Eniola Oluwole: “Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World’s Largest Travel Site” DesignOps Summit 2019 • October 23-24, 2019 • New York, NY, USA http://www.designopssummit.com

1. TripAdvisor’s
Journey into
Design Ops
1

2. My journey to Tripadvisor2
20+ Years in creating digital
experiences

3. My journey to Tripadvisor3
20+ Years in creating digital
experiences
9
Years building & scaling multi-
disciplinary teams

4. 95% Agencies and consultancies
My journey to Tripadvisor4
20+ Years in creating digital
experiences
9
Years building & scaling multi-
disciplinary teams

5. 95% Agencies and consultancies
~4
My journey to Tripadvisor
Major design systems a year
5
20+ Years in creating digital
experiences
9
Years building & scaling multi-
disciplinary teams

6. Major. A single source of truth that
allows the team to efficiently scale
while addressing design challenges
like platforms, internationalization,
business and governmental rules
6

7. It’s the world's
largest Travel
destination
7

8. 16.3
Million average daily visitors
Quick Stats8
1.6Billion in revenue a year
OLD20 years to be exact
49
Localized Markets
60+Million Web Pages
70Languages
1.5Years with no design leader

9. Product People9
Hotels RestaurantsAttractions
Cruises Vacation RentalsCars Rentals
Flights
Core

10. 10
1
2
Deep/Live Testing Methodology
.5% increase = ~+$2,000,000
Feature optimization vs journey
Feature wins over overall experience
3 Business Autonomy
Divergent goals and measures
Company Culture
4 Lack of pattern ownership
Design doesn’t own design

11. 11
Expectation
Centralized design org
User-centered
Ensure usability & user insight
VS
Reality
Stand alone groups
Business - Centered
Visualizer of product spec
Design Culture

12. Design Landscape12
● Each team has their own process
● No single source of truth.
● No centralized governance or communication
● Make it Green
Responsive Web
Style Guide
Logos
Icons
Mgmt Center Style Guide
Email Style Guide
Relaunch Style Guide
Flights Style Guide
VR Style Guide
Brand Guidelines Native Style Guide
B2C UX Guidelines
B2B UX Guidelines
Brand Voice
Communication Guidelines
Positioning/Brand House
20+ “Guides”

13. 13

14. 14

15. The Problem15
01
Teams were not collaborative
PEOPLE

16. The Problem16
01
Teams were not collaborative
PEOPLE
02
Lack of efficiency and scalability
PROCESS

17. 03
Change resistant
CULTURE
The Problem17
01
Teams were not collaborative
PEOPLE
02
Lack of efficiency and scalability
PROCESS

18. 18

19. 19

20. Assess current
State
STEP 1
20

21. We talked with our users21
Design wanted...
navigate & find
access and contribute
download the latest
...when and why to use
Developers requested...
my own instance
render with production JS, CSS, and HTML.
test what I care about
...with real data

22. We talked with our users22
“WHAT’S
OFFICIAL”

23. New Design System Principals23
● One place for all teams.
● Anyone can access
● Easy to update
● Easy to search & navigate
● There is someone accountable

24. Assessed platforms ~(2018)24
Frontify Widen
Pattern Library Y N Y Y Y N
Tool Integrations Y N N N N N
Ease of Use Y Y Y N Y N
Style Guide Y Y Y Y Y Y
Customisable Y Y Y N N N
Digital Asset Management Y Y Y Y N Y
Custom User Access Y Y N Y N Y
Multiple Format Download N Y N Y N N
Robust Search Functionality Y Y Y Y N Y
Usage Analytics N Y Y Y N Y

25. Define how we
use it
STEP 2
25

26. The Approach26
Pattern Library
Production UI Elements
Story Book
• UI Elements
• UX Guidelines
• Templates
• Type Styles
• Layouts
• Etc.

