Transforming Skandia's Design Landscape for Success
Client: Skandia
Title: Head of Design Operations
When: January 2023 - Ongoing
Where: Stockholm, Sweden
What: Implementing Design Operations
Background
At Skandia, the need for implementing DesignOps emerged to streamline and enhance design work. The existing design processes were fragmented and inefficient, leading to coordination issues and resource wastage.
By introducing DesignOps processes and methods, the goal was to create a more structured and cohesive working environment for the design team, standardize design work, and improve collaboration between various disciplines and teams. The aim was to enhance communication and coordination between design and development, ultimately delivering products and services with higher customer value.
Challenges
The DesignOps initiative at Skandia faced several challenges, including limited time and resources for designers, the need to recruit designers, unclear leadership in the design domain, budget constraints, and the need to establish a better understanding of the role of design within the organization. Additionally, organizational issues required the reorganization and placement of personnel.
Team and Roles
Björg´s role involved leading the work and design leads to drive the initiatives forward. It was a collaborative effort, where design leads were key individuals that Björg constantly collaborated with. They regularly reported to her on the project's progress and challenges.
Björg´s responsibility was to allocate tasks and ensure the right conditions were created for the team's success. Additionally, she was in charge of ensuring that the deliveries maintained a high level of quality through thorough quality assurance and monitoring. This included ensuring that our work aligned with the project's goals and guidelines and that we met the expectations of our stakeholders.
Goals and Target Audience
By introducing DesignOps processes and methods, we aim to create a more structured and cohesive working environment for our design team. By establishing clear processes and routines within DesignOps, we can standardize our design work and enhance collaboration across various disciplines and teams. This will improve communication and coordination between design and development, ultimately leading to better products and services and, consequently, increased customer value.
The implementation of DesignOps at Skandia also seeks to enhance the scalability and efficiency of our design work. By establishing best practices and utilizing effective tools, we can optimize our design process and deliver high-quality design solutions that meet our customers' needs more swiftly.
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The primary goals of the DesignOps initiative were to achieve efficiency, quality, scalability, and the full potential of design. This involved defining clear processes, roles, and objectives, fostering close collaboration between technology and design, delivering design at a larger scale, and optimizing the efficiency of work processes. Key focus areas included establishing clear processes, ownership, making the best use of resources and expertise, and creating technological advantages.
Solution
To meet these objectives, a structured approach was put in place that encompassed the development of onboarding processes for new designers and teams, the creation of meeting structures and rituals for designers to enhance collaboration, and the standardization of design tools and processes to improve efficiency. Additionally, optimization of design, product, and delivery processes was crucial in transforming Skandia into a customer-centric organization. Measurement and tracking mechanisms were also introduced to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of DesignOps initiatives.
Process and Methodology
The process and methodology for implementing DesignOps were developed based on the maturity assessment of the organization's current state. This assessment involved interviews and workshops with designers and laid the foundation for a prioritized roadmap for short-term and long-term initiatives.
Results
Through a structured approach and clear goals, the DesignOps initiative at Skandia sought to optimize the design process, leading to higher-quality design that met customer needs more efficiently. The portfolio details the results and outcomes of this initiative, including improvements in efficiency, quality, employee engagement, and overall value.
Lessons Learned and Future Plans
Key takeaways from the DesignOps initiative at Skandia include the importance of clear processes, collaboration, adaptability to organizational goals, and continuous improvement.
Skandia's future plans involve further scaling design, enhancing efficiency, improving quality, defining roles and ownership, adopting technological advancements, and continuing to adapt to customer needs. The organization is committed to ongoing improvement and delivering value.