My Role

• Lead Interaction Designer across the system lifecycle

• Led design reviews and sprint planning across product teams (5+ years)

• Co-defined system strategy with engineering (last 3 years)

• Guided adoption and mentored designers across a 60-person UX organization

• Owned system-level component design in Figma, maintaining the source of truth for UI patterns

• Partnered closely with engineering and used AI-assisted prototyping to accelerate pattern development and ensure design–code alignment

Challenge

• Influencing a distributed UX organization (60 designers) with a small central Design System team (7)

• Driving adoption across 40+ products with varying priorities and technical constraints

• Supporting legacy systems while modernizing UI and interaction patterns

• Balancing accessibility compliance with visual flexibility

• Designing for responsive use while maintaining data density for complex workflows

Key Decisions & Tradeoffs

Accessibility vs Visual Flexibility

• Established form field contrast at 3:1 (WCAG-compliant) instead of 4.5:1 to preserve visual flexibility

• Advocated for accurate interpretation of accessibility standards, including:

  • Disabled states not requiring minimum contrast

  • Avoiding unnecessary constraints that limited usable design

Standardization vs Team Autonomy

• Drove adoption through influence rather than enforcement, despite top-down expectations

• Enabled incremental adoption with a flexible baseline (Spark-like visual updates)

• Led ongoing design reviews to guide consistency without blocking product progress

Brand Alignment vs Product Flexibility

• Partnered closely with Brand to translate a new visual identity into product UI across 40+ products

• Defined when product should adhere to brand standards vs deviate for usability and system consistency

• Balanced brand expression with the functional needs of complex enterprise interfaces

Usability vs Perception (Floating Labels)

• Resolved concerns around increased field size by demonstrating equivalent total space vs traditional labels

• Identified resistance as change aversion rather than usability issues

• Grounded decisions in usability principles and user needs

Touch Optimization vs Data Density

• Designed components to support touch across responsive contexts, increasing baseline sizing

• Iterated based on product feedback:

  • Navigation height reduced by 20%

  • Message components reduced by 20%

  • Table row height reduced by 25%

• Balanced usability with efficiency for dense enterprise workflows

Driving Adoption

• Partnered with design technologists to deliver reusable React components, reducing implementation friction

• Provided hands-on consultation across teams to support adoption within legacy systems

• Embedded design reviews and sprint rituals to reinforce system usage and consistency

• Worked closely with product teams to prioritize system improvements based on real-world needs

Impact

• Achieved 90% adoption across 40+ products

• Enabled product-wide visual updates in as little as 15 minutes for fully adopted teams

• Scaled consistency across a 60-designer organization with a small central team

• Reduced design drift and improved long-term efficiency across products

• Accelerated alignment between Product, Engineering, and Brand through a shared system