Why Design OPS?
Union Pacific Railroad had a UX team working with inconsistencies and their design deliverables took too long. Design OPS allows the team to better align with business operations, better visualize professional development needs and improve integration with other teams like development and marketing.
Collaborative UX research and design methodologies were implemented, along with a new tool for the team — to change the work infrastructure and collaborative mindset.
The problem
Problem 1: Outdated documentation
The team had a PDF document, shared and updated by everyone, with no clear versioning. It was hard to know if a new component existed or if you had the latest version.
Problem 2: Poor communication
The team did not communicate updates in time, leaving room for assumptions and errors in the design production process.
Team assignments
- Componentes y especificaciones de UP Elements
- Research on specific topics: Zebra devices, digital visual fatigue, etc.
- Observation and note-taking
- Library management in Figma, Axure and Sketch
- Template design: case studies, PowerPoint presentations
- Creation of functional prototypes and quick mockup changes
How did we organize the library?
Based on Material Design, we redefined the needs to implement all best practices for working with a Figma library. However, we respected that the team had an existing PDF document based on Material Design, organized by categories already familiar to the development team.
Team work process
Ticket management
- Anyone can assign a ticket to the NST via JIRA or direct email
- Anyone can see the current NST workload via go/NSTjira
Coordination
- Near Shore Team (NST) publishes its capacity in #Scrum
- Union Pacific manages NST priorities
Figma library
The grid system provides layout consistency across screens and devices. It was documented with size breakpoints to maintain a harmonious element arrangement.
Atoms and molecules — the atom is the smallest unit that can exist. A molecule in Atomic Design is the union of different atoms to form a more complex UI element.
DesignOps Handbook and education
Operations
Elements that facilitate high-quality instances with minimal friction — includes tools and infrastructure.
Craft
How we create the plans for the shapes we imagine will solve problems and create positive change.
Methods
They usually encapsulate our craft. Any method can use different crafts to achieve the same success.
Culture
The values, principles and mission that drive an organization. How we manage our particular operations.
I created video tutorials as support for the UX team — using AI for narrative voices and editing in Adobe Premiere — so designers had the resource at hand when they needed it.
