Operations is a Design Problem
A design-led approach to operations looks beyond visible symptoms to understand the systems producing them. Operations is a Design Problem argues that complexity accumulates on its own while simplicity must be designed, showing how design frameworks applied across discovery, build, and delivery turn wasted effort into growth.
Operations is a
Design Problem
How design solves the right problems and unlocks growth
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM
INTRO
Organizations waste massive amounts of time and money
and call it “progress.” Time and again they solve
the wrong problems, designing around symptoms
instead of the systems producing them. Strategy, people,
and technology end up working at odds: strategy gives
direction, dashboards measure something else, and people
spend countless hours reconciling gaps. Pressure drives
priorities instead of strategy, creating the illusion of
progress while teams work around the clock on problems
that were preventable: failure that is harder to see because
it looks like rigor.
The real work of operations is design. This piece
demonstrates what design can do for operations across
three phases: discovery clarifies the real problem, build
designs a usable solution, and delivery makes it
understood. The result is solving the right problems faster,
with less waste, while unlocking collaboration, innovation,
and higher-quality work.
Complexity
accumulates on its own,
simplicity has to
be designed.
01 DiscoverSeeing before solving
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM
DISCOVER Discovery is how organizations become effective stewards ofresources by clarifying what is really needed before deciding what
should be done. Listening is where discovery starts, but it is often
the first thing to disappear in the rush to progress.
When organizations skip discovery, they misinterpret signals as
conclusions: a drop on a dashboard is labeled a performance
issue, a stalled initiative a governance issue, low adoption a
training issue. Each may hold some truth, but rarely the whole
truth. The visible problem becomes the work, while the system
producing it remains untouched.
Discovery asks leaders to stay curious
even when they are under pressure
to decide.
THE
FIVE
WHYS
A simple place to start is the Five Whys, developed within
Toyota. A few minutes spent asking “why?” can prevent
hours of rework later. When a problem appears, ask why,
then ask why again, moving past the visible symptom until the
conditions behind it surface. If adoption is low, the first answer may
be that teams were not trained. Ask why, and training may have
come too late. Ask why again, and the real problem may be that the
tool was designed around leadership reporting needs, not the daily
workflow. The problem changes from “people are not using the tool”
to “the system was not designed around the work.” You know you
have reached the root cause when the answer explains why the
system allowed human error to happen, rather than stopping at the
person who made it.
SYSTEMS
Once root causes surface, map the problem as a
THINKING
system. Systems thinking is the practice of seeing a
problem as interconnected parts, where a change in one place
creates a ripple effect elsewhere. I use Systems Thinking’s DSRP
framework to form that view by examining distinctions, systems,
relationships, and perspectives. Distinctions clarify what the problem
is and is not; systems reveal the parts and how they form a whole;
relationships show how one part affects another; and perspectives
show what different people see from where they stand. For
example, a planning process may look like a timeline problem to
executives, a capacity problem to teams, and a prioritization
problem to the field. Each perspective is real, but none is complete
on its own. Discovery brings those views into relationship so the
organization can see the system more accurately.
AI requires discovery. Without clear context created through
Systems Thinking, AI will amplify complexity rather than
Systems Thinking DSRP
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM
DISCOVER clarify it. From the solid foundation of discovery, AI can
identify patterns, distill information, and create an
accurate problem statement to build from.
Sustainable progress is layered. Teams can continue to relieve
visible pain while understanding the root cause. Discovery does not
need months of abstract analysis– it can take a few hours or a few
weeks for a complex cross-functional problem. The point is not to
stop the work, but to aim it at the right problem.
Ignoring root causes does not save time,
only borrows time from the future.
Discovery is the first step of operational design. Understanding the
system producing the problem is essential before building. Listen
first, ask why until the conditions become visible and map
distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives, using AI to
synthesize, not substitute for understanding. The result is a problem
statement clear enough to build against.
D Distinctions WHAT IT IS "Priority / capacity mismatch" WHAT IT IS NOT "Execution failure / low effort" S Systems PLANNING PROCESS Strategic Priorities Capacity Realities R Relationships Changing Priorities Outpace Available Capacity P Perspectives Executive Sponsor VIEW "We need to move faster" Team Lead VIEW "We need clearer tradeoffs"
02 BuildPurpose-built systems
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM BUILD Build turns what discovery reveals into something usable. This iswhere systems thinking and design thinking meet. Systems thinking
DESIGN identified the conditions producing the problem, design thinking THINKING then turns that understanding into a better operating experience. The question shifts from “What is
wrong?” to “How might this work?”
The objective is not simply to create another process or add tooling,
but to design the conditions that make the best use of time and
resources. When I built and scaled a global Marketing Business Ops
function for a 700+ person marketing organization, the company
was in significant transformation. More than ninety percent of the
leadership team had changed and the operating model had shifted
quickly, making work harder than it needed to be. Teams had moved
through more than ten restructures while still working around the
clock to deliver: we were in new terrain, exhausted, with no map.
My team of Ops managers were embedded across the globe to see
firsthand where work was breaking down, listen to leaders and
teams, document requirements, and compare patterns across the
business. After months of solving symptoms, mapping workflows,
and listening to pain points, the operating problem became clear:
Marketing primarily operated by function, but pipeline growth
depended on work moving across the customer journey. Teams
updated multiple tools manually and reconciled information after the
fact with no single source of truth. Leaders had no consistent view
of what was planned or driving pipeline, leaving teams to rebuild
context weekly. With the problem defined, we used our weekly
working sessions to discuss blockers, and brainstorm possibilities,
asking: How might we create a connected system that enables work
to flow? That question guided the design of what became our
Marketing Operating System (MOS).
