Better products, better designers - the DesignOps effect

What is DesignOps, and why should you care?

How we work can be just as important as what we work on. DesignOps covers all of the supporting structure around design work - the systems, processes and tools that help to make designers, and their work more effective.

In short, Design Operations is the business practice that ensures great design and great designers thrive and deliver meaningful impact.

Learn more about this emerging area, with takeaways that you can start to put to work in your team straight away.

Guest authors
We are delighted to welcome Rachel Posman and John Calhoun to UX Belfast.

Both distinguished design professionals individually, Rachel and John have come together to write The Design Conductors: Your Essential Guide to Design Operations. The book is a comprehensive guide to DesignOps, and clearly describes how to successfully advocate for, build out, scale up, and ultimately operate design organisations.

Rachel and John will talk about the background to the book and the main takeaways, and will be happy to take any questions you may have.

Rachel Posman
Rachel currently leads the Central DesignOps team for Salesforce’s global UX organization, which designs programs, processes, and systems that enable the design of great product and employee experiences.

Previously, she led design and research operations at Uber Eats, and was a Design Program Management leader for the service and experience design teams at Capital One, Adaptive Path, and others.

John Calhoun
John is currently a leader of Salesforce’s Design Operations team, which builds the platform for delivering best-in-class product design solutions and experiences at scale. Previously, John was a producer and game designer for Electronic Arts, with 17 years of experience developing video games and adjacent media.

Cultivating a culture of great design through the principles of confidence, clarity, and partnership is what drew John to DesignOps; enabling teams to do great work (and live great lives) will keep him in DesignOps for years to come.
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Guest speaker

Laura Sweeney
Laura has a formidable history in design at organisations of all sizes. Currently Head of Design at Teamwork, Laura previously led UX at Songtradr, and held senior design roles at Allstate and Synergy Learning.

Laura will share insights on how design is managed and orchestrated at Teamwork, where user-centred design plays a key role in overcoming common challenges in building better products.

You can find Laura on LinkedIn at: https://linkedin.com/in/laurasweeney1
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Charity
As is customary, we make a donation to charity chosen by our authors. This time round, John and Rachel have selected SPCA International. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (S.P.C.A.) International works to stop the abuse and suffering of animals with innovative programs that serve both animals and their human caretakers.

Learn more and consider donating at https://spcai.org/

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Food & drink
We'll have pizza and refreshments available from around 6.15pm, courtesy of our hosts and sponsors, Slice!

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