5 Signs Your Team Needs A Powerful DesignOps Platform

We’re now in the age of global teams. So it’s not uncommon for a product development team to have members spread all over the world. 

Now, what often happens is that due to time zone differences and general inefficiencies in communication, the engineering team has little idea of what the design team is up to, while the project management team is left trying to bridge the gap between the two.

In fact, managers themselves may often be unable to monitor which of their resources are underutilized and which ones are overworked.

A DesignOps platform will give all stakeholders a clear understanding of what the project vision and purpose are, even if the team is divided and working in silos. It also helps in ensuring clarity about where the project stands as well as what progress each contributor has made.

With overwhelming workloads, a common pitfall is the lack of process documentation, inefficient or incomplete knowledge transfer processes, and an overall lack of standardization.

As a result, both the efficiency of design teams and the design output itself are compromised. 

With a powerful DesignOps platform, your design team will always have access to knowledge repositories, processes can be better defined and the end results will consistently be of the highest quality.

Design maturity is a measure of the importance organizations give the design process, ranked 1 to 5. A level 1 organization looks at design as only an on-screen experience, while a level 5 organization treats design as a business strategy in itself.

The role of design in the product development cycle obviously has a large role to play in the overall quality of the end product itself.  Unfortunately, 41% of all businesses are still stuck at level one, while only 5% leverage the full potential of design at level 5. 

By implementing DesignOps, you can help your organization reach that coveted level 5 design maturity, making design a core function instead of an allied function. 

On average, designers spend only 60% of their time working on design-related tasks. The other 40% is often spent on repetitive, operations-related tasks.

While time spent on enhancing skills is always time well spent, the productivity of design teams can be greatly enhanced if the repetitive tasks are automated. 

DesignOps allows for the automation of these operations-related tasks, enabling more time to be spent focussing on the core responsibilities of a design team: working on design-oriented tasks. 

Designers are expected to toggle between multiple tools, including sketching tools, designing tools, project management tools, feedback mechanisms, research tools, repository tools, and more.

A lot of these tools are incompatible with each other, making collaborations increasingly difficult. This also often leads to designers feeling frustrated, since they do not have a single convenient platform to work on.

By deploying a powerful DesignOps platform, design teams get access to more efficient tool integrations.

When do you know if your team needs a powerful DesignOps platform? Well, here are 6 signs that are hard to miss.

If you’re looking at entering new markets, introducing new product lines, and seeing your business grow rapidly, then you definitely need an efficient DesignOps platform. 

A DesignOps platform will help your business grow by addressing bottlenecks in the design process. Your team will also benefit from the standardization of processes that deploying a DesignOps platform brings with it.

A common factor that design teams face when there is an increase in demand is that the quality of output takes a beating. One of the main reasons this happens is that there aren’t standard processes in place.

DesignOps allows for the standardization of more than just processes. It enables the standardization of tools used, clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of team members, defines KPIs for UX/CX, and enables intelligent reporting. 

All of this will help your design team scale up to meet the growing demands.

When new designers are being hired to accommodate the growth of your rapidly expanding design team, efficient onboarding and training are essential to bringing the new hires up to speed.

Once again, DesignOps are what the doctor ordered to put these processes in place.

Managing teams can become a handful when they are located in multiple locations. The standardization that DesignOps brings into play ensures that processes are followed irrespective of location. 

A centralized repository provides a single source of truth, making it easier to maintain data history, manage versions, reduce redundancies, and improve overall efficiency.

In addition to this, a good DesignOps platform will also make it easier to coordinate between remote resources and enable more efficient communication.

DesignOps also takes care of the issue of tool saturation. Since a DesignOps platform puts into place a common design language and standardizes design tools, guidelines, and processes, it becomes easier for your team to not only streamline their own productivity but also make collaborations with project managers and engineering teams more seamless. 

We at Cubyts have the perfect DesignOps platform to help your design team grow to the next level. With stringent data security measures and automation, scaling your team up, measuring ROI on design projects, and creating a rock-solid repository of knowledge, design artifacts, and process guidelines have never been easier.

But don’t just take our word for it. Sign up for our free trial today, and discover how Cubyts can set your design team on the road to the top.