VP of Design - (25) Dana Cho | LinkedIn
Job Title
Design Operations Specialist
Location: CA, US– Remote
Job Description
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Job Title
Design Operations Specialist
Location: CA, US– Remote
Job Description
Client is seeking a highly detailed and process-driven Design Operations Specialist who will collaborate with our Content, Creative, and Web teams to optimize cross-functional workflows. The Specialist will play a crucial role in streamlining design operations, improving productivity, and ensuring seamless project execution to support our overall design initiatives. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in project management and possess a deep understanding of design processes and systems.
The ideal candidate is passionate about streamlining processes and operations, optimizing resource allocation across teams, and collaborating cross-functionally to streamline design workflows. They will play a key role in managing design projects, maintaining design libraries to ensure consistency across design projects. They will coordinate project schedules, maintain project documentation, and analyze design processes to enhance operational efficiency within the design team.
Qualifications and Skills:
A minimum of 5 years managing Design teams, project management experience, process optimization, or design project execution
Demonstrates a deep understanding of design processes, tools, managing design projects, and optimizing design workflows
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Design Operations & UX Program Management
Deliver Quality Design Solutions on time
Introduction Text
Deliver Quality Design Solutions on time
Introduction Text
>> UX Quality
Role and Responsibilities
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets - UX Producer/PM Roles and Responsibilities
When I walked into the Amazon Digital Products Studio there wasn't a clearly defined understanding between the operational side of the design Lead vs UX PM. As a Manager I wanted to set clear expectation for my team in terms of accountability and responsibility which rolled into Career goals and performance reviews.
As with most of the diagrams I created this ended up at a large poster in the main Studio walkway which increased awareness and beyond the immediate team. The breakout sections and diagram were later adopted by Microsoft and Google.
As with most of the diagrams I created this ended up at a large poster in the main Studio walkway which increased awareness and beyond the immediate team. The breakout sections and diagram were later adopted by Microsoft and Google.
THE HOW
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Planning
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Resource Management & Forecasting
Role - Various - Samples are from - UI Path, HoloLens, Amazon Local, Tablets
As the UX Program Manager and Design Manager I have been responsible for forecasting and managing resource needs.
Role - Various - Samples are from - UI Path, HoloLens, Amazon Local, Tablets
As the UX Program Manager and Design Manager I have been responsible for forecasting and managing resource needs.
Schedule
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Agree on a Development Framework
I'm a certified Scrum Master and Certified in Design Thinking from the - IXDF
I'm a certified Scrum Master and Certified in Design Thinking from the - IXDF
Over the years, I’ve worked across a wide range of products and teams, and one consistent theme has emerged: when organizations invest in a UX Program Manager, that role becomes a critical bridge between Product, UX, and Engineering.
While Agile and Scrum have evolved, they still largely prioritize engineering velocity. UX, by contrast, requires a holistic, iterative process to be effective — one that is better aligned with Design Thinking principles. I’ve had success embedding Design Thinking within Agile environments, creating hybrid workflows that support both fast iteration and thoughtful design.
A great example of this is from my time working on Kindle Fire Tablets. As shown in the project schedule below, we combined multiple frameworks across workstreams to align engineering deliverables with UX milestones. My former colleague Dave Landis (from our Microsoft days) developed one of the clearest representations of this relationship.
UI Path UX Workflow Alignment
Role - Head of Design Operations
Role - Head of Design Operations
UI Path Figma Dashboard
Note: Each row is a product, Green thumbnails are a UX Story with a complete Design Thinking Process, Blue thumbnails - Task based UX, Black with purple = UX Epic contains schedule, Scorecards
Note: Each row is a product, Green thumbnails are a UX Story with a complete Design Thinking Process, Blue thumbnails - Task based UX, Black with purple = UX Epic contains schedule, Scorecards
UI Path Figma Dashboard
Role - Head of Design Operations
Role - Head of Design Operations
2006 Development Cycle for Microsoft OneCare v2
Role - UX Program Manager and Principle UX Designer (small team of UX Designers)
Role - UX Program Manager and Principle UX Designer (small team of UX Designers)
I’ve included the following diagram to show how I was able to reset expectations and rally the entire Program Management team around a shared understanding of how we would approach designing this product.
OneCare v2 was intended to ship in a box with a fixed launch date, which meant the team worked in a more traditional, date-driven waterfall model—specifically following the M0, M1, M2, and M3 phases of the Microsoft Product Cycle Model. As with many products from that era, the visual skin—essentially the branding layer—was typically applied late in the cycle once the brand direction was finalized. This was also true for boxed Office Suite products. This all took place prior to the shift toward cloud-based products and structured design systems.
I needed to set expectations for the Program Managers (now called Product Owners), who were eager to begin speccing out their features. This was also a time when Program Managers were responsible for drawing most of the UI/UX. If UX Design couldn’t get ahead of the process, our role often became cleaning up after lengthy documentation had already been reviewed and approved. (See: Influencing the Office Design Spec.)
2014 Kindle Fire Tablet Schedule
Role - Executive UX Producer
Adobe's research found 48% of software teams are doing wagile. Amazon as a company views the entire year in weeks which some Eng group into sprints. The schedule below which is again product in a box and date driven (holiday sales) is a combination of agile and waterfall. (wagile) While UX would track thru well defined Design Thinking Phases the Eng teams would manage their backlogs and sprints.
