Harnessing Developer Operations Efficiency: A New Horizon for Product Designers
I continue to think about and discuss the best parts of Developer Operations (DevOps) culture and how Product Designers can borrow and benefit from how DevOps teams do their work, the same topics keep coming up in software engineering, particularly automation. Automating repetitive tasks such as testing, deployment, and monitoring reduces human error and accelerates delivery cycles. UX Designers can borrow from this playbook, automating various tasks for faster and more reliable data from the field, leading to improved productivity and innovation.
Let’s delve into five best practices from Developer Operations that can enhance UX Design workflows.
1. Automate Repetitive Tasks
DevOps Practice: In Developer Operations, automated testing is routine. Software engineers can catch and correct glitches early by automatically running a suite of tests every time a change is introduced.
UX Counterpart: UX Designers can automate routine tasks like data gathering. Designers can use automated analytics tools to collect user interaction data without manual input. This frees up time for focusing on critical, creative studies and facilitates a data-informed design approach. I am implementing a Webflow -> SaaS Product -> Intercom/FullStory automation chain for a project I am leading, and I can’t wait to write more once the experiments are finished, and the data is in.
2. Incorporate Continuous Deployment
DevOps Practice: Continuous Deployment, an integral aspect of Developer Operations, ensures software updates are released regularly, without human intervention.
UX Counterpart: UX Designers can replicate continuous delivery by automating report generation. For instance, designers can use tools that automatically compile user interaction data into comprehensive reports. This eliminates the hassle of manual report creation and aids in quick decision-making. For every deployment version, a version token/label can be embedded in your metrics tools so that you can clearly segment each UX change to each deployment and isolate metrics there. If you can establish a cadence, you can sometimes shorten that feedback loop from 30 days to 30 minutes.
3. Monitor the System
DevOps Practice: Developer Operations utilize automated monitoring tools to continually check system performance. This helps identify and resolve issues promptly, ensuring optimal service delivery.
UX Counterpart: UX Designers can employ automated user experience monitoring tools to track user interactions. This real-time data helps identify usability issues swiftly, facilitating quick adjustments for an enhanced user experience. Something I have done in the past is set up a “behavior chain” and define folks who log in, do not complete any meaningful tasks, and then leave (log out, idle tab, etc). Once we have a heatmap in Fullstory on this event chain, we can look at what they were doing before in the system and what they did after to begin to define the problem. Automate alerts on a threshold for that heat map, and you will automatically detect issues in your product.
4. Establish Feedback Loops
DevOps Practice: Developer Operations practices promote robust feedback mechanisms. Automated tools gather and process system performance feedback, paving the way for continuous improvement.
UX Counterpart: In UX Design, automation can streamline the feedback process. Designers can use tools to automatically capture, categorize, and store user feedback. This ensures every user’s voice is heard and their insights are leveraged to enhance the product’s design. Currently, Fullstory for monitoring and Intercom for that communication layer are my go-to tools for tailoring the customer’s experience with qualitative data (feedback, surveys, and discussions) alongside quantitative session data (video playback, eye tracking, time-to-task, etc.).
5. Leverage Version Control
DevOps Practice: Version control systems play a pivotal role in Developer Operations. They allow engineers to track and manage changes, thus preventing conflicts and ensuring seamless coordination.
UX Counterpart: UX Designers can use version control for design assets. This allows tracking of design iterations, supports collaborative work, and simplifies reverting changes when necessary. Sometimes teams need to be at a spot where this speeds things up. If you’re on a more minor design team, do what’s best for your workflows and team process. But the more significant the design team gets, the more they should pull from a shared library of components and page-level templates. Every update to the designer’s component library can then automatically cascade to every child instance of that component across Figma. You can update hundreds of artboards in one move. When you utilize Figma’s version control features, you can essentially write your own commits and have a revert point if your changes bork a project file or shared library. I have also used Sketch + Abstract, a superior workflow for teams more extensive than three designers working on the same product. And in both cases, you can set up automation to push your components to Sketchbook and generate your front-end CSS so your devs can roast you.
Conclusion
Just as automation is the backbone of Developer Operations, it can also drive efficiency and innovation in UX Design. By automating repetitive tasks, leveraging continuous deployment, monitoring user interactions, streamlining feedback, and using version control, UX Designers can free up time for more strategic and creative work. With these practices, the goal isn’t just to be faster but to create an environment where innovation thrives. Embrace these Developer Operations tactics in your UX Design workflow and steer your team towards uncharted territories of productivity and creativity.
