← Portfolio
Systems Architecture2023–2026
01

Design Operating System (DesOS)

Building Scalable Infrastructure for Spatial & Experience Design

Company
Matter Motor Works
Role
DO SPOC — Process Efficiency
Year
2023–2024
45+
Concurrent projects
Weekly audit cadence
38+
Projects archived
24h
Onboarding (was 2 wks)
The Context

At Matter Motor Works, the design studio operated with 45+ concurrent projects across six isolated disciplines — Experience, Spatial, Industrial, Communication, Service Design and Research. Project statuses were siloed, creating a lack of real-time visibility for leadership and unpredictable handoff cycles.

The Challenge

The core friction was behavioural fragmentation, not just tooling. With rapid growth, each team developed bespoke tracking methods and naming conventions. There was no single source of truth, no health signal system and no institutional memory — making cross-functional orchestration highly inefficient.

The Strategy & Execution
Ecosystem Architecture
Mapped actual workflows across all disciplines before deploying any software. Designed a scalable taxonomy and nomenclature system within ClickUp, with dedicated spaces for Physical/Spatial and Digital/Experience teams.
Health Signal Engineering
Established a universal field schema (Status, Project Phase) and a 6-variant health tracking protocol — At Risk, Resource Risk, Quality Risk, Scope Risk, Budget Risk — to surface bottlenecks before they become critical delays.
Strategic Change Management
Tackled adoption friction by making visibility the default. Built a master Design Studio Dashboard for executive review — a system where failing to update creates more friction than utilizing it.
DO SPOC Cadence
Implemented a rigorous 3×/week audit cadence to maintain data integrity. Weekly lead reviews. Fortnightly CDO/VP master dashboard — replacing all manual status emails.
Workspace Architecture
Experience Design
1
Product Experience
2
Digital Experience | Consumer
3
Digital Experience | Enterprise
4
Immersive Design
Spatial Design
1
Retail Space
2
Industrial Space
3
Workspace
4
Brand Activation Space
Measured Impact
45+
Concurrent projects
Weekly audit cadence
38+
Projects archived
24h
Onboarding (was 2 wks)

Accelerated new-joiner onboarding from 2 weeks to under 24 hours.

Achieved real-time predictive resource allocation and time-to-market visibility.

Established a searchable institutional memory archive of 38+ completed projects.

Replaced manual status reporting with live, executive-level dashboards.

Key Takeaway

"The shift from decentralised spreadsheets to a live Design OS is a structural transformation. True operational leadership makes visibility the default state — reducing cognitive load for designers and risk for the business."

© 2025 Suchit Thakkar — Design Operations PortfolioCase Study 01 of 04

Create a free website with Framer, the website builder loved by startups, designers and agencies.