Brenna Fallon: “Learning Over Outcomes” DesignOps Summit 2019 • October 23-24, 2019 • New York, NY, USA http://www.designopssummit.com

1. Learning Over Outcomes
Brenna Fallon
Google, UX Program Manager

3. It matters what
you build

4. but

5. it matters more
if you learn.

6. (accept change is
constant)

8. All I Really Needed
to Know I Learned
in Montessori

12. “You can’t understand Google unless you know that both
Larry and Sergey were Montessori kids. ... In Montessori
school you go paint because you have something to
express or you just want to do it that afternoon, not
because the teacher said so. This is really baked into how
Larry and Sergey approach problems. They’re always
asking ‘Why should it be like that?’”
- Marissa Mayer

13. Independence
Order
Planes
MONTESSORI PRINCIPLES

14. Independence
Order
Planes
MONTESSORI PRINCIPLES

17. OKRsbjectives
ey esults

18. Company
Org Org
ProductProductProductProduct
FunctionFunctionFunctionFunction Function
IndividualIndividualIndividualIndividual Individual Individual

19. 20%

20. Independence
Order
Planes
MONTESSORI PRINCIPLES

22. 👩‍💻
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Loosely coupled, tightly aligned

28. Month 1
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Month 7
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Month 8
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Mo
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Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3
IN-FIELD
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IN-FIELD
STUDY
IN-FIELD
STUDY

31. 3 MINUTES
Which model (squads, double diamond, or
research train) is most different from how
your team currently works?
What could you learn from it?

32. Independence
Order
Planes
MONTESSORI PRINCIPLES

33. Physical & Psychological independenceInfancy // 0-6
Mental IndependenceChildhood // 6-12
Spiritual & Moral IndependenceMaturity // 18-24
Social IndependenceAdolescence // 12-18
Dr Montessori’s 4 Planes of Development

34. formingreorganizing
stormingperforming
norming *slightly adjusted
Tuckman’s* Stages of Team Development

35. Impact
Psychological
Safety
Meaning
Dependability
Structure & Clarity
Google’s 5 Dynamics of an Effective Team

36. Order
Independence
Planes
MONTESSORI PRINCIPLES

37. “The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to
be able to say, ‘The children are now working
as if I did not exist.’”
- Dr. Maria Montessori

39. ...but, to Monday.

40. Fresh eyes

41. Celebrate (loudly)

42. Incentivize

43. Design processes
around learning

44. Post-mortems

45. “Resources”

46. #blessthismess

47. Why?

49. How does this scale across different people?
How does work in places that are highly structured or can’t afford
the time and space for this?

50. Thank you.
Questions?

51. Citations
Photos
● Slide 17, photo by Anna Earl on
Unsplash
● Slide 15, photo by Gautam Arora on
Unsplash
● All other photos by Pat Fallon (aka
Mom)
References
● Google & Montessori
● Spotify Squad Model
Further Reading
● re:Work, Guiding Team Effectiveness

52. Thank you.