The Design Conductors with Rachel Posman and John Calhoun

Rosenfeld Review Podcast

What do music and DesignOps have in common? So much that Rachel Posman and John Calhoun use music as a framework for their new book, The Design Conductors: Your Essential Guide to Design Operations—the first book written about the subject. Both of the authors come from creative backgrounds (John as a musician, Rachel as a ballet dancer), and they describe how their personal experiences influenced their approach to the book and their work. The music analogies are plenty. One example is the importance of orchestration in design operations, equating it to coordinating a team to work harmoniously, much like a conductor leading an orchestra. Rachel and John explain that design operations is a creative process, blending design and management, and that those creative aspects are often underestimated. They highlight the maturing nature of design operations as a discipline, noting that the book fills a gap in resources for both newcomers and experienced professionals. The book is structured in two acts (another musical metaphor): the fundamentals of DesignOps, and the practical, tactical methods for building and scaling teams. Rachel and John also discuss some common challenges in DesignOps, like making the invisible work visible and advocating for the value of the discipline. They stress the importance of "working loudly" to ensure that the contributions of design ops teams are recognized so that teams are properly resourced. What You'll Learn from this Episode: - Why Rachel and John chose a musical metaphor to use in their book - Why Rachel and John decided to write the first book on Design Ops - How the book is formatted and why there is something for everyone - Why Rachel encourages her team to “work louder” Quick Reference Guide: 0:24 - Introduction of Rachel and John 2:45 - Brining a music metaphor to design ops and highlighting the creativity within operations 6:53 - The design materials of operations 7:42 - Communication 9:40 - Building the plane while flying 11:06 - What the book covers and who it’s for 14:22 - 5 reasons you need the Rosenverse 17:14 - The journey readers can expect to take 21:07 - The big errors and challenges in design ops 23:34 - Ideas for working loud and being visible 27:06 - Gifts for listeners