Design Leadership at Scale: Operations
Learn best practices to build a durable design organization operating system.
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Course overview
Design Your Organization's Operating System
An advanced-level course for senior and rising design leaders ready to address the most common challenges Design Leaders face.
Learn how to build your durable design operating system to withstand scale, restructuring, evolution, and growth.
Establish mechanisms and high-leverage activities that maintain quality and effectiveness for your teams and for the business.
Course Topics + Content
Build and activate high-impact teams
Apply effective organizational design, strategic planning, and performance measurement
Define and optimize your operating system
Establish rhythms and rituals, shape a positive design culture, streamline processes and workflows, and build a robust reporting and communication strategy
Identify the most effective design team structures
Learn how to choose the right team structures for your organization
Activate your team’s strengths through organizational design
Anticipate common challenges within and across teams and learn strategies for effectively addressing them
Create your organization’s ideal design team
Together, we’ll design and build your design team and organization
7 Live, Interactive Sessions, with timezone-friendly options for most APAC/EMEA/AMER locales
- One Welcome Kickoff Session
- Three Live, Interactive Learning Sessions including Q&A sessions with guest experts
- Two Office Hours / Q+A sessions with Kristin for personalized guidance
- One Reflection/Wrap-up Session
Who is this course for
01
Directors+ of Design and Operations leading teams across a portfolio of products and services.
02
Senior Leaders and Practitioners who are establishing, evolving, and leading a Design Organization or Operations practice.
03
Operations leaders who want to sharpen skills, learn new approaches and methods, and accelerate their organizations.
What you’ll get out of this course
Best practices to build infrastructure that scales
You'll learn how to establish mechanisms, routines, and high-leverage activities that maintain and enhance culture, quality, and community as you grow.
Build and activate high-impact teams
- Design and structure a high-performing design organization.
- Effectively prioritize and plan work to maximize impact.
- Utilize visual staffing tools to manage resources efficiently.
- Implement accountability measures to maintain high-quality standards.
Define and optimize your operating system
- Establish effective rhythms and rituals that enhance team productivity and alignment.
- Shape a positive design culture that fosters innovation and collaboration.
- Optimize processes and workflows for greater efficiency.
- Develop and implement robust reporting and communications
Identify and anticipate the most common team and organizational challenges
- Learn approaches and tactics that address common organizational and team challenges
- Mitigate these challenges via a fixed vs. flexible framework
- Gain new strategies to keep your team focused and thriving
Access to first-hand experience and guidance customized to your unique situation
Guest Experience: Experienced leaders will join to share their stories and give examples of how they navigated similar challenges
Instructor Experience: You'll learn directly from Kristin's first-hand experience establishing and leading multiple large-scale global design orgs
Q&A Sessions with industry experts
Included are multiple, moderated Q&A sessions with Kristin and other industry leaders so that you can get expert advice on your unique challenges and aspirations.
What’s included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Kristin Skinner in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
Week 1
- 📚
Module 1: Articles + Books
- 📚
Module 2: Articles + Books
Module 1: Build and Activate High-Impact Teams
This module focuses on building and activating high-impact design teams through effective organizational design, strategic planning, and performance measurement. You will learn how to structure your team, prioritize and plan initiatives, manage staffing visually, and measure success to ensure continuous improvement. By the end of this module, you will be equipped with the tools and insights needed to create and sustain a team that consistently delivers high-quality design work.
Module 1: Resources
Module 2: Define and Optimize Your Operating System
This module will guide you through the process of defining and optimizing your design organization's operating system. You will learn how to establish effective rhythms and rituals, shape a positive design culture, streamline processes and workflows, and build a robust reporting and communication strategy. By the end of this module, you will have a clear understanding of how to create an efficient and cohesive operating system that supports your team’s productivity and innovation.
Module 2: Resources
Week 2
- 📄
Start here: Lecture Video
- 💡
Objectives + Outcomes
- 📚
Module 3: Articles + Books
Module 3: Identify and Address Common Team Challenges
In this module, we will explore the common challenges that design leaders face and provide strategies for effectively addressing them. You will learn how to navigate organizational dynamics, manage stakeholder expectations, handle team conflicts, and ensure the continuous growth and development of your design team. By the end of this module, you will be equipped with practical solutions to overcome obstacles and lead your team to success.
Module 3: Resources
What students are saying
Meet your instructor
Kristin Skinner
Kristin Skinner
Kristin Skinner is a design executive and global leader in organization design and leadership. She is co-author of Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams, the first book dedicated to the organization, management, and operations of in-house design teams.
Kristin's in-house executive experience includes leadership roles at Expedia Group, Chase, Capital One, Microsoft, and Adaptive Path.
She is the founder and Chief Experience Officer at &GSD, an Executive Advisory, where she guides executive leaders at Nike, Grab, Adobe, Zendesk, Wells Fargo, Grubhub, the Institute of Design for Ireland, and many others, on Executive Leadership, Design Leadership, and Organization Design.
A frequent conference keynoter, Kristin cofounded and led curation of the DesignOps Summit series, and curated the Leading Experience conference.
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you