Building Trust and Adoption in a Global Design System
Design System
Leadership
Overview
Driving adoption and trust in a global design system at scale.
Challenges
Meltwater’s products grew through acquisitions and internal builds, leaving designers with fragmented libraries, inconsistent practices, and little documentation. Teams lacked education on how to use or extend the system, and silos created communication gaps. Without clear resources or alignment, adoption stalled and user experiences across products felt disjointed.
Process
I streamlined the design system by restructuring libraries with Atomic Design principles, leveraging new Figma features, and introducing training and office hours for designers. With PMs, I aligned roadmaps and secured stakeholder support, while with developers I built a request pipeline and unified documentation into a clear “Usage, Code, Accessibility” model.
Impact
Adoption of the design system expanded to 7+ product teams in the first year, reducing component search time by ~80% and saving 15 – 20 design hours per week. Improved transparency and cut cross-team miscommunication by ~30%, creating a single source of truth that strengthened collaboration across design, product, and engineering.
Challenges
Fragmentation and Lack of Adoption
Meltwater’s products were a patchwork of in-house and acquired tools, with siloed teams and little alignment. Designers couldn’t find or reuse components effectively, documentation was fragmented, and there was no education or governance. Without a clear, consistent system, adoption lagged, and the user experience suffered across the suite of products.
Process
Aligning People, Tools, and Practices
I approached the challenge by breaking it into three audiences: designers, product managers, and developers.
Designers: Reorganized libraries, improved naming and tagging, and restructured assets using Brad Frost’s Atomic Design approach. Leveraged Figma’s new variables to simplify reuse. Introduced weekly training, office hours, and one-on-one working sessions to build confidence and speed.
Product Managers: Aligned roadmaps so design system work became part of team goals. Led evangelizing efforts to get PMs and stakeholders invested in the system’s value.
Developers: Built a Trello pipeline for prioritizing requests and balancing shared resources. Consolidated documentation into a “tri-fecta” structure of Usage, Code, and Accessibility, making it actionable for designers, engineers, and stakeholders alike.
This holistic approach ensured that each group not only had the tools but also the education and buy-in to use them effectively.
Impact
From Skepticism to Trust
The design system became a trusted, transparent, and widely adopted foundation:
Designers began contributing to the system and saw measurable efficiency in their workflows.
Transparency across teams improved, reducing miscommunications and creating a centralized source of truth.
Communication became more open, with shared language and documentation speeding up collaboration and decision-making.
The end result was not just a stronger design system, but a culture of trust and participation that extended across product, design, and engineering.
Metrics & Results:
Increased adoption of the design system across 7+ product teams within the first year.
Reduced time to find and apply components by ~80%.
Cut redundant design work, saving an estimated 15–20 design hours per week across teams.
Reduced cross-team miscommunication incidents by ~30%, based on PM feedback.
In Closing
Building a design system is as much about people as it is about components. Education, transparency, and trust-building were just as critical as technical improvements. By aligning stakeholders and investing in documentation that worked for everyone, the design system became a bridge across siloed teams — setting the stage for scalable, consistent product design at Meltwater.
More Works
©
2025
Building Trust and Adoption in a Global Design System
Design System
Leadership
Overview
Driving adoption and trust in a global design system at scale.
Challenges
Meltwater’s products grew through acquisitions and internal builds, leaving designers with fragmented libraries, inconsistent practices, and little documentation. Teams lacked education on how to use or extend the system, and silos created communication gaps. Without clear resources or alignment, adoption stalled and user experiences across products felt disjointed.
Process
I streamlined the design system by restructuring libraries with Atomic Design principles, leveraging new Figma features, and introducing training and office hours for designers. With PMs, I aligned roadmaps and secured stakeholder support, while with developers I built a request pipeline and unified documentation into a clear “Usage, Code, Accessibility” model.
Impact
Adoption of the design system expanded to 7+ product teams in the first year, reducing component search time by ~80% and saving 15 – 20 design hours per week. Improved transparency and cut cross-team miscommunication by ~30%, creating a single source of truth that strengthened collaboration across design, product, and engineering.
Challenges
Fragmentation and Lack of Adoption
Meltwater’s products were a patchwork of in-house and acquired tools, with siloed teams and little alignment. Designers couldn’t find or reuse components effectively, documentation was fragmented, and there was no education or governance. Without a clear, consistent system, adoption lagged, and the user experience suffered across the suite of products.
Process
Aligning People, Tools, and Practices
I approached the challenge by breaking it into three audiences: designers, product managers, and developers.
Designers: Reorganized libraries, improved naming and tagging, and restructured assets using Brad Frost’s Atomic Design approach. Leveraged Figma’s new variables to simplify reuse. Introduced weekly training, office hours, and one-on-one working sessions to build confidence and speed.
