Design Operations Guide

Setting Up

As with any multi-step process, being successful in the design phase means setting yourself up for success before you start. Whether you’re make a meal, going fishing, or even getting ready for your workday, there are steps you take to make sure that you achieve the best version of your desired outcome.

Framing the Design Phase & Estimating Resource Needs

To set up to achieve that best version in the Design phase, you’ll need to work with your team to set expectations with two sets of people:

1. With leadership and stakeholders regarding the resources in terms of time and people that you can expect to need. These resources expectations should be broad enough at this point to allow for changes in workflow and the uncertain nature of your actual outcome. Be honest with your leadership and stakeholders regarding what you can and cannot know and build in breathing room for you and the team to step through the iterative process.

• Like all resources estimations, this step is designed to keep you and the team on track and in alignment with the project needs from an administrative level as the Design phase evolves.

1. With yourself and your teammates to keep your work on track and in alignment with your research findings. In design teams, we commonly call the expectations you set with your team Design Principles.

• This is because they function much like the Problem Frame from the Discovery phase: instead of defining exactly what you and the team will do, they create a frame around your design phase based on your research, insights, and opportunities regarding your participants’ needs.

In the same way the resources estimation keeps your work on track in terms of administration, the Design Principles keep you and the team philosophically on track and aligned with participants’ needs as the Design phase develops.