*co-author: Alesha Arp | editor: Jonathon Coleman*

DesignOps plays a crucial role in driving the timeliness, efficiency, and effectiveness of design teams.

We asked participants to share their relationship to project management - both as a core competency and as a category of tools used by Design and DesignOps teams. We found that project management is a core competency across the board, with nearly 89% of respondents indicating that they regularly (“at least once per month”) practice some form of project management in their role. Regarding types of project management, nearly 54% of all respondents selected “Lean / Agile / Scrum” while 35% selected “traditional / PMP” project management.

DesignOps practitioners often find themselves adapting tools designed for cross-functional disciplines for their project management needs. And while Design teams often must resort to using project management tools designed for product and engineering workflows, these tools consistently fail to support Design-specific workflows out of the box. This problem is made worse by the lack of centralized tooling, which prevents cross- cutting visibility for Design and DesignOps stakeholders and decision makers.

Adapting project management tools to achieve DesignOps objectives requires a lot of creative shoehorning. This is frustrating when DesignOps practitioners are often responsible for bridging the workflows of partner teams. It’s even more complicated when teams use different tools that don’t integrate well (or at all). Porting information from one system to another and back again can be tedious and introduce errors, especially when practitioners have to repeatedly copy and paste.

A solid 66% of respondents rated their satisfaction with their project management tools as “somewhat satisfied” or “not at all satisfied.” While almost 31% of respondents said they were “satisfied”, the written feedback about the shortcomings of project management tools suggest that a majority of DesignOps professionals would like to see changes to them that better support DesignOps workflows - especially for enabling Design at scale. Participant responses suggest a need for more centralized, integrated, and user-friendly project management solutions that align with the specific needs of DesignOps.

However, many barriers exist to this tool utopia. Resistance to change and difficulties in training and adoption are barriers to successfully implementing project management tools. The diversity of tools in organizations creates a lack of a standardized approach and makes unification and adoption challenging. Rigid organizational policies and constraints worsen these problems. Often, these constraints fall in the realm of restrictive IT policies that, unless there is a strong relationship between Design and Finance (and/or Procurement), invariably result in limited project management tool choices.

Determination is key to fighting this uphill battle. Standardization of workarounds, training, change management, and fostering a culture of tool adoption are critical approaches for minimizing the shortcomings of project management tools.

Project Management Pitfalls

**Welcome to the [3rd annual DesignOps Assembly report](https://www.designopsassembly.com/2023report)!**

Since last year’s report, we’ve set a 5-year objective to mature the DesignOps discipline and create a community of practice informed by emerging trends, operational patterns, and standard practices. Ultimately, we want to empower the DesignOps community with insights that help you optimize results by investing in the right areas of DesignOps.

To this end, [this year’s report](https://www.designopsassembly.com/2023report) is different than last year’s. Beyond presenting the current state of DesignOps, it also sheds light on the most common entry points to DesignOps as a career. Additionally, we’ve begun sketching out archetypes for the DesignOps function based on industry, size, reporting structures, and other factors.

**In this year‘s survey and report, we focus on a set of core goals that support our 5-year objective:**

1. Chart common DesignOps career paths

2. Map organizational factors that influence DesignOps

3. Characterize the DesignOps function

4. Track the organizational impact of DesignOps

5. Develop a standard barometer for health + maturity

6. Monitor external factors and emerging trends

We also cover several "zeitgeist" topics that capture the spirit of our time and our community’s attention. In particular, we shine the spotlight on what we learned about the global economy’s impact on the DesignOps job market. You’ll find other timely topics, such as diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and findings on AI usage in our Highlights section. To cap it all off, the appendices cover design systems, ResearchOps, salary data, and respondent demographics.

We consider this year's survey and report as setting a baseline in these core areas of DesignOps, both as a function and as a practice. This enables us to lay the foundation for tracking trends year over year as we set out to establish common language, best practices, common standards, and guidelines for doing DesignOps—and doing it well.

### The survey

In October 2023, we sent out an online survey that ran for a 2-week period. We collected 316 responses from 30 countries and territories. While the respondent pool is smaller this year, we still have a rich, multi-faceted data set.

This report highlights what we find to be most compelling—from changes in hiring to common challenges, and from widely adopted program pillars to common approaches to increasing DesignOps maturity.

### Things to keep in mind

We intend this report to be foundational and illuminating, and it should be read as a guide. That said, the research methodology has some limitations, which are documented in Appendix B.

Our goal for the report articles is to help you make sense of the data. When relevant, we'll compare this year’s data to the data in last year's report or to other things we have seen in large DesignOps communities, including DesignOps Assembly.

