Design Operations London 2025

First Sessions Announced

We are busy developing an exciting agenda for Design Operations London 2025 so keep your eyes peeled for details. Register your interest and be the first to hear about announced sessions!

If you are interested in speaking at Design Operations London 2025, please contact Victoria Rose at VictoriaR@henrystewart.co.uk.

In the meantime, check out the first 4 sessions confirmed:

Metrics, Mindsets and Growth - Running a Design System Like a Successful Startup

What if design systems were treated as startups? 

Jon Reidy of T. Rowe Price explores building and scaling a design system using principles that drive successful businesses. 

By approaching design systems as a strategic service, teams can prioritise user needs, track critical metrics, and demonstrate tangible organisational value.

How treating design system development like a startup enables agile iteration, responsive user support and continuous improvement. 

Covering:

• Learning how to pivot based on feedback
• How to engage users and secure stakeholder investment through strategic approaches to design system growth
• Startup-inspired metrics to demonstrate design system value
• Service-oriented approaches to user adoption
• Strategic insights on scaling design systems
• How to Impact the way an organisation thinks about design system development

Behind the Features: Crafting an AI Product

Severyn Harasevych, Chief Design Officer at Wantent, describes the transformational journey of converting developer-created technology into a fully realized AI product. How adopting a strategic approach ensures technological capabilities are used to create meaningful user experiences.

A detailed account of the process of translating raw technological potential into a purposeful product at the intersection of technology and design.

Including:

• Mapping the customer journey to align cutting-edge technology with genuine user needs

• Developing a robust product roadmap by defining meaningful use cases

• Uncovering improvement opportunities through rigorous real-world feedback analysis

• Implementing adaptive strategies for continuous product iteration and scalable growth

An exploration of product development that combines technological innovation with human-centered design. How deliberate design thinking can transform promising technology into impactful solutions.

Achieving Strategic Impact Through Rebranding - The Resurrection of Design Systems

Anett Brodarics discusses how a rebranding initiative can be a transformative moment for design systems. 

How strategic positioning during a company-wide rebrand can extend a design system's influence beyond product teams and create unprecedented organisational alignment and impact.

 How to leverage a high-visibility rebranding project to:

• Establish design system teams with company-wide reach
• Align design efforts across product, brand, and marketing
• Demonstrate the tangible value of design systems
• Create a foundation for long-term organisational consistency

By treating rebranding as more than a visual refresh, design leaders can turn the occasion into a powerful catalyst for design system adoption and strategic collaboration.

Anett Brodarics, Design Operations and Design Systems Lead, Printify

Scaling the Impact of Design Ops in 3D - Diligence, Decision, and Discipline

Laurent Christoph unpacks all the critical factors that determine the success or failure of Design Operations initiatives.

Design Operations teams frequently struggle with complex challenges, including:

• Scaling design teams and managing headcount
• Defining unified design processes in distributed agile environments
• Creating meaningful career frameworks
• Improving colleague engagement and retention

An explanation of why some DesignOps efforts succeed while others dramatically fall flat. 

An introduction to the transformative 3D framework—diligence, decision, and discipline—that separates game-changing Design Operations from ineffective attempts to improve. 

Insights into the essential strategies that distinguish truly impactful design operators from the rest – gained through candid analysis of real-world successes and failures,

A practical blueprint for driving meaningful change, scaling design capabilities, and creating sustainable design ecosystems.

Laurent Christoph, Design Leadership & Operations Expert