In 2023, I joined one of the product engineering teams at ZF-SCALAR as a UX/UI designer. Our team was focused on creating a dashboard for on-demand people transportation providers to manage their fleets. The ZF Group — a global technology giant — had recently acquired Bestmile, along with other companies like Wabco and Transics, and formed SCALAR, a semi-independent, start-up-like division. SCALAR’s ambitious vision was to orchestrate road transport through a unified platform. However, achieving that vision was fraught with challenges, particularly around design. Merging multiple legacy products into one cohesive platform was anything but straightforward. Differing team structures, work processes, levels of maturity, and cultures created obstacles at every turn.

Melvin Conway’s insight, “Organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations,” resonated deeply with me. Our fractured user experience mirrored the fragmented communication and organizational structures.

One particularly frustrating product demo exposed how disjointed the experience was when switching between modules. Determined to address this, I called for a design task force to analyze and resolve the issue. Through a series of workshops, we conducted a root-cause analysis to uncover why we couldn’t deliver a cohesive cross-module experience. We grouped and prioritized the findings and brainstormed potential solutions. The result was a comprehensive action plan — from small initiatives, like learning about how to give better feedback, to larger goals, like defining design principles and documenting our design processes.

As we compiled this action plan, it became clear that what we truly needed was a DesignOps function. With a growing team of over 18 UX/UI designers and six product designers embedded across different teams, we lacked a centralized design framework or unified way of working. This gap was a bottleneck for our progress.

Motivated to drive change, I stepped up to take on the DesignOps role alongside my existing UX/UI design responsibilities. Transitioning into this hybrid role wasn’t easy, and over time, DesignOps became my primary focus.

Prioritizing the Chaos

One of my biggest challenges was prioritizing tasks. I have a tendency to dive into everything I deem important, but I’ve learned that this approach rarely yields meaningful results. Instead, I adopted a prioritization strategy based on tasks that met three key criteria:

1. Proven effectiveness (high confidence they would work).

2. Short-term impact (to demonstrate quick results).

3. Alignment with my vision of making our organization experience-led and human-centered.

Using this framework, I identified three core areas of focus:

Crafting a Vision

• Articulating the company’s vision using the Radical Vision Statement framework.

• Making the vision more accessible and relatable.

• Aligning team-level visions with the overarching company vision.

Embracing Data-Informed Design and Development

• Identifying the best analytics and insights tools.

• Conducting event storming sessions to pinpoint the most critical steps in the user journey.

• Implementing UX metrics trees to connect UX changes to business outcomes.

Mapping User Journeys and Service Blueprints

• Creating detailed user journeys and service blueprints for each of our persona.

While these long-term initiatives were essential, I recognized the need for quick wins to build momentum. I kicked off two simple but impactful solutions:

• Design Office Hours: A regular slot where teams without dedicated designers could seek guidance.

• UX-helps-you Slack Channel: A dedicated space for answering design-related questions and fostering collaboration.

Reflecting on the Journey

This journey from UX design to DesignOps has been as challenging as it has been rewarding. It has taught me the importance of bridging gaps — not just between legacy systems, but also between teams, processes, and visions. DesignOps isn’t just about operational efficiency; it’s about enabling designers to do their best work, aligning efforts with a shared vision, and ultimately creating experiences that matter.

Embarking on this journey was not an easy ride. The road was uncertain with lots of fears, risk and emotional exposure. But I felt blessed that I’ve found a supportive network: people who trusted me and encouraged me to go forward.