Dave Malouf.

For over two decades I've built and led the operating layer that supports design teams — at startups, agencies, the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and inside the design organizations of Fortune-200 enterprises including Northwestern Mutual and Walmart.

My work centers on a single thesis: DesignOps is systems orchestration, not artifact production. A DesignOps function should produce operating models, decision rights, career architecture, knowledge products, and platforms — the scaffolding that lets designers do the highest-leverage version of their craft.

I write, teach, and speak about this work, and I keep my hands on the artifacts: the canvases, the rubrics, the rails. The four pieces in this portfolio are the most recent of those artifacts — built either for the orgs I've led or as open frameworks the field can fork.

Selected receipts from those roles: led UX and design-language governance for Squiggly, Walmart's internal GenAI platform — taking it from zero to production and shipping a first-of-kind AI design system at enterprise scale. Built a Design Program Management practice from zero to ten. Cut designer attrition from over 50% to under 10%. Integrated 48 onshore and offshore vendor designers into a SAFe product operating model with the intake, quality, and capacity mechanisms that kept managed-services delivery aligned to product strategy. The numbers and the programs behind them live in Real Outcomes.

On the community side: long-time contributor to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) — founding board member and former vice-president. Dave is also a frequent speaker and instructor on DesignOps, design leadership, and the operating layer underneath design teams.