As the Executive UX Producer for the entire program I was accountable for managing, tracking and reporting on all UX deliverables. To build and ship a successful product of high quality the Eng need time. Locking in a workback schedule with clear milestone definitions can't us on track upstream. Again, this diagram resulted in posters in all areas of the studio and leadership's offices. It gave us quick reference for any date impacting conversations.
Role - Executive UX Producer
Adobe's research found 48% of software teams are doing wagile. Amazon as a company views the entire year in weeks which some Eng group into sprints. The schedule below which is again product in a box and date driven (holiday sales) is a combination of agile and waterfall. (wagile) While UX would track thru well defined Design Thinking Phases the Eng teams would manage their backlogs and sprints.
As the Executive UX Producer for the entire program I was accountable for managing, tracking and reporting on all UX deliverables. To build and ship a successful product of high quality the Eng need time. Locking in a workback schedule with clear milestone definitions can't us on track upstream. Again, this diagram resulted in posters in all areas of the studio and leadership's offices. It gave us quick reference for any date impacting conversations.
Common Language and UX Milestone Definitions
Role - Executive UX Producer - Kindle Fire Tablets
Role - Executive UX Producer - Kindle Fire Tablets
Change Management Process
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
During this time, the Digital Products Studio had several products in flight. Tablets were on their third cycle, the Fire TV had just launched, Echo was coming out of incubation, and there were two Amazon Phone SKUs in development—one 3D and one 2D.
The 2D phone was beautifully designed but, due to the business model with third-party carriers, never made it to market. The 3D phone was a flop. The UX didn’t appeal to the market, but the larger takeaway was the runaway development cycle, which resulted in slide after slide of delays and design churn.
This sets the backdrop for the Lead Engineering Manager approaching my office with news that his team was now responsible for supporting the common controls (Design System) for the tablet team, which had caught up to and was about to overtake the phone schedule. The shift was to unblock tablets and prioritize our controls.
This Engineering Manager and his team had just been through a brutal phase, with no governance on changes and no commitment to schedule. He shared his frustration, and I said, “Let’s just capture a change management process. We have a ‘respect the dev’ philosophy over here on tablets.” He was cynical—he said he’d been asking for a change management process from the phone team for over a year. "Give me a couple of days and lets connect Friday afternoon, bring your dog"
I shared the following diagram which included his avatar with his head on fire. Which he loved. He walked away with a poster for his team section. I did get one request which was the change tablets to a light theme (the VXD had some down time). It was a VP of Design request, so we went thru the process. I gave him the options and the document which I would need to submit to the release management team. 4 weeks, design, 4 weeks control development, 8 weeks integration for team to adopt and the deal breaker. A significant hit on battery lifespan, which was the current red topic in program readiness. The request was canceled; they found some other work for the VXD team and the Eng Manager never knew. Nor did the VP of Tablets.
Sometimes a little process is healthy.
I shared the following diagram which included his avatar with his head on fire. Which he loved. He walked away with a poster for his team section. I did get one request which was the change tablets to a light theme (the VXD had some down time). It was a VP of Design request, so we went thru the process. I gave him the options and the document which I would need to submit to the release management team. 4 weeks, design, 4 weeks control development, 8 weeks integration for team to adopt and the deal breaker. A significant hit on battery lifespan, which was the current red topic in program readiness. The request was canceled; they found some other work for the VXD team and the Eng Manager never knew. Nor did the VP of Tablets.
Sometimes a little process is healthy.
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets - Executive Review & Collaboration Model
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
The following diagram was created to align and guide Core Platform UX as well as second- and third-party UX projects through the review process. In some cases, these reviews went all the way up to CEO Jeff Bezos.
All work was tracked using JIRA tickets. Feedback was documented and tracked as issues, ensuring that no comments fell through the cracks. Open issues were reported during the weekly Program Release Status meeting. Calendars, agendas, and follow-ups were all managed by the Tablet UX Program Manager.
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets - Executive Review & Collaboration Model
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
The following diagram was created to align and guide Core Platform UX as well as second- and third-party UX projects through the review process. In some cases, these reviews went all the way up to CEO Jeff Bezos.
Dashboard Tracking and reporting
Tracking, Scorecards, Issues/Risks, Stakeholder communication
Tracking, Scorecards, Issues/Risks, Stakeholder communication
Process Improvement
Change Management Process
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
Role - Executive UX Producer - Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
During this time, the Digital Products Studio had several products in flight. Tablets were on their third cycle, the Fire TV had just launched, Echo was coming out of incubation, and there were two Amazon Phone SKUs in development—one 3D and one 2
Tracking and Reporting -Tracking, Scorecards, Issues/Risks, Stakeholder communication
Insert Comments
Insert Comments
2013 UX Endgame schedule
Cross Functional Alignment
UX Quality
Tools and Process Optimization - Atlassian (JIRA, Confluence), Assana, Slack, Figma
Insert Comments
>> Insert JIRA configuration for Kindle Fire tablets
Insert Comments
>> Insert JIRA configuration for Kindle Fire tablets
Amazon Digital Product Group - DS Ember v1
Unity Design System
