Highlights of my work on standing up design systems and driving them as products within large organizations.

Product not Project

Opportunity Space

Role

Key Accomplishments

Challenges

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, I spearheaded a groundbreaking initiative at Schwab to transition design systems from being treated as short-term projects to strategic, long-term products.

Traditionally, these efforts were viewed with limited budgets, defined scopes, and definitive endpoints. Recognizing the potential for greater benefits, I proposed a visionary shift to our leadership, transforming our approach to managing design systems. I led similar initiatives at Abbott Diabetes Care for iOS and Android apps, at Simpson Strong-Tie for digital marketing web properties, and at various startups where I served as a UX engineer.

Product Manager

Proposed a significant opportunity for consolidation and savings in time, resources, and effort by defining a design system and implementing it through a product-based model. Initially led a scrappy team to standup a quick system and resources, then led a more cross-functional team to expand the system and engineered components.

Led successful design system, early in design system era

First system version launched in 5 months

11 marketing sites and 3 apps leveraging system in 2 years

Outcome

• Consolidating multiple agency styles into one system

• Selling vision of design system to multiple owners

• Balancing consistency with sub-brand uniqueness

• Logged-in vs logged-out differentiation and competition

• Typical leadership and stakeholder buy-in and alignment

Increased Speed to Market

Decreased Significant Cost Savings/Launch

Increased Reusability of UI

Increased Adoption

↑ Scale

↑ Efficiency

↑ Cost Savings

↑ Consistency

Objective

Eliminate reliance on external agencies and prevent redundant efforts in designing and developing web and mobile components. This ensures a cohesive user experience, streamlines updates and enhancements, and maintains a unified brand presence across all platforms by aligning team decisions.

System Foundations, Components, Variations and Theming