We are lucky to have so many wonderful sponsors and exhibitors at this year’s DesignOps Summit–and we thought you might like to get to know them better! We’ve asked all of them some questions in the coming weeks that get at the heart of why they’re passionate about DesignOps, what it’s like to work with them, and what makes their products and services special to Design and Research Operations professionals.

Next up: Brian Hochhalter, Director of DesignOps from Macmillan Learning

 

Rosenfeld Media: What excites you about Design and Research Operations?

Brian Hochhalter: Through DesignOps we’re able to help our designers and researchers focus on what they’re passionate about, knowing that we have other details covered. It’s really satisfying to see your team pick up a practice or tool you’ve prepared for them and create better work more quickly. Even more satisfying: building a team member’s “I wish…” into one of those practices or tools and seeing them use it.

Rosenfeld Media: Why are you sponsoring this year’s DesignOps Summit?

Brian Hochhalter: Sponsoring is an opportunity for us to give back to the DesignOps community. DesignOps Summit has been a great help to us in setting a course for developing our DesignOps team and connected us to the wider community through the monthly DesignOps conference calls. Those conference calls have been a vital tool for keeping up on best practices, see how other members of the community are approaching the same challenges we are, and share what’s worked well for us.

Rosenfeld Media: What else should our community know about you?

Brian Hochhalter: Even with two years of DesignOps under our belts we’re still at the beginning of our journey, learning what areas of operations to emphasize to best help our designers and researchers as our team grows and our needs change. We try, sometimes fail, and continue to learn. As we share our failures and successes in the community we shorten the learning cycle.