writing About Writing: Steve Krug returns to the Rosenfeld Review Podcast
Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think, and Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is back for a third appearance on the Rosenfeld Review Podcast! Here, he shares some details with Lou about his book in the works, Writing Made Slightly Easier, and his perspective on the process of writing in general (and why he might advise against it!).
Steve’s wise words for writers:
Don’t be afraid to always start at the beginning. Always assume that your reader knows less rather than more.
The Future of ReOps as a Strategic Function: A Roadmap for Getting There
Imagine a future where UX Research Operations (ReOps) is not just part of research execution, but a pivotal force driving business performance and competitive edge. In this session, we will explore the hidden and often untapped superpowers of Strategic Programs already available in your team. Discover how ReOps can evolve from a supportive function for research alone to a strategic linchpin that fuels your business competitive position, at scale. Through engaging case studies, actionable program plans, and measures, this session will equip you with a practical roadmap to assess the current research lifecycle, effectively advocate for resource gaps with research intelligence, and creative approaches to your research hiring & people strategy. Don’t miss the opportunity to transform your approach to Research Ops into a strategic pillar of business strategy. This evolution will lead to a significant shift in research perceptions, excellence, and maturity.
Making Good Trouble: DesignOps Summit co-curator Alana Washington
Alana Washington and Lou embark on a really wide-ranging conversation, touching on:
• The changing nature of work in the time of pandemic,
• How we can handle the intersection of our personal and private lives when working remotely,
• The restorative power of something as simple as putting down the phone and holding a physical book, and
• How DesignOps can help businesses enact more human-based processes.
Alana serves as a Senior Design Program Manager at Uber Freight. She’s also part of the DesignOps Summit 2020 curation team. The team is looking to frame the program against the difficult backdrop of these challenging times, when designers need more support than ever before. That’s why resilience is our theme for DesignOps 2020; we’ll explore design operations’ role in helping individual designers, design teams, and entire organizations adapt, survive, and thrive.
Evaluating Designers with Ignacio Martinez
Giving feedback to subordinates can be just as stressful as receiving it. Yet evaluations are a critical component of retention, employer/employee expectations, and production in general. Having an evaluation framework and system in place creates efficiencies, fills voids, and benefits everyone on the team. Enter Ignacio Martinez, associate director at Grand Studio in Chicago. He’ll be delivering a talk at the DesignOps Summit in September, “Fair and Effective Designer Evaluation”.
In this podcast episode, Ignacio and Lou explore the importance of a well-structured evaluation framework that highlights “glows and grows” in the areas of craft, quality, client interaction, and teamwork. Ignacio’s system, built on the very accessible Google Sheets, combines quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback to reduce bias and offer a comprehensive assessment of designers’ performance. His framework allows for continuous feedback from peers, project directors, and supervisors.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- The principles and methodologies behind creating a fair and effective designer evaluation system
- How contributions from peers, career managers, and directors can create a robust evaluation system
- The importance of a structured framework with clear categories and traits such as craft, quality, client interaction, and teamwork
- The benefits of incorporating both quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback to minimize bias and provide comprehensive evaluations
- How to create a framework for continuous ongoing feedback from peers, project directors, and supervisors
- How evaluation criteria may evolve based on internal priorities
Quick Reference Guide:
0:13 – Intro of Ignacio
3:54 – Evaluating designers then and now
6:32 – Gut feelings versus using a system
8:27 – Defining desired traits and levels
11:49 – The framework of the documentation
14:54 – The Rosenverse
17:34 – Who are the evaluators? Are they biased? Are they anonymous?
21:33 – The frequency of evaluations
22:36 – Consider what makes the business run
26:05 – The importance of transparency
26:51 – Ignacio’s gift for listeners
