Synoptro Forum
You're doing the work.
There's nowhere to take
the hard questions.
A small-group peer advisory forum for DesignOps practitioners and design leads. Structured sessions, live problem-solving, and direct access to someone who has built and scaled DesignOps inside organizations you'd recognize.
Founding cohort pricing locks in permanently. Limited spots per group.
Why this exists
DesignOps practitioners are often the only one in the room who knows what they know.
No one down the hall who can pressure-test your intake system or tell you whether your critique format is fixable or fundamentally broken. The DesignOps communities that exist are mostly async noise: people sharing articles, not solving problems. The practitioners who are solving problems are doing it privately, inside their own organizations, with no way to compare notes.
Synoptro Forum is designed to change that. A small group of practitioners who start from a shared vocabulary, meet on a real schedule, and work through actual problems together, with a facilitator who has done this work inside Comcast, GSK, Universal Ads, and others.
You can't get honest feedback from people who don't understand what you do.
The people in your organization either don't know DesignOps well enough to evaluate your work, or they have a stake in the outcome. This group starts from neither of those positions.
The problem with most professional communities is the signal-to-noise ratio.
This is a structured small-group format with live sessions on a fixed cadence. The size stays small on purpose. The format stays structured on purpose. Both of those things are load-bearing.
Domain expertise is the difference between useful feedback and well-meaning noise.
I'm a practitioner, not a coach. I've built DesignOps practice from the ground up inside real organizations. The feedback connects to the actual work, with the specificity that only comes from having done it.
Format
How it works
A small, high-value, practitioner-first forum. Here's the shape of it.
Small groups by design
Groups are capped at 6–8 practitioners. Small enough to have real conversations and build actual trust. Big enough to get multiple angles on a problem. You know who's in the room, and after a few sessions, you know how they think.
Live working sessions
Biweekly sessions built around hot seats. Someone brings a real problem, the group works it together. The format is structured so conversations go somewhere. The cadence is frequent enough that people stay invested between sessions.
Async feedback between sessions
Working on something before it goes live? Bring it to the group channel. A process you're rolling out. A system leadership isn't buying. A presentation you're stress-testing. You get input from practitioners before it matters, not after.
Direct access
Between sessions, members have access to ask questions. That means me: the practitioner who built the kits and runs DesignOps at a major consumer brand, engaging directly with your actual work.
Kit discount included
Forum members save 20% on all Synoptro kits. Buy the ones relevant to where you are right now, when you need them.
No long-term commitment
Month-to-month. If it stops being valuable, cancel. I'm not interested in keeping members who aren't getting value.
Who this is for
A specific kind of person
This might be for you if you're a...
- DesignOps practitioner without a peer in your org
- Design lead who owns ops informally alongside your IC work
- Fractional DesignOps consultant working across clients
- Newly promoted manager standing up a first operating model
- Senior designer doing operational work without a title
Probably not for you if...
- You want scale over depth: a 5,000-member community with daily Slack activity
- Your primary goal is coaching on leadership presence or executive communication (that's genuinely a different product, and there are good ones)
- You're still building foundational DesignOps knowledge: the kits are the better starting point, and you can revisit the Forum once you have the foundations under you
The format in practice
What a session looks like
Each group is 6–8 practitioners meeting every two weeks for 90 minutes. One person takes the hot seat: they bring a live problem, share the context, and the group works through it together. I facilitate and add pattern-matching from work I've done across multiple organizations. The goal is always something actionable by the end of the session, not a list of things to think about.
What people typically bring:
- A process that was supposed to stick but hasn't
- A stakeholder situation that keeps escalating
- A system they built that leadership won't fund or follow
- A team structure they inherited and aren't sure how to fix
- A decision with no obvious right answer and real consequences
What the Forum isn't built for:
- General career coaching or job search support
- Venting without a problem to solve (though context always matters)
- People who want to observe more than participate
- Foundational DesignOps learning: the kits cover that ground better
Pricing
Founding cohort rate is open now
The first groups are forming now. Founding members lock in at $149/month permanently: that rate holds as long as you remain a member. Once founding cohort spots fill, the standard rate applies to new members.
Founding Cohort
Locks in permanently. Standard rate is $249/month.
- Biweekly 90-minute group sessions
- Access to Dennis between sessions
- 20% off all Synoptro kits
- Month-to-month, cancel anytime
No commitment required. Joining the list reserves your consideration for the founding cohort.
Most members expense this through their L&D budget. Here's a template you can send your manager.
Standard
or $2,490/year (two months free)
- Biweekly 90-minute group sessions
- Access to Dennis between sessions
- 20% off all Synoptro kits
- Month-to-month, cancel anytime
Available after founding cohort fills.
Get on the list
No commitment. When a group forms that fits your profile, I'll reach out directly. Groups stay small by design, so this is how I make sure the fit is right on both sides.
No automated sequences. Just a direct message from me when the timing and fit are right.