**Other things to be aware of as you read:**

Unless otherwise stated, percentages listed in this report refer to percentages of the whole respondent set. There are a number of instances where we found it made sense to filter out certain responses to get a stronger signal from the data. Common examples of this include:

* Filtering out responses in order to get a count of unique organizations represented by the data set

* Filtering out responses that indicated the respondent’s org doesn’t have a dedicated DesignOps function (for survey questions specific to DesignOps as a function)

The survey and report have been a labor of love by a talented team of DesignOps Assembly volunteers. We hope you get as much value out of the report as the energy we put into it.

About this report

Design + UX/R force multiplier

2023 DesignOps Benchmarking Report

This is the de-facto industry benchmarking report of DesignOps. In it, you'll find insights into the state of DesignOps, including the practice, people, and tools of design operations teams everywhere. It gives you a global view of DesignOps from 316 people in 30 countries.

Colorqueer: Hues of Nonbinary Experiences

This is a metaphorical mini autobiography describing what it feels like to be a young nonbinary person growing up in a binary-gender world.

Trans Truths for #TDOV 2017

I wrote this for Transgender Day of Visibility 2017. This is an educational and community-advocacy piece about the trans experience encouraging allies to do better and for those who aren't allies to—well, frankly—mind their own business.

DesignOps Fundamentals

A startup owned by Lithia Motors, the largest new-car retailer in the United States with $28.2B in revenue and #158 on the Fortune 500 for 2022. Driveway launched in 2020 to redefine how consumers buy, sell, and finance vehicles 100% online. Reported to Director of XD.

* Led and developed distributed team of 6 designers, supported 4 squads; hired Driveway's first UX researcher and Design System Designer

* Shipped real-time ACH payments by building strong Product and Engineering partnerships, balancing designer exploration and rapid delivery

* Launched a comprehensive research program and co-created Driveway's inaugural UX research roadmap via participatory workshops

* Measurably boosted user engagement by developing My Driveway sign-up features, increasing new account creation by 18% and

  increasing signup page conversion by 36% within first 12 months; led Senior Product Designer and UX Researcher in creation of Favorites feature

* Established org-wide design system program and designer guild; all 8+ squads building Driveway consumed new components

* Orchestrated cross-functional execution of an org-wide brand refresh, coordinating across Engineering, Delivery, Product, Design, and

  Marketing—while overseeing research and redesign of the homepage released in Dec 2021; Driveway.com reached 1MM MUVs in Feb 2022

Product Design Manager + Design Program Manager

UX team-of-one at AI/ML-powered mobile-first direct-to-consumer insurtech app that enables Colorado business owners to quickly and easily buy workers' comp policies. Operated by Pinnacol Assurance, Cake functioned as an independent subsidiary startup from 2018 thru 2021.

* Achieved a highly positive Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the mid-70s by owning end-to-end product design and design system direction, collaborating with Product, Dev, Marketing, and Ops to deliver designs for new business and renewal automations

* Initiated and socialized design system evolution to support additional customer segments and improve accessibility

* Designed new UI components, including dynamic data grid; collaborated with engineers on technical implementation

* Facilitated co-creation of Cake's first service blueprint by planning and facilitating 3 consecutive internal and external workshops, enabling project kickoff with internal stakeholders, SME alignment, and client prioritization of roadmap

Senior Product Designer

Senior-most UX researcher and designer, influencing product roadmap for multinational government SaaS platform. Accela digitizes the complex government processes of permitting, licensing, inspections, and service request management.

* Led and executed comprehensive, multi-method user research to inform product prioritization and design decisions for platform experience refresh, identifying 18 new features across 2 core product areas and the integrated mobile app

* Planned and facilitated 5 cross-functional design studios resulting in 57 JTBDs, supplementing business analysis while spearheading a multi-year experience refresh; piloted a new type of dual-track design sprint to engage product partners earlier in the delivery-driven SDLC

* Co-created and successfully pitched 3-year roadmap to CPO after leading team to prioritize product areas based on past research

* Drove increased design system adoption for 9 Admin modules by creating JIRA ticket templates and populating design system and scrum team backlogs with 200+ JIRA tickets; guided design team on design system, socialization, RACI, and metrics

Principal UX Strategist

U.S. financial firm Transamerica provides life insurance, investments, and retirement solutions to 10.8MM customers. Holding $404B in investments and 12.5MM policies, Transamerica's digital experiences serve agents, advisors, clients, employers, and employees.

