How a strategic, phased approach scaled a design system across 800+ properties, cutting production time by 40% and delivery costs by more than half.
Client details are private under an NDA.
Duration: 24+ Months
Team Structure: Led internal design system team and managed vendor
teams up to 40.
Strategy & Vision
Systems Architecture
Hands-On Design Leadership & Governance
Executive Communication & Influence
A global enterprise with a vast and disconnected digital ecosystem faced a severe operational crisis. The lack of a central system created massive inefficiencies across its portfolio, costing millions in redundant design and development work. The work detailed here would ultimately bring order to this chaos, unifying over 800 properties through migration and new creation. This fragmentation damaged the brand through inconsistent user experiences and exposed the organization to significant legal and reputational risk from a lack of accessibility governance—a challenge that would later necessitate a dedicated Global Accessibility Governance Program built in tandem with this system.
The journey began with a limited engagement. As a vendor, I was brought in to design the initial "Phase 0" of a design system for a single, regulated division. However, it quickly became clear that a divisional solution would be a temporary patch on a systemic enterprise problem. This insight led me to join the company internally to champion a broader vision: to prove the model's value incrementally, then scale it into a global, mandated standard.
The initial phase focused on the immediate needs of a single division. We conducted deep discovery and built a V1 system that addressed their core pain points. This foundational work in Sketch established the initial component library and design principles, securing early stakeholder trust.
Recognizing the limitations of our initial tooling, I led the critical migration from Sketch to Figma. A key goal was creating a coded source of truth. While we initially integrated Storybook, it struggled with our enterprise complexity. I led the team to develop a proprietary, in-house solution based on Storybook's principles that ultimately created the automated pipeline between design and development.
To get enterprise-level buy-in, we needed undeniable data. I orchestrated a pilot program in the APAC region to roll out the new system across approximately 50 sites. The results were transformative, demonstrating a 50%+ reduction in delivery costs through automation. This pilot became our definitive internal case study for a global expansion.
Armed with compelling data, I secured the executive mandate to scale the system globally. This final phase involved expanding the system to serve all 800+ properties, establishing a formal global governance model, and creating a vendor enablement engine to manage large external teams effectively.
This project presented two defining leadership challenges: securing enterprise-wide buy-in for a new way of working and designing a system that could handle immense global complexity.
The biggest obstacle was organizational inertia. To overcome this, I used the APAC pilot as a strategic tool. I presented the data to executive leadership with a clear, undeniable business case:
"Our APAC pilot for 50 sites proved we can cut delivery costs by over 50% through automation. This isn't just a design initiative; it's a financial and operational imperative. We have a model that can save millions if we scale it globally."This data-driven approach shifted the conversation from a debate about standards to a discussion about ROI, ultimately securing the enterprise-level funding and mandate we needed.
The second challenge was technical and strategic. My key architectural decision was to build a centralized design system with a robust theming architecture. This allowed us to maintain a single source of truth for core components while giving individual brands the flexibility to apply their unique visual identity. This was supported by process innovation; before Figma introduced native features like variables, I developed and implemented a novel methodology using its existing tools to manage theming. This process was critical for scaling design delivery and maintaining unique sub-brands efficiently.
Our research identified several key roles across internal and vendor teams. By solving their specific needs for efficiency, predictability, and quality, we could create a ripple effect of value across the entire organization.
| Stakeholder | Core Job (JTBD) | Key Design System Solution |
|---|---|---|
| In-House & Vendor Engineering | Rapidly build and deploy new, brand-compliant, and accessible digital properties without reinventing the wheel every time. | An in-house solution based on Storybook principles, integrated with AEM pipelines, enabled automated handoffs and cut delivery costs by over 50%. |
| In-House & Vendor Design | Deliver high-quality, consistent, and accessible user experiences under tight deadlines, with clear guidance and standards. | A comprehensive Figma library, built on a custom theming methodology I developed, allowed designers to focus on user problems. I provided hands-on leadership through regular, meticulous design reviews to ensure high-quality output. |
| Business & Product | Ensure our products launch on time, on budget, and meet brand and accessibility standards to drive business goals. | A library of pre-built, pre-vetted components reduced production time by 40%, ensuring predictable timelines and "baked-in" compliance. |
| Delivery Leads | Manage project scope, timelines, and resources effectively across internal and vendor teams for predictable delivery. | The vendor onboarding process and centralized system provided a single source of truth, reducing ambiguity and streamlining collaboration between disparate teams. |
The project's success was driven by a holistic strategy that combined technical architecture with robust governance and operational excellence.
My most critical technical decision was to champion a component-driven workflow. While we initially integrated Storybook, it struggled with our enterprise complexity. I led the team to develop a proprietary, in-house solution based on Storybook's principles that ultimately created the automated pipeline between design and AEM, which was the primary driver of our cost and time savings.
I designed and implemented the entire operational model from the ground up to manage the complexity of both internal and external teams. This was not just strategic oversight; I was hands-on, leading vendor design and engineering teams, running meticulous design reviews to enforce quality, and developing a mandatory vendor onboarding process to ensure all partners met our exacting standards.
Accessibility was foundational. In direct support of the design system, I built the Global Accessibility Governance Program and integrated formal accessibility reviews into the system's governance gates. This proactive approach, embedding WCAG 2.2 standards from the start, was directly responsible for the 18% reduction in defects.
In the early phases, with no dedicated team or budget, I built the component documentation by negotiating resources from multiple teams. To drive adoption and transparency, we launched monthly newsletters to promote changes and build a community around the new system.
To ensure the system's integrity, we had to enforce the new standards. This meant saying "no" to one-off requests and mandating that all new digital work follow the official path. This was a political challenge, but it was essential for realizing the long-term efficiency gains.
The enterprise design system became the single source of truth for all digital delivery, transforming how the company built and managed its online presence. It delivered transformative financial and operational results, including a 40% reduction in production time, a 50% reduction in vendor costs, and over 50% lower delivery costs through automation. The system's efficiency was powerfully demonstrated when I led the creation of a new website from idea to launch in just six weeks—a timeline previously unheard of in the regulated healthcare industry.
The project's most profound impact, however, was the cultural change it created. By proving the immense value of a systematic, collaborative approach, we established a new, more effective way of working. The initiative didn't just deliver a system; it delivered a sustainable engine for quality, efficiency, and scale, leaving behind a revitalized organization ready to meet the future.
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