Disconnection is rarely solved
by addition.
MOS was built from the work itself. Marketers planned in
spreadsheets, executed in Asana, Salesforce connected campaigns
to pipeline, Allocadia held budget and spend, and Tableau showed
actuals. Individually they were a headache, together they became
the foundation for an integrated operating layer across planning,
execution, and measurement. The result: MOS created end-to-end
visibility, was adopted by 70+ users across global teams, is
projected to save 2,500+ hours annually through bidirectional syncs
with core tools, and removed the need for Allocadia in full.
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM BUILD Design Thinking delivers 75% Less time spent gathering and aligning on requirements, cutting 16-week cycles to four 50% Less rework needed by resolving issues before they compound 2× Faster to market than teams working without the practice Forrester, The Total Economic Impact of IBM’s Design Thinking, 2018 The same logic drove MOS: when systems are built around how work actually moves, clarity and speed follow.
My team couldn’t have unlocked so much without AI; build is where
AI shines. Given context from users’ experience and clear workflow
requirements, AI wrote the code for bi-directional syncs with our
core tools, supported automated reporting, campaign creation,
planning visibility, and on-brand materials for executive meetings.
AI was an essential partner in scaling the system that
understanding made possible.
Usability and clarity are not byproducts;
they are the standard.
Build is where insight becomes infrastructure. Define the problem,
then build the system that integrates rhythms, tools, and data around
how the work actually flows. When the system is intuitive and
mapped to reality, people stop spending creativity on workarounds
and start using it to innovate.
03 DeliverThis is a people job
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM DELIVER Delivery is where design meets the organization. Once the realproblem has been understood and the right solution built, the work
becomes translation. Systems become real when people
understand, trust, and participate in making them work.
A well-designed system does not automatically create alignment. It
does not prevent territorial behavior, fragmentation, quiet
disengagement, or the confusion that turns into operational
disruption. Organizations are human systems, not purely rational
ones. People need to understand why change exists, what problem
it solves, and what role they play in making it work. Without that
context, even a well-designed system will feel imposed.
People do not resist change, they resist
imposed change.
That distinction matters because resistance is often treated as a
barrier to push through when it may be information to understand.
Resistance reveals where the system is unclear. It shows where
trust is thin, where the solution does not match reality, or where
people have been asked to absorb too much change without
enough support. Good leaders do not dismiss friction, they
investigate it with curiosity. This is where leadership becomes
stewardship: accountability to the whole system, not only the
outcome. It means staying close enough to the work to see
what people are experiencing. The best leaders I know are
strong managers, creating clarity, unlocking talent, and helping
people do their best work.
ACCESSIBLE
Accessibility is central to stewardship
DESIGN
because it ensures that people can
understand, enter, use, and participate. The curb cut effect, a
core principle of accessibility, shows that design that removes a
barrier for one group often creates ease for many others. Voice
commands, dictation, and simplified interfaces are widely used
because they reduce friction and expand participation well
beyond those with disabilities. Organizations work the same
way. Clear workflows, plain language, enablement, and
storytelling are not just support materials, but access points into
the system. They help people understand the change, see their
role in it, and act on it. Good communication is part of the design.
Delivery fails when people are told about a change but not
given access. I’ve seen a new analytics model rolled out by
taking dashboards down with little explanation of the delay or
the value it would bring. Then when questions arose about the
model, confusion was treated as incompetence instead of
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM DELIVER THE BARRIER Told about the change, but given no way in. ACCESS POINTS Accessible design creates access points so people can understand, enter, use, and participate. Context Training Documentation Pilots Feedback PARTICIPATION THE CURB CUT EFFECT Remove a barrier for one, and you create easier entry for many. Accessible design is the pathway into the system. feedback. The problem was not that people were unwilling to
change, but that they had not been brought into the change.
Systems are only as effective as the
understanding of the people using them.
The path forward is rarely a single rollout, but sustained
stewardship through listening, learning, and dialogue. The goal
is not passive compliance, but active participation. With MOS,
that meant building the path before asking people to use the
system. Foundational trainings, targeted pilots, office hours,
and repeated explanation across time and context created
access points into the future state so teams could understand
and move forward with confidence.
We are not only architects of systems, but stewards of the
human systems inside them. Listen to understand what’s
actually needed, design the system, then provide access into
the system. That is how operational design creates change
people can sustain.
Designing
the Future
of Work
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM DESIGNING THE FUTURE OF WORK
Organizational health
equals wealth.
When strategy, people, and technology align by design,
organizations spend less time compensating and more time
innovating. Design creates a healthy foundation for work that,
when paired with AI, unlocks pathways once unthinkable. A
thriving organization is more effective because it stewards
talent, technology, and capital rather than squandering
resources on panicked rework in the rush to progress.
This future is neither abstract nor out of reach. Operational
design is accessible: discover before solving, build what is
needed, and deliver so people can understand, trust, and
participate. That is how rigor and design carry organizations
beyond managing complexity toward systems worthy of the
people inside them.
OPERATIONS IS A DESIGN PROBLEM
ABOUT RENAE
Renae Vespremi My career spans across creative and operations leadership, bringing analytical rigor and design discipline together to build the connective architecture organizations need to use resources wisely, scale effectively, and stay human in the process. My approach is holistic in diagnosis and precise in design, building the conditions for sustainable growth. Let’s connect. Bring me in to diagnose operational friction, redesign how teams work, or build the systems behind your AI transformation. Work together · Talk it through · Invite me to speak/teach BOOK 30 MINUTES renaevespremi.com linkedin.com/in/renaevespremi
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