Who is this for
12+ product teams building features in parallel. Frontend developers who need reusable components. Designers who need consistency. End users who deserve cohesive experiences across products.
What was broken
Rapid growth led to inconsistent UI patterns across teams. Designers reinvented components. Developers duplicated code. 47 unique button variants existed for 8 actual use cases. Accessibility standards varied wildly.
Why I was asked
Development velocity was slowing. Teams spent 30% of sprint time rebuilding components that existed elsewhere. Design-to-dev handoff was inefficient. Design debt was accumulating faster than feature velocity.
Constraints
Needed to work with existing tech stack (React/TypeScript). Couldn't break production features during migration. Limited design system team (2 people). 8-month timeline with ongoing feature work. Needed to gain buy-in from 12 teams.
Business Problem
Development velocity declining. Teams spending 15-20 hours per sprint rebuilding components. Design debt accumulating. Unable to scale design efficiently.
User Problem
Inconsistent experiences across products. Users noticed variability and questioned product quality. Some features accessible, others not. No predictability.
Creating a comprehensive design system with reusable components + clear documentation + developer-friendly APIs will increase development velocity by 50% and reduce design debt by 80% within 6 months.
Our bet: Make using the system easier than building custom components. Consistency comes from shared tools, not shared meetings.
Design Audit
200+ screens analyzed
Cataloged all UI patterns. Found 47 button variants, 23 input styles, inconsistent spacing systems.
Developer Interviews
15 sessions • 8 teams
Understood component usage patterns, pain points with current implementations, ideal API structures.
Designer Workshops
6 workshops • 24 designers
Aligned on visual language, established design principles, created shared understanding of component behaviors.
Competitive Analysis
12 design systems studied
Analyzed Material Design, Ant Design, Carbon, others. Learned best practices for documentation, component architecture, tooling.
Key Insights
47 unique button variants existed, but only 8 distinct use cases were needed. Teams were reinventing instead of reusing.
Developers spent 15-20 hours per sprint building components that already existed elsewhere because they couldn't find them.
89% of designers wanted centralized components but lacked time to maintain them. Need for system was clear, adoption was the challenge.
Component complexity varied by 300% for similar patterns. No shared standards meant inconsistent quality.
Original assumption: Teams needed better design guidelines and more design reviews to enforce consistency.
Reality: Teams needed tools that made consistency easier than inconsistency. Guidelines weren't enough—they needed components they could use immediately. Documentation was critical for discoverability.
Pivot: Focused on building developer-friendly components with excellent documentation rather than just design guidelines. Made the system easier to use than building custom components.
Component Architecture: Atomic vs Composed
Chose B. Atomic approach allowed teams to adopt incrementally. Could use Button while we built Form. Testing showed faster adoption (6 weeks vs 12 weeks) with atomic-first approach. Trade-off: More components to maintain, but greater flexibility.
Documentation: Static Site vs Interactive
Chose B. Interactive documentation with live examples reduced questions by 85%. Developers could see components in action before implementing. Trade-off: Higher initial build cost, but massive time savings in support.
Design Tokens: Hard-Coded vs Semantic
Chose B. Semantic tokens enabled theming and future flexibility. Could change primary color globally without touching components. Testing showed semantic tokens reduced maintenance by 60%. Trade-off: More abstraction, but better scalability.
Unified Design Tokens
Comprehensive token system covering colors, typography, spacing, shadows, motion. Semantic tokens support theming and accessibility. Changes propagate automatically.
Function: Standardize values → enable consistency → reduce design debt
Reusable Component Library
Built 60+ reusable components from atoms to complex patterns. Each includes variants, states, accessibility features. Implemented in React with TypeScript.
Function: Provide building blocks → reduce duplication → accelerate development
Comprehensive Documentation
Interactive documentation site with live component examples, code snippets, usage guidelines, best practices. Easy discovery and implementation.
Function: Enable discovery → reduce questions → improve adoption
Design-Dev Handoff
Built Figma plugins and workflows ensuring design specs match code. Established clear handoff processes reducing back-and-forth.
Function: Align design and code → reduce handoff friction → improve quality
Quantitative
Qualitative
"I can ship features faster now. No more rebuilding buttons."
"Documentation is actually useful. I can find what I need in seconds."
"Finally, consistent experiences across all our products."
Original problem: Development velocity declining, teams spending 15-20 hours per sprint rebuilding components, design debt accumulating, inconsistent user experiences.
Result: Development velocity increased 52%. Teams saved 18 hours per sprint. All 12 teams adopted system within 6 months. 95% WCAG AA compliance across all products. Design-to-dev handoff reduced by 50%.
Business impact: Enabled scale without proportional design/engineering growth. Reduced maintenance burden. Improved product quality through consistency.
What Worked
Making the system easier to use than building custom components drove adoption. Excellent documentation was essential—good components with bad docs don't get used. Starting with atomic components allowed incremental adoption.
What I'd Change
Should have involved engineering earlier in token system design. Some API decisions required refactoring later. Would have saved 3 weeks with better collaboration upfront. Also should have created migration tooling to accelerate adoption.
What's Next
Analytics show some components are underutilized. Need to improve discoverability and add more examples. Also evaluating automated accessibility testing in CI/CD pipeline to catch regressions early.
Interested in working together?
I'm always open to discussing new projects, creative ideas, or opportunities to be part of your vision.