In this enlightening session, Jose Manuel Villanueva delves deep into the world of business operations, shining a spotlight on the transformative power of design. Drawing from his rich tapestry of experiences at Thoughtworks, he unravels the vast potential that lies in seamlessly integrating design into day-to-day operations. Through an insightful case studie, José Manuel showcases how a design-centric approach can profoundly reshape and elevate internal processes, leading to increased efficiency, innovation, and holistic business growth. Join him on this captivating journey as he charts the course for the future of operational evolution.

1. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 1
Operational Evolution:
Harnessing Design for Internal
Business Transformation.
By José Manuel Villanueva
Principal, Organizational Change. Educator.
5 min

2. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
LATIN AMERICA
13.7%
NORTH AMERICA
9.6%
EUROPE
14.8%
SOUTHEAST
ASIA
4.1%
AUSTRALIA
2.8%
CHINA
22.2%
4.11/5.0
Q2 overall
Glassdoor rating
INDIA
32.8% 100+
Q1 new joiners
Thoughtworks — a growing
global presence in 18 countries1
1. Employee concentration as of March 31, 2023
2. As of March 31, 2023 2
11,500+
Employees2
42.9%
Women and
Underrepresented
Gender Minorities2

3. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 3
3
© 2022 Thoughtworks

4. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 4

5. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 5
92%
adoption
97%
adoption
86%
Pulled at least
one learning
resource
Growth
system
Performance
system
Digital Learning
system

6. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
Changing.
6
Transforming.

7. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 7
[...] While more change is coming, the
workforce has hit a wall: A Gartner survey
revealed that employees’ willingness to
support enterprise change collapsed to just
43% in 2022, compared to 74% in 2016.
Navigating the pandemic asked a lot of
employees — and while they delivered, it came
at a cost.
7
© 2022 Thoughtworks
“In 2022, the average employee experienced 10 planned
enterprise changes — such as a restructure to achieve
efficiencies, a culture transformation to unlock new ways
of working, or the replacement of a legacy tech system —
up from two in 2016.”
Cian O Morain and Peter Aykens May 09, 2023 Source

8. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
“An organisational transformation
is a strategic approach to moving
your organisation from where it is
now to the future. For an
organisation to succeed and grow,
it must undergo organisational
change. Organisational
transformation [...] enables
employees to comprehend the
shift, commit to it, and work
efficiently.” [...] “Leaders define
objectives, design a project plan,
agree on KPIs, and recruit the right
people.”
8
Dr. Glenn Agung Hole, Ph.D. October 23, 2022
Source
8
© 2022 Thoughtworks

9. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 9
9
© 2022 Thoughtworks
2022

10. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 10
Where are we
headed?
Why do we
exist and what
is our impact?
What is our
distinctive
approach? Who are we?
Image source: Harvard Business School online

11. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 11
Capabilities
11
Image source: Harvard Business School online

12. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
Decentralized Federated
Balanced Hub & Spoke Centralized
Target
Operating
Model

13. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
What counts as value?
13
13
© 2022 Thoughtworks

14. © 2022 Thoughtworks | Confidential
Saving costs
Design in OPS today.
When it comes to ROI, you are either working to:
14
Making
Money
14
© 2022 Thoughtworks
to the organization. to the organization.

15. © 2022 Thoughtworks | Confidential 15
How much is it
gonna cost me
that change?
Critical questions to
address when
thinking ROI.
And it's not just your
delivery costs like your
developer and your Xd and
your Qas. It goes beyond.
E.g. what's the cost of
communicating that change?
What is the cost
of the change
management of
this?
Are you gonna roll out this
as a one big bang. Are you
going to force people to just
do this? Or are you gonna
take a longer time
convincing people and
socializing the change.
How is this
going to help the
business?
This is gonna increase your
revenue by X percent. I'm
gonna make a $100,000
fixing this, and I'm gonna
spend $30,000 so then you
can start looking at the time
horizon of that investment.
When do I
estimate to get
the investment
back?
You can rely back on your
leading and lagging
indicators to have a tangible
timeline for your
stakeholders.
Where can I start putting
tangible numbers?
Is it a good
investment
versus other
investments that
you could make?
What are the
trade-offs your
are doing as an
organization of
moving this
forward?

16. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
TIP
In essence organizational
change is a design problem.
Designers now need to make a
shift and articulate a design
problem as a business problem.
16
16

17. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 17

18. © 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
Gracias. Gràcies. Thank you.
18
18
Stay in touch!
Jose Manuel Villanueva