Design Program Management ⊆ Design Ops

“Oh so your job is like being a program manager?” Or “So it’s kind of like project management?” Is something I’ve heard frequently, from people inside and outside of my teams, and from people in a variety of industries. 

As the Design Ops practice continues to evolve, there are some that have pursued Design Ops, almost exclusively, as a branch or subset of Program Management. When really, Design Program Management is a subset of Program Management, and a subset of Design Ops. 

Design Ops, is not only the planning and execution of design work, or even supporting a team completing design work. Design Ops is it’s own discipline, dedicated to not only designing how work gets done, but also how the design team maximizes business value, and how the design team relates to the rest of the organization. It highly strategic, and user-focused. The main distinction is that the primary users for Design Ops are the design team, and the organization as a whole. 

A good Design Ops Leader recognizes the value of strong program management, and in many cases having Design Program Managers may make a lot of sense. But a good Design Ops Leader is also focused on growing the team’s business practices, evangelizing design culture, managing technology, budgets, recruiting, coaching, training, and planning for the team to continue to evolve with the company at large.