* Consolidated 6 agent and client portals into a unified advisor/agent-client experience, reducing operational costs by leading and coaching a team of 3 designers and 1 UX researcher in the end-to-end product design and user research for a high-visibility modernization initiative

* Achieved increased transparency and alignment between UX and cross-functional partners in the first 3 months by initiating design-specific ceremonies, improving product-UX partnership by increasing visibility and trust

* Improved intake with product owners within the first 6 months by means of a revised design brief, resulting in increased understanding and lean UX approach; established Design "Definition of Ready", increasing clarity of scope, priority, and design requirements

* Guided team-led planning and facilitation of vision workshop with product, engineering, and design leaders

* Created 3 information architecture concepts for advisor annuities view based on 11 jobs-to-be-done (JTBDs) identified during internal research with 5 sales partners; as a result, product partners chose one concept for further exploration

Product Design Manager

Granicus enables over 5,500 public sector organizations to efficiently serve and connect to their resident base. Their SaaS cloud platform aids agencies in modernizing web presence, managing public meetings, and streamlining resident communications. I led UX and reported to the CTO.

* Launched SaaS application in 7 months by leading the UX/UI team in discovery, design, and usability testing. Executed user research, socialized findings, and translated complex requirements into design concepts, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity screen designs

* Substantially reduced customer training and implementation time to less than 1 day from over 2 weeks. Customer feedback on the newly launched MVP agenda management tool includes:

  • "Our cost savings and our time savings and efficiency is definitely measurable." – Shane P., Borough Manager

  • "Peak \[Agenda Management\] is much more user-friendly than our old system." – Daralyn S., Municipal Clerk

* Developed Product Definition Canvas quickly adopted by PM team, replacing market requirements doc for roadmap planning and prioritization

* Co-created customer journey for sales enablement by partnering with leads across CX and Sales (new business, account management)

* Extended UX runway from < 2 weeks to > 2 months via UX backlog management and design sprints, improving risk mitigation and increasing time for UX research and design iteration. Established repeatable cadence for feedback and alignment with Product and Engineering

Manager, User Experience

Spearheaded survey design for 3rd annual report for DesignOps Assembly, leading a global team of 10 volunteers across research, content strategy, content design, and marketing. Established foundation for YoY benchmarking of the growing DesignOps field for the 7k global community.

* Defined a Goals-Signals-Metrics framework with a 5-year horizon for demonstrably maturing the DesignOps community of practitioners

* Overhauled survey, reducing length by 15% while sourcing 38 new signals from DesignOps community; led core team in prioritization

* Developed repeatable research execution framework and led research team in data normalization, analysis, and synthesis

* Directed annual report insights and themes by owning segmentation analysis; influenced content strategy with research outcomes

Lead Researcher, Benchmarking

Insurtech industry leader streamlining every point of the insurance distribution channel. Serving 21,000 agencies and 1300 carriers in North America, Vertafore’s software enhances agent workflows and boosts operational efficiency.

* Built and directed a distributed, multi-disciplinary UX team of 9 following HQ move; established a culture of peer-to-peer coaching, knowledge exchange, and skill development

* Swiftly established the foundations of an end-to-end enterprise-wide UX program integrated with scaled agile framework (SAFe), including Lean UX, on-site program increment planning (PIP), scrum of scrums, and sprint demos

* Steered the end-to-end UX program and execution, supporting three business units and their flagship products, as well as research, design, and a new design system for a $45MM board-level investment in a greenfield platform initiative

* Set and achieved a baseline for usability testing 75% of new features for my team's Client Portal redesign effort

* Influenced a Build-Buy-Partner decision with rapid discovery: executed a CEO-sponsored 2-week design sprint encompassing rapid prototyping and concept testing conducted solely by me; presented findings and insights to executives, resulting in a Build decision

* Informed product-market fit and elucidated complex requirements for an insurance proposal-building tool through contextual inquiry conducted with multiple customers in three U.S. cities; then rapidly onboarded new team and directed design execution and delivery

* Increased partner engagement with data-driven UX across business units at both senior leadership and team levels, involving partners in project inception workshops, UX research, hypothesis creation, and other Lean UX activities

* Boosted UX team efficiency by enhancing runway, focus, and predictability of work: introduced and guided a dual-track design process, including 2-week design sprints with dedicated rituals for design planning, critique, and feasibility review

* Prompted a UX reporting structure change from VP of Engineering to SVP of Product within 12 months of hire, due to demonstrated effectiveness in establishing new team, facilitating knowledge transfer, and materializing design vision in product outcomes

Jules Monza

2023