Evolve - Or Disappear

Context:

Operational roles such as Design Ops, Product Ops, and Research Ops are facing more pressure than ever. Expectations are rising, boundaries are blurring, and “enabling” work is still too often treated as optional - or unnecessary - when priorities shift.

The challenge:

Our Only Adaptive Survival Skill in an Ever-Changing World

As AI transforms workflows and business priorities shift overnight, DesignOps possesses one resilient adaptive skill: we centre humans.

Context:

While executives navigate markets and machines optimise processes, DesignOps holds a unique privilege and responsibility - to care about people.

The questions:

• How we can measure the success of DesignOps work when we work on initiatives where we’re not always in control of the outcome?
• When and why is this necessary?

The challenge:

Results may not always align with expectations, yet that doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality or effectiveness of the work undertaken.

Discussing:

DesignOps has long focused on enabling design teams, but the most complex, strategic work happens after a product or service is designed. Davide introduces Operations Design, a discipline that connects ProductOps, Operations Strategy, DesignOps, and Service Design into an integrated system for how work truly gets done end-to-end.

In organisations that move fast, DesignOps helps teams stay grounded, aligned, and ready to adapt. Smart positioning and intentional communication can shift design from a delivery function to a true strategic partner.

At Banco de Crédito del Peru (BCP), this means creating visibility spaces where stakeholders and designers think, plan, and co-create together. The result? Stakeholders aren’t just hearing about the value of design, they’re advocating for it.

A shared conversation with the audience, led by Patrizia Bertini.

If “unprecedented” is starting to feel pretty precedented, you’re not alone.

Shifting economic conditions, evolving workplace expectations, and global events are reshaping how teams operate and how we lead. Underneath it all is a shared reflection many of us are having: what kind of work do we want to create, and how can we shape it to thrive in this environment?

In most creative agencies, nothing ever looks the same twice. Projects vary wildly, directions shift, and teams must adapt at speed, yet traditional DesignOps frameworks rarely survive in this chaos. Guerilla DesignOps is about thriving in that mess.

Drawing on field research in a high-variance studio, Sandy presents a model built on flexibility, micro-systems, and distributed leadership. Instead of rigid processes, success comes from small, intentional moves: lightweight, adaptable interventions you can deploy fast, remix freely, and discard without friction.