I’m a graphic novel enthusiast. As a creative, I find them inspiring because the authors and artists have to work within such strict constraints to tell rich stories. I appreciate succinct communication, which is core to the work that I do. In graphic novels, the imagery is often driving the story versus the dialogue alone. When you decouple the imagery from the dialogue, it’s obvious how strategic and to-the-point the writing must be. I'm constantly awed by the tactics these artists are using to combine visuals and text. Right now I’m reading anything James Tynion IV puts out.

I was one of the first design program managers at Meta when the discipline was established in 2013. At this time, the design team experienced hyper-growth and design leaders recognized the need for dedicated operational partnership. Over the next 10 years, I played nearly every role a design program manager could play, from partnering with the head of design to build new technologies, design systems and brands, to developing and scaling design onboarding, internship and recent university graduate programs.

As Meta continued to grow, the company saw the value of functional leads who can partner with and advance each design discipline — like content design, UXR and so on. Design program management reached this stage of growth last year, and I stepped into this role to ensure Meta is a great place to work as a DPM, focusing on areas such as culture, tools, career growth and recruiting.

Design ops is accountable for the operational success of teams and design programs. We drive work forward to help teams build, design and ship amazing programs and technologies. We support them to do this through simple, scalable and streamlined operations.

I clear the way for design leaders to design by taking the operations off their plate and serving as their strategic partner. This can range from establishing operational rhythms for the design team to developing strategies. I always ask my design partners, “What’s keeping you up at night?” Everyone can answer that question. It’s personal to them so it gets to an answer faster. My job is to help them find a solution to their answer.

I believe AI tools can spark ideas and help us work more efficiently. Succinct and timely communication is a key part of a design program manager’s role. My team often uses Meta AI to get the ball rolling on a project brief, draft internal announcements or synthesize notes or ideas.

Open-mindedness and optimism. It's interesting to reflect on just how much our processes and technology have advanced in the 15 years I’ve been at Meta. I’ve always been curious and eager to learn new technologies, especially those that help me do my job better. Any technology that is going to help us be more efficient means that we can go deeper on strategy and the nuts and bolts of how our programs and technologies will serve billions of people around the world.

We’re impacting teams through efficiency gains. I have a huge sense of pride in the fact that I can point to just about any Meta app or technology and know exactly who from design operations helped make that technology come to life behind the scenes.

Anything from Jessica Hische & Friends.