Design Operations London 2023

IKEA knows that you can’t blaze a trail by walking the same path as everyone else. This is also true when it comes to a Design Operations practice. ‘Finding the smartest, most innovative, cost-efficient way of doing things is part of the company’s DNA.’

As DesignOps leaders we know that the perfect composition and size of a DesignOps team is dependent on the needs of the organisation within which it operates. Such needs range from very operational to highly strategic. They are dependent on both the design maturity and the organisational maturity of the design team.

Let’s imagine a design capability consisting of 50 interaction designers, embedded, and operating in silos within various product teams. Over a period of two years, this grows to a centralised experience design team with 250 design co-workers with competencies spanning strategic design, research, interaction design, experience design writing, inclusive design and many more. 

Because of the team’s rapid growth, the established ad-hoc, reactive approach, built on cooperation between individual contributors and a DesignOps team of one, is no longer sustainable. The requirement to change is obvious. The challenge is where to start, what to do, in what order and at what pace. This is the world of change management.  

In a fluctuating environment, that’s influenced by the arrival of new talent, new capabilities as well as new and ever-evolving business needs, identifying the most pressing requirement can become a guessing game. 

So, does this make the rapid scaling of a Design Operations team impossible?

Join Karolina Boremalm for a virtuoso explanation of why not. 

Join Karolina Boremalm, Global Head of Design Operations, Digital Experience at IKEA Retail Ingka Group, as she unpacks one of the greatest challenges in DesignOps management.