27. 27
BU controls decision
(BU informs CoreEx / design review
board for material changes)
Change approved
(Other BU designers
consulted)
BU wants to make a change
(component / pattern /
layout) to its own
surface/servlet
Is the change in compliance
with style guidelines?
Does tested or anticipated
value of change exceed
threshold (e.g., $500K run
rate revenue increase)?
Design review board / PM
discuss change and value at
stake. Is change approved?
Does change meet
escalation threshold (e.g.,
$5M run rate revenue
increase)?
BU does not make change
(No interaction needed)
Management Team /
Board decides, based on
input from BU and CoreEx
Start
No Yes
BU does not make change
No
No
YesYes
No
Yes
Partnered with business and product to define process

28. Organize for
change
STEP 3
28

29. May June July August Sept
Assign 3-5 Patterns to
each designer across
the company
Migrate old designs to
confluence.
Research pattern
space for an informed
recommendation
Decide on pattern of
truth
Update pattern with
usage and research
Migrate entire pattern
library to new system
Everyone has a hand in
managing
29 5 Month timeline

30. The Interim solution30

31. 31
VS
On Brand
Follows best practice
Tested
UX Research Winner
Off Brand
Not best practice
Un-tested
UX Looser
“The Clean Up”

32. Make them Care
STEP 3
32

33. Incentives
33
Best Overall
Most Helpful
Most Timely
Best Research

34. Let’s
Go

35. It went
something
like this

36. 03
No sense of ownership,
Never updated
04
Overall lack of adoption
Inconsistent levels of
craft & fidelity
36
01
Lack of communication
Status? , changes?, process?
02
What is in the library didn’t
match the website

37. 03
User centered design driving
successful patterns
04
People are talking though
Design has a larger seat at the
table for product decisions
37
01
Design team feels the value
in the idea of one team
02
More communication
between design and
engineering

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. 41

42. Re-Assess
Step 5
42

43. 43 How are people using the design system?

44. Survey Says...
● 72% design system novices
● rarely then daily
● 85% want to find patterns
● Hard finding what you need
● 0% wanted to understand
● 63% reuse old patterns
44 Design system insight

45. We must...
● Provide better onboarding and training
● Use card sorting exercises to create a better taxonomy
● Focus on pattern examples, not usage, or research
● Increase new pattern awareness
● Keep patterns approved and up to date
45 Identify opportunities to Improve

46. Re-Define
46

47. Product Design
Steering Group
(PDSG)
47

48. Decision making at multiple levels
Target % of Decisions
5%
15%
20%
60%
48
Business Unit (BU) Presidents
PDSG
User Experience Review
Project Team

49. Re-Organize
49

50. 03
Invited product managers to
participate
04
Changed Our Reviews
Had research team play a more
prominent role
50
01
Escalate debates to PDSG
02
Questioned and stopped non-
pattern work going forward

51. “I want X pattern”
A Business unit wants
to make a or introduce
a change
Is it new?
PDSG sees this affects
multiple user types or
business units
PDSG
PDSG discusses
considerations,
solutions, research
Share Results
Let everyone know
how the pattern
performed. Add it to
the system
Decision
PDSG decides
direction and if
necessary asks for
additional research /
testing
51
Streamlined The Approval process
5 steps

52. 52

53. +
Design and Development both want consistency & scalability. Let’s do it together!
Better partnership with Development53

54. Keep them
caring
54

55. Enable others to care55
● Stopped talking about patterns and
consistency
● Created Cross-BU “Tiger” Teams
● Started talking about wins

56. What’s Next
@ TRIPADVISOR
56

57. What’s next57
● A dedicated design-ops lead
● Better growth management
● Full design to code parity

58. My thoughts
for you
5 Key Takeaways
58

59. ● You won’t know until you Do
● Create a steering group
● Use real time chat
● Really understand how it’s working
● Enable others to broadcast wins
And Understand ...
59 Lessons Learned

60. 60

61. 61

62. Thank You
Eniola Oluwole
Chief Strategy officer at Velir
eniola.oluwole@velir.com
eniola@eniola.com
62