Building DesignOps from the Ground Up at CIBC
When I joined CIBC, there was no formal Design Operations. Designers were talented and doing great work—but everyone was working in their own way. There was no shared playbook for how we collaborated, how we executed, or how we measured impact.
That gap was also an opportunity. Instead of waiting for a top-down directive, we created our own. We called it the Experience Council.
The Experience Council became our DesignOps. It was a volunteer group where any designer could step forward, take ownership, and help shape how we worked together. Every week, we came together to tackle the questions that mattered most:
How do we work together?
How do we get work done?
How do we create impact?
The Council wasn’t about hierarchy or job titles—it was about empowering designers to design the system itself. We gave people space to bring forward their own solutions, and in doing so, helped build their confidence as leaders and collaborators.
Outdated PDFs, static style guides, and brittle process docs were replaced with living sources of truth. At the core was the True North Design System, fully documented in Storybook and Zeroheight, with clear governance and strong documentation.
We introduced new rituals and playbooks to strengthen culture—regular critiques, onboarding practices, and shared ceremonies. We established principles and UX laws to help tell better stories, communicate design decisions, and measure success in ways the business could see and trust.
The Experience Council started as a volunteer group but grew into the foundation of how design operated at CIBC. It was DesignOps in action: a team-built system that created clarity, confidence, and lasting impact.