Operations teams obsess about making the complex simple. We love smart defaults, systems, and process and are always looking for ways to help teams work better. As we focus on common operational deliverables, it’s easy to underinvest in the messy human challenges that are impossible to avoid as we scale user experience practices and teams. How might we be consistent and rigorous, while still leaving room for flexibility and divergent thinking? How might we be impact focused, while also accepting that not everything of value can be measured? How might we embrace process and ambiguity? This talk will explore the daunting task of showing up as efficient operational machines while also leaning into the creative, unpredictable, and human realities of our roles, and why it’s important for us to be able to do both.