Product Managers: Aligned roadmaps so design system work became part of team goals. Led evangelizing efforts to get PMs and stakeholders invested in the system’s value.
Developers: Built a Trello pipeline for prioritizing requests and balancing shared resources. Consolidated documentation into a “tri-fecta” structure of Usage, Code, and Accessibility, making it actionable for designers, engineers, and stakeholders alike.
This holistic approach ensured that each group not only had the tools but also the education and buy-in to use them effectively.
Impact
From Skepticism to Trust
The design system became a trusted, transparent, and widely adopted foundation:
Designers began contributing to the system and saw measurable efficiency in their workflows.
Transparency across teams improved, reducing miscommunications and creating a centralized source of truth.
Communication became more open, with shared language and documentation speeding up collaboration and decision-making.
The end result was not just a stronger design system, but a culture of trust and participation that extended across product, design, and engineering.
Metrics & Results:
Increased adoption of the design system across 7+ product teams within the first year.
Reduced time to find and apply components by ~80%.
Cut redundant design work, saving an estimated 15–20 design hours per week across teams.
Reduced cross-team miscommunication incidents by ~30%, based on PM feedback.
In Closing
Building a design system is as much about people as it is about components. Education, transparency, and trust-building were just as critical as technical improvements. By aligning stakeholders and investing in documentation that worked for everyone, the design system became a bridge across siloed teams — setting the stage for scalable, consistent product design at Meltwater.
More Works
©
2025
Building Trust and Adoption in a Global Design System
Design System
Leadership
Overview
Driving adoption and trust in a global design system at scale.
Challenges
Meltwater’s products grew through acquisitions and internal builds, leaving designers with fragmented libraries, inconsistent practices, and little documentation. Teams lacked education on how to use or extend the system, and silos created communication gaps. Without clear resources or alignment, adoption stalled and user experiences across products felt disjointed.
Process
I streamlined the design system by restructuring libraries with Atomic Design principles, leveraging new Figma features, and introducing training and office hours for designers. With PMs, I aligned roadmaps and secured stakeholder support, while with developers I built a request pipeline and unified documentation into a clear “Usage, Code, Accessibility” model.
Impact
Adoption of the design system expanded to 7+ product teams in the first year, reducing component search time by ~80% and saving 15 – 20 design hours per week. Improved transparency and cut cross-team miscommunication by ~30%, creating a single source of truth that strengthened collaboration across design, product, and engineering.
Challenges
Fragmentation and Lack of Adoption
Meltwater’s products were a patchwork of in-house and acquired tools, with siloed teams and little alignment. Designers couldn’t find or reuse components effectively, documentation was fragmented, and there was no education or governance. Without a clear, consistent system, adoption lagged, and the user experience suffered across the suite of products.
Process
Aligning People, Tools, and Practices
I approached the challenge by breaking it into three audiences: designers, product managers, and developers.
Designers: Reorganized libraries, improved naming and tagging, and restructured assets using Brad Frost’s Atomic Design approach. Leveraged Figma’s new variables to simplify reuse. Introduced weekly training, office hours, and one-on-one working sessions to build confidence and speed.
Product Managers: Aligned roadmaps so design system work became part of team goals. Led evangelizing efforts to get PMs and stakeholders invested in the system’s value.
Developers: Built a Trello pipeline for prioritizing requests and balancing shared resources. Consolidated documentation into a “tri-fecta” structure of Usage, Code, and Accessibility, making it actionable for designers, engineers, and stakeholders alike.
This holistic approach ensured that each group not only had the tools but also the education and buy-in to use them effectively.
Impact
From Skepticism to Trust
The design system became a trusted, transparent, and widely adopted foundation:
Designers began contributing to the system and saw measurable efficiency in their workflows.
Transparency across teams improved, reducing miscommunications and creating a centralized source of truth.
Communication became more open, with shared language and documentation speeding up collaboration and decision-making.
The end result was not just a stronger design system, but a culture of trust and participation that extended across product, design, and engineering.
Metrics & Results:
Increased adoption of the design system across 7+ product teams within the first year.
Reduced time to find and apply components by ~80%.
Cut redundant design work, saving an estimated 15–20 design hours per week across teams.
Reduced cross-team miscommunication incidents by ~30%, based on PM feedback.
In Closing
Building a design system is as much about people as it is about components. Education, transparency, and trust-building were just as critical as technical improvements. By aligning stakeholders and investing in documentation that worked for everyone, the design system became a bridge across siloed teams — setting the stage for scalable, consistent product design at Meltwater.
More Works
©
2025